2500 BOOKS for CHILDREN

This year, 2011, the AG&P Company of Manila Foundation, Inc., looks deeper into mass coaching being promoted by the Department of Education, under circular no. 433 series of 2011, campaigning to indemnify children ages 5 and above to receive better shares in education through ‘book driven’ and ‘I-I child literacy’ programs (Individual Instruction).

Two institutions benefited in the AG&PFI and RCM-BATS literacy campaigns, the Divine Care Christian School of Bauan, Inc. and the Barangay Bagong Silangan - Susanna Hall/Payatas A&B Quezon City Library.

Reverend Pedro M. Aranda, School Administrator depicts DCCSB, Inc. as a ‘four door apartment type’ Christian School in Manghinao Proper, Bauan, Batangas with 38 auspicious students. The school is being sustained by donations coming from community sponsors and Christian brothers and sisters. 50% of the students are scholars. Scholars, to DCCSB, Inc., are students from low wage or no wage earning families who pay nothing for education.

DCCSB, Inc. lacks the means to infrastructure and educational paraphernalia. They don’t even have a library or set of reference/text books for daily instructions. Students share paperbacks to facilitate edification. How miserable the school may seem, AG&P found light in the faces of the teachers, hosts and students amidst destitution. Rev. Aranda foresees at least 50 more scholars to enroll from underprivileged families by June 2011.

Just recently AG&P Company of Manila Foundation, Inc and The Rotary Club of Makati, Inc – Books Across the Seas surprised the Christian minister with 500 new children’s books to fit the book shelves AG&P also donated.

Quantity matters? Does it really?

Still April 2011, AG&P Vice-President for Finance and Administration, Marcial P. Morales Jr. handed through Ben S. Aclan, AG&P Community Relation Manager, 2000 assorted hard and soft bounded books for Barangay Bagong Silangan Library represented by its Barangay Captain Chrisell ‘Beng’ Beltran and Bro Arnold Antipado for the Couples for Christ Ministry.

The annual commitment of AG&P VP MP Morales Jr. to share his blessings to the needy moved AG&P and AG&PFI to solicit from RCM-BATS reference materials for the young Filipinos of barangay Bagong Silangan.

Books in Mathematics, Science, English & Language, Pros and Poetry, Music, Social Sciences, Economy, Literature, quiz hand outs and teaching instructions comprised the 34 bundled boxes delivered.

8 shelves in the BS Susanna Hall needed to be filled with books to accommodate at least 10,000 pupil residents of Barangay Bagong Silangan to down hill Payatas A and B.

With the initial 2000 books for the three lowland area barangays of Quezon City, children will now find time to read and be learned. They will have more access to new local and imported books thus develop better habits to learning.

A Noble Cause with St. Luke’s Medical Center

“Blood is life in existence as ‘Soul’ is essence giving life, therefore Blood is ‘life giving’ Soul” Aristotle (A syllogism on realism)

However we contend with Aristotle’s premises, contemporary epoch will tell that without blood man can not exist. This is how AG&P looks at the blood letting & donation campaigns relevantly. The blood letting campaign is an AG&P obligation aimed to minister our host communities and most especially our employees, not to mention those ‘john and jane do’s’ in need.

102 registered to voluntarily make a contribution recently, April 27, 2011, 65 were actually extracted from MITC, GSD, AG&PFI, TWS, Engr’r, In-house, PEM, PAD, HRD, Time keeping, PSD, MPCoop, DCC, QC, SubCon, Safety, Clinic.

AG&P Managers Dr. Michael Lim Cayetano, Chris L. Cabildo, Leopoldo R. Salcedo and Ernesto P. Morales earliest came to be extracted boosting morale to 102 others.

St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) arrived at 9AM in great surprise to see the extended lines of donors in the AG&P Foundation building. St Luke’s Dra. Laila was overwhelmed to see how AG&P nobled the tradition in life-gift giving and was apprehensive to announce that they brought insufficient blood containers to accommodate everyone.

SLMC admitted that their experience proved them wrong to presume lesser turn over in Batangas. They thought that AG&P would hardly invite more than 50 donors due to proximity and it being an industry business unlined with CSRs and soft orientations.

Everyone was expecting to be served but the scarcity of materials held the entire half in suspended waiting.

To those who waited patiently, SLMC pledged to return with more blood containers and extra dense blood bags.

The activity was so inspiring that even with hoops and flaws people still supported the blood letting and donation programs of AG&P and AG&PFI. And for whatever reason, personal or community cent, voluntarism and cooperation still eulogized the soft heart of industrialization in Batangas. They keep coming back to donate more and to donate regularly.

AG&P moved other ‘like businesses’ to charity as seen in the most recent PNRC and PEZA, for 2010-2011, nobility commendations where the latter received the Most Outstanding Blood Donor in the province of Batangas and Philippine’s Most Outstanding Community Projects awards. (Ben S. Aclan)

MARICEL ROQUE - EXPERT WELDER
August 5, 2007 start of training – January 7, 2008 Graduation
Before Graduation of December 18, 2008, Maricel and her classmates were hired by AG&P as 3G/4G SMAW welders. Maricel was assigned as rookie welder in the Production Welding Department under the supervision of Mr. Dapat and also became a part of the In-House Special Operations projects being handled by Mr. Renato M. Alarcon, Executive Director of AG&PFI.

Maricel was the youngest of 6 by Rolando Roque and Erlinda Ilagan. Her father was an AG&P employee assigned to work in Nigeria as a Welding foreman. Unfortunately, Maricel's father died of Malaria in Nigeria while finishing a year contract with the company. Two (2) of her brothers also died early.

At 18, a highschool undergraduate, Maricel tried her luck in Laguna to work with Techno Park as a line assembler in an electronics section. She also worked under the Technopark production department then became a visual inspector.

The first work she had was in an auto shop where Maricel helped technicians and mechanic handle tools and company materials.

Maricel narrates that if it where not for her mother who single-handedly brought the family up, she could not have achieved more. The challenge was enormous, compellingly hard but rewarding.

Due to insufficiency of income, Maricel was forced to return to Batangas to assist the mother in rearing the younger kins. She helped inside the house until an invitation came to her from the sangguniang Barangay of San Roque, Bauan to attend free trainings in AG&P. Maricel without any better option got enlisted. By pure luck she was called by Training Supervisor, Mr. Ben S. Aclan, for an interview. She went to regular recruitment processes and passed the examinations.

45 days training was Maricel's solitary investment to a new skill."I thought life was filled with hardships with an unending trail of frustrations. I was accustomed to street labor and rowdy environment. What love to me wasn't that relevant. Sex was just part of growing up as drugs were to some of my contemporaries. I grasped the unfiltered air near dumps day-in and day-out as I saw my mom and relatives grappled over dried 'galungong'.
The more I searched for better life, the more I became frustrated. Was it because I lacked education? Was it because I was a town mischief? Was it because I was the family's blackship?
The 45 days training in welding NCII with AG&P Company of Manila, Inc woke up this stone heart to realize that there was hope for a lowly girl of San Roque. Mr. Ben Aclan's value formation opened my eyes to realize that behind this perfidious life hid a better part of Maricel, the skillful one, the earnest one! Mr. Aclan made me feel important. He made me feel needed. I graduated a common welder but because I had goals, I excelled over my contemporaries in a years work.
I am still working with AG&P and became FCAW and GTAW welder in less than a year. My salary wasn't that much but I was able to sustain a family of my own. I was married to my welding classmate and we just finished building our bungalow shed.
Life was filled with hardships with an unending trail of frustrations but I got over them by making each my strength to move ahead. Without challenges, life would be dull. I survived with AG&P. I am and will always be ON-THE-JOB!" Maricel Roque, a mother.

ARIES SALAZAR – PIPE FITTER

At age 26 Aries wondered where he would be after five years. The dumpster would be unorthodox if he doesn't find work soon after realizing that it was not because of education that dispossessed him from employment but the vacancy shortage that lurked amidst trade and commerce inside and outside the country. He had no expertise as competition gorged him down.

Aries called himself 'Malas' (bad luck) after being drawn back several attempts to find a decent job. He worked in Panasonic Calamba for five (5) months and was laid off due to recession. He ventured to become a factory production operator and was excused due to company shut down. He worked with the government doing masonry in a construction project but again rebuked after finishing operations. He sundered cements and hauled hollow blocks in a PAGCOR project in Luneta just to earn a buck for his future but ceded after 3 weeks of non stop rains and natural catastrophes. His health defeated him in labor and he could not do anything even if he wanted to continue.

He thought going overseas would be a reinvention of his career but was victimized by fake recruiters. His savings vanished with his aspirations to pursue life as he looked sadly back to the family who hoped for a better future by him.

Aries is the 3rd child from 9, among 4 brothers and 4 sisters, of Alberto and Erlinda Salazar. Eldest brother to his kin, Aries was expected to foster the family. He had nothing left to offer but an insolvent bank book, a one page curriculum vitae and a feeble spirit until he met Rhea Roxas in a job fair in Balayan, Batangas.

Sponsored by a philanthropist, Rhea Roxas, a social worker from the Nasugbu Asukarera, and member of the Association of Barangay Captains of Nasugbu, Aries came to AG&P with only a fig of hope and a folder containing a page resume. He had nothing but a P150.00 pocket money for transportation that didn't even come from his mother but borrowed from a girlfriend.

Rhea narrated that she accidentally discovered AG&P Company of Manila Foundation Inc. over the internet. The blogs shown in google earth search engines, when you type "employment, skills training", sends you to AG&P Company of Manila Foundation Inc. where welding, pipe fitting, scaffolding and other skills trainings are available. The web page was a vocation for both Rhea and Aries.

During the interview Aries was faced with interrogations about biography, experiences and math. He could not meet the expectations but was respectfully insistent. Miss Roxas felt his need as her personal priority and sent the kid to AG&P Foundation. Mr. Renato M. Alarcon welcomed Aries to training and gave him discounts on every expense. However small gifts taken by Aries were became inspirations to aim high and to dream high.

Pipe fitting was Aries' choice.

After 45 days training, teachers narrated how Aries excelled in pipe fitting theoretically and in hands-on exercises. His good attitude towards edification and work inspired 43 other students to successfully set-up the biggest pipe rack in Bolo, Bauan, Batangas for the completion of their 'revalida' to the craft. Aries bridged gaps among students, teachers and the faculty. He was jolliest and a total skills performer. His perseverance rewarded him with the skills, knowledge and attitude necessary to become a first-class-world-class fitter.

On April 9, 2009 Aries will become a full pledge Pipe Fitter fortified with good values, English proficiency, engineering designs readership, pipe mathematics and professional certificates. He will be nominated to go to Kasakhstan Russia under the AG&P projects. The Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Company of Manila Foundation will be there with Aries. With AG&P, he will always be on the job!