Welcome to Manila North Tollways Corporation!

One Good Turn Deserves Another: Toast Speech during the MOA Signing with Gawad Kalinga (June 21, 2006)
Benpres Bldg., Ortigas Center, Pasig City
by OSCAR M. LOPEZ

	We have just signed another memorandum of agreement, whose significance is best expressed by a folksy statement – which runs: "One good thing deserves another."

	Last March, we inaugurated no less than 50 houses in Marilao, Bulacan. That’s significant enough. We have seen how the new houses have dramatically improved the lives of people of Mary Grace Subdivision.

	Truly, the Lopez Group, the Manila North Tollways Corporation and Gawad Kalinga have shared the grace in the form of "shelter from life’s storms" for the people there – who now look to the future with confidence and peace of mind.

	What’s the story behind our decision to go for Phase 2 of this project?

	We were told that, aside from the fifty completed houses, there are 47 more houses to be built.

It occurred to us that, aside from the fifty completed houses, there are 47 more houses to be built.

	We have decided, therefore, to walk the "proverbial extra mile." And we have taken the first step by signing this agreement.

	May I now offer a toast therefore to this alliance among the Lopez Group, MNTC and Gawad Kalinga. May this three-way partnership be ever strong as we seek to better lives of our people.

	May I also offer a toast to the many volunteers of our respective organizations and of the leaders and people of Marilao, Bulacan. May our collective effort strengthen our belief that we are bound by a shared future.

	And we are inextricably linked by our common humanity.

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