PICE Qatar continues community outreach programmes despite pandemic

Ailyn Agonia DOHA Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Qatar chapter of Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE Qatar), a reputable professional organisa...

Ailyn AgoniaDOHA Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Qatar chapter of Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE Qatar), a reputable professional organisation for Filipino civil engineers with more than 100,000 members in over a 100 chapters across the globe, upheld its commitment to community outreach programmes. PICE Qatar’s current membership is at 4,000. Under the initiative #PICEQ_Serves, the group was able to see through the completion of many projects this year in support of the Philippine government’s COVID-19 response and campaign to stop the transmission of the virus. According to Engineer Rolan Espadilla Nevado, chairman of PICE Qatar Committee on School Building/Other External Community Projects, the projects directly benefit students, faculty members and families in the most remote areas in the Philippines. “Our programme #PICEQ_Serves has identified a list of projects aimed at making the most impact and contributing to the nation’s fight against COVID-19. We have properly screened all the proposed beneficiaries and put high priority to local government units that urgently need assistance in financing such projects. We finalised the list of recipients based on majority votes by PICE Qatar’s 15 incumbent members of Board of Directors and the immediate past president or the 2020 Chapter president,” Nevado said. Among PICE Qatar’s legacy projects this year are the construction of male/female duplex toilet project to promote sustainable sanitation and hygiene facilities for the community at Sigangao, Zarraga in Iloilo province and handwashing and drinking water station projects at San Jose National High School in Barangay San Jose Norte in Mallig, Isabela, Mapuyo Elementary School in Barangay Mapuyo, Kawayan in Biliran in Eastern Visayas Region and at Pandakan Elementary School in Sulu situated in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. In addition, PICE Qatar also initiated the ‘Rice and In-Kind Assistance Project’ for fire and flood victims in Barangay Tibungco in Davao City and Barangay Pandakan in Panglima Estino in Sulu. Nevado said the committee he heads will carry out more projects in the Philippines this year. Among the projects in the pipeline are dental and medical mission, PICE-Qatar’s fourth deep well project, participation in community housing project of Gawad Kalinga and other Philippine-based NGOs and support to other government initiatives. He also mentioned a green engineering project and COVID-19-related activities in collaboration with Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO-OWWA). The PICE-Qatar Committee on School Building/Other External Community Projects also include Engineer Newcesar Templonuevo (Vice-Chairman) and members Engineer Arman A. Tolentino (Chapter 1st VP), Engineer Rogel B. Banal (Chapter 2nd VP), Engineer Joseph Marius R. Macaraig (CoLSAA Chairman), Engineer Emmanual German V. Boceta, Engineer Alnovar S. Abubakar and Engineer Jerry G. Maneclang. Advisers are Engineer Roy L. Baquiran (founding president), Engineer Aileen A. Buenaflor (past president) and Engineer Helario S. Amoguis (past president) while supervising officers are Engineer Mark Anthony P. Abendan (Chapter President) and Engineer Mikaela L. Espiritu (Chapter Business Manager).