Guangzhou City and Anvil Business Club on June 22 turned over to Manila Mayor Isko Moreno at Manila City Hall the donation of seven tons of school supplies worth about P6 million to benefit 10,000 Manila public-school students.
Formerly spelled “Canton” in the past, Guangzhou is now a major industrial and financial center. Its Mayor Wen Guohui said the donation is Guangzhou’s expression of friendship and solidarity with Manila City and the Philippines. Guangzhou in southern China is a sister city of Manila. Last year in March at the start of pandemic lockdown, Guangzhou had also donated medical supplies to Manila City.
Anvil Business Club is a business and civic organization of young Filipino Chinese entrepreneurs led by chairman Wilson Lee Flores, President Hubert Chua, EVP Kenneth Dee, VP Richmond Co, who is also chairman of this school supplies civic project.
Wilson Lee Flores said: “This civic project of Guangzhou City in partnership with Anvil Business Club seeks to help Manila public-school students in this difficult time of lockdown. This donation is our contribution to the future of this great city now under a dynamic mayor and also our tribute to the past, because many of us have ancestors who had started life in the Philippines here in Manila City. This is our gift to the children of Manila and also our gift to Manila on its 450th anniversary on June 24.”
Flores added: “Speaking of the past, it is not true the Philippines had no culture or no economy before the Spaniards had ‘discovered’ this place 500 years ago. Actually, even before the Spaniards came here to colonize the Philippines and to establish Manila City in Intramuros, this area called Maynila was an independent rajahnate doing flourishing trade over a thousand years ago with China of the Sung and Yuan dynasties. And across Pasig River from Maynila was the then pre-colonial independent kingdom of Tondo which also had flourishing trade ties with China and other Asian countries. Before the Western colonizers came, early pre-colonial Filipinos already had trade and diplomatic ties with Asia, and there was also already a vibrant local Chinese community here mostly of traders and artisans. Let us not forget the rich history of Manila and the Philippines as we all help build a great, exciting future.”
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