PHOTO CAPTION: COMMITMENT TO SAFER ROADS FOR CHILDREN. In solidarity with World Children’s Day, prominent structures by Metro Pacific Tollways located in north and south Luzon, and the Visayas were lit in blue to symbolize the company’s commitment to taking a proactive role to strengthen the call to support safer roads for children.
Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), the leading mobility infrastructure and solutions provider in the Philippines, is one with UNICEF Philippines in its unwavering commitment to champion the rights and well-being of children on World Children’s Day 2023, last November 20.
To celebrate World Children’s Day, several prominent structures under MPTC in north, south Luzon, and the Visayas— NLEX Corporation’s headquarters in Balintawak, Caloocan; motorists rest stop NLEX Drive and Dine in Valenzuela; MPT South’s LEED Gold Certified green headquarters South Hub in Imus, Cavite and the iconic Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway in Cebu—were lit in blue to symbolize hope and a promise of safer roads and sustainable business practices that benefit children. “MPTC and our group of companies have road safety at the core of our construction, maintenance, and operations. We are on a mission to contribute to the country’s economic and social growth to provide a better life to our customers, communities, employees, and of course, their children. This partnership with UNICEF allows us to further live up to our life-long commitment to road safety,” said MPTC President and CEO Rogelio Singson.
“Every child has the right to a safe and healthy environment where they can play, walk, and move, without harm. We hope to further our joint effort and collective action to ensure that more children have access to their basic rights, including having a role and voice for a more sustainable world,” said UNICEF Fundraising Chief Cristina Bertolino.
In a study by UNICEF, on average, more than 600 children and adolescents become casualties of unsafe roads every day — that’s one casualty every two minutes. This fuels the organization to strengthen its ties with different sectors to make efforts that will benefit the next generation.
MPTC and its business units have been at the forefront of integrating child safety into road safety campaigns, as well as “green highways”. Solar-powered toll plazas and rainwater catchment systems also promote energy efficiency and set the gold standard for sustainable expressway operations.
NLEX and Paramount Consumer Products had the ‘Nickelodeon Safety First with PAW Patrol’ campaign showcasing messages of safety for children. A full awareness campaign for motorists of NLEX and SCTEX was launched on NLEX’s extensive road network.
MPT South, which operates and manages CAVITEX and CALAX, has its Bayani ng Kalsada (BayaniKa) program that teaches kids about road signs and familiarizes them with road safety, in and out of expressways. The program has benefitted over 800 school children from host communities since 2022.
Aside from MPTC’s existing road safety efforts for children, it entered into a multi-year agreement with UNICEF to share resources and committed to building sustainable models for safe school zones and child road traffic injury to support 100 schools in high-risk areas that will benefit over 20,000 children. This partnership project on child road safety has been recognized by the Department of Health with a prestigious Healthy Pilipinas Gold Award for advancing health promotion strategies to help shape a healthier future for Filipino children.
