BACOLOD CITY — Beverage giant Coca-Cola Philippines has acknowledged its partners in its various sustainability programs in Negros Occidental.
President and general manager Winn Everhart led the hosting of the fellowship night to celebrate the partnerships at Seda Hotel on Thursday as part of the company’s two-day events in the province.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the various partners of Coca-Cola Philippines in helping us reach our goals of empowering the different points of our value chain -from the farmers who plant sugarcane, the women micro-entrepreneurs who bring our products closer to the public, or the communities that benefit from our water access program and schoolhouses,” Everhart said in a press statement.
The statement said the company uses 100 percent local sugar in its Bacolod bottling facility established in 1998, and has become one of the largest taxpayers and employers in Negros Occidental.
Among the partners are the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and the Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation for the Coca-Cola Sari-Sari Store Training and Access to Resources program.
Earlier on Thursday, company officials witnessed the completion rites of the latest batch of 650 women micro-retailers who finished the 12-session STAR program. They joined the 14,690 other Negrense women who have benefited from the program since 2012.
Coca-Cola also partnered with the Negros-based Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. in implementing the Agos Water Access Program for the development of self-sustaining and low maintenance water facilities such as ram pumps and rain catchment mechanisms.
On Friday, company executives led the unveiling of the PHP1-million ram pump system for the Dama Farmworkers Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association at Barangay Cabacungan in La Castellana town under Mayor Rhumyla Manguilimutan.
Cecile Alcantara, president of Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, said that since 2012, they have constructed more than 43 water access facilities in Negros for the upland communities who live far from their water sources. (PNA)
