LAUREL, Batangas: Gotianun family-led Filinvest continues to heed the Batangas provincial government’s call to help families still remaining in evacuation centers after Taal Volcano’s eruption. The company has mobilized its subsidiaries in a conglomerate-wide relief operation dubbed #FilinvestforTaal to bring much-needed aid to the victims. Filinvest executives led the recent turnover of various forms of assistance at the Laurel municipal gym attended by Sen. Ralph Recto and wife Vilma Santos Recto, the representative of the Lone District of Lipa City and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. “Filinvest feels strongly for the people of Batangas. We have been part of the Talisay community and partnered with the LGU (local government unit) since we built our project, Laeuna de Taal in Talisay. This is our way of giving back and we express our solidarity with our kababayan (provincemates) until they rise from this calamity,” according to Francis Ceballos, Filinvest senior vice president and cluster head. Management, employees and business partners across the organization prepared cleaning kits to assist those who returned home, while water supply and food packs were provided to the evacuees at the Laurel gym and residents of the Volcano Island currently housed at the Tumaway evacuation center in Talisay. Myza Dimalig, the camp manager from the Social Welfare Department of the Tumaway Evacuation Center, thanked Filinvest and other organizations for helping the evacuees. Filinvest previously delivered relief packs containing clothes, food, blankets, hygiene kits, water and other basic necessities to evacuees in Sta. Teresa College in Bauan, Batangas and to some families adopted by private residences along the road in San Pascual, Batangas during the first phase of #FilinvestforTaal relief efforts. Filinvest President and Chief Executive Officer Josephine Gotianun Yap said, “The immediate response across the organization was very heartening. We are grateful to everyone who pitched in for the relief operations. Right now, we are activating parallel efforts by our subsidiaries so we can continue to support the victims as they rebuild their lives from this disaster.”
