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Manila Bulletin devider Drive devider MPTC backs UNICEF's Child Road Safety

MPTC backs UNICEF's Child Road Safety

Published Dec 3, 2021 11:35 am

Program to benefit children in more cities

Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, signed a multi-year agreement with UNICEF to help support 100 schools in high-risk areas, reaching potentially 20,000 children.

MPTC’s support for promoting the safety of children on the road is in line with UNICEF’s United Nations’ Second Decade of Action for Road Safety.

Studies by the UP-affiliated National Center for Transportation Studies (NCTS) show that in the Philippines, around 38 children die every day due to road traffic injuries. This is consistent with the global statistic that injury and violence has become a major cause of death in children under the age of 18. It is estimated that around 2,270 children are dying every day as a result of unintentional injuries.

MPTC, including its subsidiaries, will support UNICEF’s work over the next three years to scale up models for improved road safety and safe journeys for school-children in high-risk areas, with road safety awareness, health systems strengthening, child responsive urban planning, and enhanced child rights principles in business practices, in support of global targets to reduce road traffic fatalities by fifty percent (50%) by 2030.

The project will also contribute to strengthening data on child road injuries, rallying advocates, enhancing laws and policies, as well as improving attitudes and practices that promote safety, in support of UNICEF’s existing Child Road Traffic Injury Prevention Program (CRTIP).

MPTC will also embed child rights principles in its business practices.

From left: Roberto V. Bontia, MPT South Management Corporation president and general manager; J. Luigi L. Bautista, NLEX Corporation president and general manager; Rodrigo Franco, MPTC president and CEO; Malalay Ahmadzai, UNICEF chief of Health and Nutrition; and Carli Snyman, UNICEF chief of Private Fundraising and Partnerships.

“Children have the right to safe and healthy environments. Road traffic injuries and deaths are preventable. Despite alarming statistics, they often remain overlooked in public health policies. MPTC’s support is an important contribution to preventing road traffic fatalities with concerted efforts across sectors and campaigns that educate motorists, children, families and communities about risks and how to prevent them,” UNICEF Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov says.

“We look forward to this cooperative program with UNICEF’s child road safety campaign, as it is aligned with our advocacy on road safety for all motorists and passengers using our tollways in the country – and even in the ASEAN,” declared Rodrigo E. Franco, MPTC president and CEO.

“Road safety is of paramount importance to us at our Tollways Group, and such concerns are integrated in our infrastructure building program and in our operations,” Franco added. “We see this collaboration as an opportunity for MPTC to scale up and expand the reach and range of its road safety efforts, especially with the new emphasis on children.”

MPTC’s support to UNICEF’s joint effort in Child Road Safety will contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 3.6 to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic

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