Aboitiz adopts eagle 'Pangarap'

Sunstar Davao

ABOITIZ Power Corporation (APC) officially adopted "Pangarap" -- a captive breed eagle of the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) –- on Tuesday in a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signing between APC and PEF.

Signing the MOA are representatives of the Philippine Eagle Foundation -- Dennis Salvador, executive director, with Tatit Kiblat, communications officer, and executives of Aboitiz -- Sebastian "Basti" Lacson, vice president and chief reputation officer of the Aboitiz Equity Ventures; Erramon "Montxu" Aboitiz, president and chief executive officer; and Aboitiz Power Corporation representatives.

Aboitiz chose "Pangarap" as the name of their newly adopted eagle because of its symbolic meaning among the Filipinos.

"Pangarap" is an 11-year-old female captive breed eagle on its breeding stage and hopefully will lay egg together with her mate – Magiting before the end of this year. Aboitiz will allocate P125 thousand pesos every year for the said eagle intended for her food, medication, caretaker as well as other expenses.

"The focused of Aboitiz foundation is really has three fold, first in Education, Health care as well as Environment," Lacson said.

The agreement entered into between the two stakeholders aims to promote environmental care as well as awareness especially since Aboitiz has been implementing and considering the environment in its endeavors.

"Were happy to be supporting it, right now, there's no need to change our brand's imagery to be in consonance with the adoption. We heard about the project and we thought that the project (Philippine Eagle Conservation) worthy of our support, we have supported the bird fair just recently, so we thought to work just hand in hand in this project," Lacson added.

Lacson said the partnership is a lifetime pledge to fulfill and for them, it's not just like a scholarship that after a year, the support ceases.

Kiblat of the PEF said they are pleased with the support of Aboitiz and expressed hopes that more eagles will be adopted not only by Aboitiz but also by any stakeholders in the country.

Kiblat added that out of 35 captive breed eagles in the center, there are still 17 waiting to be adopted.

The PEF is calling on individual or corporate institution to adopt an eagle that would benefit not only the eagle but the environment in general.(JOP)

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on October 06, 2010.