AN Miguel Corp. is ramping up sustainability efforts nationwide through its various subsidiaries including Petron Corp.’s rehabilitation and coastal development plan for the Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape.

SMC President Ramon Ang said that despite the limitations brought on by the pandemic, the company remains committed to pursuing its environmental programs. These include SMC Global Power Holdings’ massive effort to plant 1.1 million trees in eight provinces this year, the P1-billion Tullahan River cleanup and the P2-billion Pasig River Rehabilitation.

San Miguel Global Power Holdings’ effort to plant 1.1 million trees this year is part of a larger program called 747 Project that aims to plant at least seven million trees, across 4,000 hectares, and in at least seven provinces. Targeted areas for planting are 2,800 hectares of upland forests and 1,204 hectares of mangrove forests in Pangasinan, Zambales, Bataan, Bulacan, Quezon, Albay, Negros Occidental, and Davao Occidental.

Apart from San Miguel Global Power’s Project 747, San Miguel Brewery, Inc. and Ginebra San

Miguel, Inc. have each established long-term tree-planting programs in the vicinity of its facilities and other areas in need of rehabilitation.

Under its Trees Brew Life program, San Miguel Brewery Inc. is looking to plant 66,000 trees this year, the bulk of which are 60,000 mangrove propagules to be planted under the Carmen Mangrove Development program

in the municipality of Carmen and other areas in Cebu. Bacolod City and Tagoloan City in Misamis Oriental are the other target areas for tree-planting this year.

Under the DBI (Distileria Bago, Inc.) Mangrove Project of Ginebra San Miguel Inc., the company’s volunteers and community stakeholders have been taking care of 40,000 full-grown trees across 12

hectares of land.

For the Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape, Petron’s proposed biodiversity conservation efforts include planting at least 50,000 seedlings in 10 years, coral reef rehabilitation through the installation of marker buoys in Takut-Tabu Reef, sustained shoreline cleanup along Sarangani Bay, and regular cleanup of Changco Creek.