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Ernesto D. Garilao is a Professor and former Associate Dean of the Center for Development Management of the Asian Institute of Management in Manila. He specializes in managing state-civil society relations, institutional development, social marketing, state reforms, management of change, and conflict resolution and mediation.
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The Benguetcorp Foundation was established in December 1980 as the vehicle to carry out the corporate social responsibility of the Benguet Corporation (BC). At almost 100 years old, BC is the Philippines' oldest and leading natural resource company; it pioneered the mining of gold in 1903. While BC's mining operations ceased in 1997, the company has gone on to invest in water resource projects, real estate development, eco-tourism, forest management, trucking and warehousing, construction and engineering services, steel casting, and trading.
The late Jaime V. Ongpin, who was the first Filipino president of BC, established the foundation. Envisioning "the development of self-reliant communities in the countryside," he created a corporate social arm that would promote the welfare of BC employees and their dependents and the residents living near the company's mining and other operations.
The idea for the foundation sprung from the perception that the corporation needed to address the basic service requirements of residents within BC's mining camps. In the 1960s, a camp checker in the course of his daily inspections took note of the residents' problems of congestion in bunkhouses, illnesses, and decaying facilities. He relayed these to his immediate superior, the Chief of Security, who in turn reported the problems to the Vice President for Personnel.
In the 1970s, Ongpin required the mine superintendents to set aside one day a week to go around the camp, talk with the residents and check on their needs. BC's Personnel Department was soon saddled with numerous problems pertaining not only to the BC employees but also to their families. The dependents' concerns were mostly the lack of livelihood opportunities for housewives, malnutrition among children, and the high incidence of unskilled out-of-school youth.
In 1980, a boom year for the gold mining industry, Ongpin thought of establishing a group that would focus on the needs of the communities, particularly in terms of generating livelihood opportunities. Such a group would also relieve the camp administrators of tasks not related to productivity and profitability. Out of this decision the BenguetCorp Foundation, Inc. was born. In 1987, it was renamed the Jaime V. Ongpin Foundation, Inc. after its founder.