One of the main environmental programs of the Villar Foundation (VF) is the care for the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park (LPPWP), a 181-hectare coastal and marine habitat along the coast of Las Piñas and Parañaque cities. The LPPWP is often called the “last remaining coastal wetland in Metro Manila” that protects biodiversity while serving as storm shield of coastal communities.
VF occasionally conducts cleanup of the parks’ Long Island, which has a natural sandbar and mangrove, and Freedom Island, a reclaimed area now serving as a wildlife habitat. On 28 January, it organized a cleanup by members of the ASEZWAO or followers of the World Mission Society Church of God (WMSCG), one of South Korea’s Christian churches.
The cleanup follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between VF managing director and former senator Cynthia Villar, and ASEZWAO representative and WMSCG pastor Peter Minho Koo at the LPPWP auditorium. The MoU establishes the partnership of VF and ASEZWAO in protecting the park, strengthening of climate resilience, and implementation of sustainability projects of communities.
Villar believes that the partnership will promote collective action in preserving Earth for the next generations.
Before the signing of the MOU and park cleanup, members of the group which stands for “Save the Earth from A to Z” and “We Are One Family,” participated in VF’s Lakbay-Aral tour to learn the various green social enterprises of the foundation. They toured the Villar Farm School and Tourist Farm, which teaches environmental and agricultural livelihood.
The ASEZWAO members also toured the Villar Museum, Plastic Chairs Factory (PCF), Organic Compost Facility (OCF), Waterlily Weaving Center (WWC), Coconet Factory, Carabao Pen and Dairy Processing Facility.
For the past two decades, VF has been implementing waste management and recycling through the PCF and OCF, helping Las Piñas City significantly reduce the volume of garbage ending up in landfills. Kitchen and garden waste, which make up 50 percent of the city’s total waste, is processed into organic fertilizer. The compost is distributed free of charge to support urban gardens, community farms and agricultural projects.
Meanwhile, 15 percent of soft plastics-including sachets and other packaging materials-are converted into durable school chairs. Recycled school chairs have been distributed to public schools nationwide.
The WWC trains women on basket weaving using dried water hyacinths. They earn by selling their handicrafts. The Farm School recently hosted a three-day organic vegetable production workshop.
The VF’s various social enterprises and sustainability projects benefit communities, families and environment through a clean and safe surrounding and livelihood.