Compassionate Superl Relief: CSR redefined in flooded Pampanga

 

LUXURY BAG manufacturer-exporter Superl Philippines Inc. on July 30 braved the floodwaters of Macabebe town delivering 1,850 relief packs on board trucks provided by the Capitol, its general manager and vice president Alex Fung hanging on the side, handing out bagfuls of food stuff to the residents.  

“When the floodwaters rise, so does the spirit of bayanihan,” Superl dubbed the activity it called an “act of unity [affirming] that no storm is stronger than the power of compassion and collective action.”

Earlier, on July 25, it was the town of Minalin that benefited from Superl Cares relief assistance, delivering 1,800 food packs in partnership with the Nanay Partylist, represented by consultant Atty. Jun Canlas. 

Also, in Minalin, Superl donated wooden pallets to Bulac Elementary School on July 28, to be used as stepping platforms to keep teachers and students from getting their feet wet from the frequent high tides in the area. “Rising Tides, Steady Steps,” the activity was headlined. 

Bulac Elementary School too was the recipient of fortified milk and premium rice, along with San Pablo Elementary School in the City of San Fernando, Maliwalu and Tinajero Elementary Schools, both in Bacolor, as part of Superl’s initiative to help improve the health and nutrition of underweight students.

These successive relief missions were but the latest manifestations of Superl’s compassionate commitment to the community it has called its very own, established as it is at the Angeles Industrial Park, in Barangay Calibutbut, Bacolor town.

 

Top Exporter

Among the country’s top exporters, in fact already recognized as Top Exporter for the Leather Goods Sector by the Department of Trade and Industry during an edition of the National Export Congress held at the Philippine Trade and Training Center in Pasay City, Superl gets as much recognition for its commitment to the welfare of its some 12,000 workers, 90% of whom are reportedly Kapampangans.

The recognition bestowed on Superl, Fung credits most to the workers: “We are more than proud of the craftsmanship and perseverance of our Filipino staff. I believe its teamwork. It's not just the management, but also the workers. We have a good team of staff. Most of them have been with us for years already.” So was he quoted in news reports at the time.

His egalitarian approach to management: “We all know that we are on a same boat, we just have different titles but we are on a same boat –and we all have the same mission: To make sure that everything is running smooth.”

Pre-pandemic production of Superl ranged between 10,000 to 12,000 bags and 7,000 to 8,000 wallets, on a daily basis, all of which shipped all over the world.

Inclusiveness is another policy Superl is known for. Arguably, the company holds  the record for hiring on the spot, as part of its corporate social responsibility, the single biggest bulk of indigenous peoples -- 57 Aetas from Porac town in a job fair conducted by the Department of Labor and Employment Region 3 and the Pampanga Public Employment Service Office.

Grateful

Superl has always expressed its gratitude to Pampanga for readily taking the company as one with the community when it moved its factory from China to the country in 2011. 

“Jobs with bags,” went the company’s social philosophy. “We know that the community is helping us as well, this is a win-win situation. We work hand in hand together, we're partners. We move forward together,” furthered Fung in past media reports. 

“Most of all, we would like to thank Gov. Lilia Pineda for her support and trust. Truly, we feel very lucky we’re here,” Fung was wont to say in company events.

Superl’s spirit of community manifesting in its “act of unity [affirming] that no storm is stronger than the power of compassion and collective action” is not the least lost to the Kapampangan.

Articulating the sentiments of his constituents, Vice Gov. Dennis “Delta” Pineda, thus: “Thank you Superl Philippines Inc. and Mr. Alex Fung for your kindness and solidarity with the Kapampangans. May God bless you all.” Superl FB page photos  

 

 

Mahiya naman kayo!

 

Mahiya naman kayo

Kapal ng mukha –

Kinongkreto ng bilyong kontrata,

Kinupit, sinimot proyekto sa baha.

Kalam ng sikmura –

Katakawang walang kabusugan

Pati daan pa-bukid kinamkam.

Tibay ng dibdib –

Pamilya sa pandarambong isinama

Walang pakundangan pang ibinandera.

Mahiya naman kayo.  

Taingang kawali –

Dayunyor kausap mo wari

Ay, sa pundilyo mo pa nakatali.

Mahiya naman kayo.  

Ano’ng kahihiyang mahihita pa

Sa taong ganid sa kapangyarihan at pera?

 

 

 

  

Monday with Nanay Gov

NO, YOU can’t keep time on a Monday with Gov. Lilia “Nanay” Pineda. You can only keep pace, hardly at that, with the swirl of activities around her. July 21 was typical.

Flag rites segueing to the handover of 29 mini dump trucks to 29 LGUs for their waste management efforts. An ambulance turned over to the Pampanga Police Provincial Office.

A short walk to Benigno Aquino Hall for the graduation of 200 cabalens who completed the SKILLS Program of the provincial government in partnership with TESDA and local schools. The governor assuring them of work or livelihood startups.

Walk back to the Capitol passing by the hundreds seeking medical assistance, attended to by staff from the different provincial offices led by the PSWDO.

The Office of the Governor with a stream of callers going all the way to the staircase. First come, first served.

 

More medical and/or financial assistance seekers – for surgery, major and minor, dialysis and radiation treatment. Corresponding action taken.

A cancer-stricken child of 12 prompting immediate personal calls to specialists. Funeral assistance sought for an IP mother who died in the delivery room while the newly born infant lives sent a flurry of directives to comfort the bereaved kin and ensure proper care for the orphaned infant.

Judges and fiscals paying courtesy calls.

Officers of the Army Reserve Command setting up linkages with the Capitol for programs and projects from rescue operations, relief giving, to tree-planting.

Two deaf-mute high school students presenting the medals they won in under-25 lawn bowl championships in Singapore -- or is it Malaysia? – thanking the governor for her support.

Dismissed workers of a smelting plant in San Simon town thanking the governor for the legal support the Capitol extended them resulting to the payment of their back wages. Nanay Gov providing each a sack of rice and some cash to help make ends meet. 

Fresh graduates seeking work recommendations.

Barangay officials with project proposals for the Capitol’s consideration – from computers and printers, road upgrades, barangay hall rehabs, relief goods, to “panambak.”

New Mabalacat City Mayor Atty. Geld Aquino with some councilors dropping by after their 13^th cityhood anniversary celebrations sharing some “kakanin” and getting in return some words of wisdom on good governance. “Start with rehabilitating your dilapidated city hall which demeans your very status as a city,” Nanay Gov tells the mayor, even as she commiserates with the officials over the fiscal fix the previous administration left behind. “I got your back,” she assured them.

Happy IPs from Floridablanca bringing some upland produce and holding aloft the symbolic key to the dump truck handed over to them earlier. “Gusto lang po naming magpasalamat muli, at muli sa ating butihing Nanay sa walang sawang tulong at malasakit sa aming mga katutubo,” hailed their tribal leader.      

A half dozen of Nanay Gov’s high school classmates just to say hello and give thanks for their maintenance meds.

Lest I forget, all these while going over and signing official documents and issuing directives to her staff.

Then, too, the customary photo ops with the governor of everyone who comes a-calling. All smiles. Walang uuwing luhaan.   

Way past noontime and the regular Monday meeting with the provincial chiefs of offices already twice moved back for the day in no way commencing soon.

The stream of callers though somewhat thinned still flowed.

With a “mano po,” I bade Nanay Gov goodbye mid-afternoon to file stories with Punto.   

Just about to close shop for the day with the last story to upload at 7 p.m. when an email dropped from Pampanga PIO – a press release of Nanay Gov leading relief distribution in flooded Sasmuan town with DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian, Pampanga 2^nd District Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, acting Vice Gov. Fritzie David-Dizon and Mayor Lina Cabrera.

Into the night and Nanay Gov was still at it. To think that she spent the day before – a Sunday – braving the floodwaters in Pampanga’s waterworld of Masantol and Macabebe to deliver relief goods to the residents.

A mother’s day is never done – aye, that cliché instanced in all reality here.

Not too long ago, I asked her how she managed to cope with such a heavy load of activities public servants much younger than her would not even dare contemplate.

She said: “I draw strength in caring for others, especially those most in need.”

Only Nanay.      

      

 

All You Can Sea: Quite the catch at Markt

 

CLARK FREEPORT – The freshness of the ocean, the flavors of its bounty, the visual appeal of food plating – indeed, a feast not just for the palate but for all the other senses is All You Can Sea buffet at Markt, Swissotel Clark’s signature dining hall.

Seafood in all its gustatory glory glistens all over the vibrant setting straight out of European market halls: 

Cajun seafood boil and butterfly shrimp, seafood marinara and jambalaya, seared salmon fillet – all arrayed in chafing dishes, along with grilled beef medallions, roasted baby vegetables, and potatoes au gratin. Fish and chips, frito di mare too. 

Lobster – from Sarangani, emphasized Cluster Director of Food & Beverage Eric Norbert – cooked to one’s liking – thermidor, garlic butter, or beurre blanc.   

Soups – seafood bouillabaisse. Salads – insalata de mare, vitality grilled chicken, classic steak.

Seafood cocktail on ice of plump mussels and juicy oysters, chunky fresh- and seawater crabs, prawns, and shrimp with gazpacho.

On a bed of ice, the spectacle of the catch, the biggest, of the day – large salmons for carving into sashimi and sushi. Straight out of the net visually, it can’t get any fresher than this.

The taste of the ocean’s best. At every bite, relish. 

Lest it be missed, the dessert -- a rotation of traditional French confections and other European delights of cakes, pies, and pastries. Fresh fruits of the season and a color palette of artisanal gelato.

Post-prandial perfection with a glass of wine or refreshing coolers or coffee to the strains of live acoustic music. Joie de vivre!

Interested? Seafood Buffet at Markt Ground Level, Swissôtel Clark. Available this 12 and 26 of July, 6 pm to 10 pm. Rate: Adult – P2,888 nett. Child (6 to 12 years old) – P1,444 nett. Children aged 5 and below dine for free. For reservations, contact +63 45 306 2000 or email swissotel.clark.hotelFB@swissotel.com)

Like the bamboo

MONDAY, July 7. In the course of my call at the Capitol, Nanay Gov adumbrated the priorities of her second coming at the governorship. Of the myriad programs that span the whole socio-economic-infrastructure spectrum of development, it was her upland agroforestry program that struck a lilting chord in me, especially hearing that bamboo is at its very core.

It was something like going full circle, fading memory still distinctly remembering something with bamboos in then-Nanay Baby’s very first term.     

Monday, July 16, 2012. Indeed, in this Punto! corner:

Wisdom from the bamboo

PLANT BAMBOOS by the riverbanks to prevent erosion.

So, the Pampanga Bamboo and Rattan Center enjoined local government units along the coastal towns. Even as it boasts of having planted no less than 22,000 bamboo propagules all over the province, the council targets 5,000 more in August in celebration of the Bamboo Day Celebration which has been appropriated some P1 million by the provincial government.

Bamboo propagation has received a big boost with the Pampanga Agricultural College chosen as a pilot area for a 10-year research project supported by the United Nations Development Program. (Quick online check shows a Pampanga Bambusetum at the now-PSAU being a pilgrimage for benchmarking by educational institutions and LGUs.)

Rivalling, if not surpassing, the coconut as a “tree of life” for its myriad use, it gives us much pleasure now that the bamboo is getting the attention and importance it deserves.

Why, I would even go for the bamboo as national plant, not simply for its being the main component of the national house.   

But for its thatched roof of nipa fronds, everything else in the bahay kubo is made of bamboo – from rafters to posts, from ceilings to walls – of sawali, down to the slatted floor.

Which manifests the wisdom of the early Filipino home builders, cool bamboo as building material being most appropriate for the hot tropics; the bahay kubo on bamboo stilts best to survive the periodic inundations from the swollen rivers in the rainy season.

Bamboo went beyond building material in Filipino life, at least the life we – the 50s plus-plus generations – knew and lived.

The bamboo took a central role in our community life

The defining spirit of Filipino communal unity and cooperation – the bayanihan – is bamboo-based. Here, the whole community helped a family relocate by carrying their whole house, with bamboo poles placed length-wise and cross-wise under the house floor, borne on the shoulders of men, the women following with pots of cool water and ladles for drinking.

The bamboo is celebrated in Filipino folk dances, from tinikling to singkil. And in song, the most famous being Lawiswis Kawayan – the sound produced by the bamboo leaves when blown by a soft breeze as backdrop to a lovers’ tryst. Originating from the Waray region, the song spread throughout the islands.  

In my youth in the somnolent town of Sto. Tomas, the bamboo played as great a role as the guitar in haranas or serenades. Once the serenaders were seated at the balkonahe, the father of the girl ceremoniously accosted them with the cryptic: “Nanung mitulac quecayung mipadalan qng canacung hardin (What moved you to pass by my garden)?”

To which the guy a-courting replied: “Queni la pu macayungyung deng cuayan (It is here where the bamboos leaned to).”

In the absence of parks, much less motels, the bamboo groves did indeed make the perfect lovers’ lanes, the lawiswis of the leaves enhancing the romantic ambience.

The same bamboo groves though were made the source of children’s fears by our parents who wanted us not to loiter around during the night, the lagitic or crackling sound produced by bamboos hitting each other as they swayed to the wind said to be the voices of the patiyanac (dwarves) and other laman-labuad (enchanted creatures) who feasted on the innards of children. 

Come to think of it, maybe our parents just did not want us to see forbidden things at the bamboo groves that could have abruptly ended our age of innocence.

Our elders made the bamboo as an object lesson in humility too: “Anti ca mong cuayan, cabang susucdul ca banwa qng quetasan lalu cang durucu qng gabun a quecang tatalacaran (Be like the bamboo, the higher you rise to the heavens, the more should you bow toward the earth upon which you stand).”

Keep yourself always grounded. That was what the maxim was all about.

More adages about the bamboo followed us through college – Bruce Lee revealing the bamboo as one principle of his jeet kune do: “Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”

The dragon there sharing a Buddhist teaching: "Be like bamboo. It is strong on the outside and soft and open on the inside. The stem stands freely in the wind and bends, it does not resist. What bends is harder to break." 

The bamboo well taken on a high philosophical plane there. A source of wisdom deserving indeed of the title national plant or tree.

So, what words of wisdom have you heard lately of other trees and plants?

Uh-oh: “Oo, inaamin ko, saging lang kami. Pero maghanap ka ng puno sa buong Pilipinas, saging lang ang may puso! Saging lang ang may puso! (Yes, I admit, we are only bananas. But search all trees in the whole Philippines, only bananas have hearts! Only bananas have hearts!)”

Oh please, have a heart.

 

Anti ya mong bulung

 

Anti ya mong bulung

Melanat, melagas

Digpa ya qng gabun,

Melaso yang ganap.

Balang patingapun

Mabilis milabas

Napun, nacadduana

Miras ya ing bucas.

 

Calagua ning aldo

Cabilis ning oras

Qng cuyad niting bie

Macabang paninap

Bula ya mo wari

Caaslag pinanari

Silapo ning angin

Mitdas ya qng pali.

 

Oras e sayangan 

Queiang pagdulapan

Matas mang pangarap

Queca nang abutan.

Nanu mang carasan

Miras qng caualan

Catda ning quecang bie

Tacda ning Miglalang.