Filinvest staged a very successful early morning fun run in Alabang, Muntinlupa City last March 28, 2009. Executives, officers, and other employees of the companies comprising the Filinvest Group were mobilized for this event. Also encouraged to join were several of Filinvest’s business partners, clients, and special friends.

Led by members of the Gotianun Family, over a thousand participants completed the two-kilometer route within Filinvest Corporate City. On hand to cheer them on were Fr. Pierre Tritz, SJ, and Fr. Johnny Go, SJ, President and Chairman of the Board, respectively, of ERDA Foundation, the named beneficiary of this fundraising event.

As explained by the organizers, for every runner who crossed the finish line, Filinvest pledged an amount needed to send a child to school for one school year through ERDA’s educational assistance program in Alabang.

Right after the fun run, it was quickly determined, from the number of those who completed the run, that the amount to be pledged by Filinvest would be a little over P4 million. And just as quickly, Mr. Andrew L. Gotianun, Sr., Filinvest Development Corp. Chairman Emeritus, quietly decided to round off the amount to a cool P5 million.

Filinvest had held a similar fun run in 2005, on the occasion of FDC’s 50th anniversary, and this raised P 3.2 million for ERDA’s children beneficiaries.

Mr. Jonathan T. Gotianun, FDC Chairman, pointed out that the Gotianun Family has long been supporting Fr. Tritz’s work of helping poor Filipino children through education. This benefit fun run was also a way of giving back to the community which has helped their business succeed.

FDC, a Philippine-based company, is the holding company of the Filinvest Group. Together with its ten subsidiaries, it operates in three business segments: real estate development, financial and banking services, and sugar operations.

Fr. Tritz loves to recall how he first met, almost by chance, Mrs. Mercedes Gotianun, wife of Andrew, Sr, at a dinner in Xavier School some 30 years ago. That started a long-lasting personal and mutually satisfying relationship between him and the Gotianuns which continues to this day.

The ERDA Group is grateful to Filinvest and the Gotianun Family for their continued support of Fr. Tritz’s mission and for this splendid example of being in solidarity with the less fortunate among us.

- Sherwin B. Lapaan