(Following is the speech made by the Chief Operating Officer of Ortigas and Company, Limited Partnership, Mr. Rex C. Drilon II, during the launch of the Ortigas Foundation and the Ortigas Foundation Library.)

Darkness seems to be all around us. Bad news seems to abound. The latest statistics say that 2.8 million families or 16.7 percent of the population have nothing to eat at least once from October to December last year. Self-rated poverty rose from 49 percent to 57 percent in the last quarter of 2005 as 4 out of 10 Filipinos live like animals under the poverty line. On quality of life, the Philippines ranked in the latest UN Human Development Index 83rd of 177 nations (from 77th in 2002) The quality of life survey includes Gross Domestic Product, life expectancy, adult literacy, growth in school enrolment and environmental protection. In recent days hundreds of lives of Filipino poor were claimed by stampede, drugs, floods and crime. Relief to some is apparently provided by comfort facilities like shabu tiangges. The future indeed does seem bleak for the country.

Is there hope? Do corporations care at all? Do companies have consciences to do something about the terrible state of affairs in our country?

Last week, in a dinner attended by the giants of Philippine industry, Cardinal Vidal explained to us why, aside from paying taxes business still has to reach out to the poor and to be charitable. He said that paying taxes is an act of justice (and if I may add, an act of patriotism) while reaching out, especially to the poor is an act of love. Indeed, corporate social responsibility is an act of love. And to our guests this afternoon, we are proud to say…yes, Ortigas and Company is in love and its channel of love is the Ortigas Foundation.

Ortigas Foundation Inc. "lights a candle to spark involvement and increased participation in good corporate citizenship and social responsibility." Ortigas Foundation is involved in initiatives in various areas such as Filipiniana, Religion, Health, the Disabled Sector, Youth and Education, Environment and Social Volunteerism as it says so in our brochures. But what is a candle, what is the worth of a single light, a tiny flicker?

A flicker of light from a candle, however small, can lit up the immediate space surrounding it. And at midnight, especially in a moonless night, a single candle can be very bright. We are in one of our darkest nights as a nation and with your candles and ours, we can do turn things around. Ortigas Foundation, Inc. hopes that by the light of tiny flickers we may enlighten the people we get to interact with and infuse them with the heat, the passion for service. We know that the efforts of our Foundation are small and are not enough to change the statistics and improve the Filipino's quality of life. But we hope that through our single tiny flicker added to yours we would be able to lit up the flame for community service and nation building in the hearts of the people, starting with our employees, starting with our guests here today.

We welcome you to our formal launch and yet we issue you an invitation once again. We invite you to light your own candles, your own tiny flickers and let us all help conquer the darkness.

Our dream for our beloved Philippines is that we become One Nation, under God, One Community of responsible citizens who deeply love their country. Do not despair! Join us in switching on points of light and sowing seeds of hope all over our land.

Welcome and Good afternoon.



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