The Fight of Champions supermatch between 10-time world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao and Argentinian fighter Lucas Matthysse is definitely pushing through on July 15 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
MP Promotions issued the statement in light of rumors alleging that the bout is in danger of not taking place at all.
“Everything is being arranged and on schedule for the July 15 fight between Pacquiao and Matthysse in Kuala Lumpur,” confirms MP Promotions Head of Sales and Marketing Arnold Vegafria.
“We will be flying there early July to ensure that everything pushes through on schedule, and go full blast with our promotional campaigns in the region.”
“Both Pacquiao and Matthysse are training hard in their respective camps to give boxing fans an action-packed battle,” he added.
Watch the Pacquiao-Matthysse “Fight of Champions” bout live from the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 15 via GMA-7, ABS-CBN, ESPN-5, Cignal TV, and Sky Cable.
Tickets are available at https://myticket.asia
* * *
There is cash in trash.
Garbage disposal had, at some point, reached crisis proportions, and Senator Cynthia A. Villar was among the core of lawmakers who took action and pooled technical resources to find ways to address the problem of waste management.
Sen. Villar tapped government agencies and private enterprises and put in the Villar SIPAG Foundation to explore varied options in search of alternatives to put value in trash.
One of their brightest ideas is the recycling of plastic discards into plastic furniture such as school chairs, desks and benches, and other types of furniture.
Villar, way back in 2013, opened the first Waste Plastic Recycling Factory in Metro Manila. The project, which was launched by the Villar SIPAG Foundation with the cooperation of former Senate President Manny Villar and then Las Piñas Rep. Mark Villar, turns plastic wastes into durable school chairs.
The first Waste Plastic Recycling Factory in Metro Manila is located in Barangay Ilaya, Las Pinas City. Two other factories have been set up by the Villar SIPAG in Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro cities to cover the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
The plants can produce about 1,000 armchairs in one month made with “soft plastics.” These are made to look like wooden chairs with changeable parts and have a lifespan of 20 years. One school chair needs 20 kilos of soft plastics such as food wrappers to produce.
Thousands of school chairs have been produced by the factories and distributed for free to different schools all over the country. The bulk has been given to schools in the National Capital Region and the CALABARZON. Villar have also distributed chairs in some areas in the Visayas devastated by typhoons.
Sen. Villar notes the beauty and value of the undertaking: it promotes two of her primary advocacies – job creation for the poor and environmental protection.
Villar is a prime mover of plastic waste management in the country. As chairperson of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, she has proposed amendments to the 17-year-old Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, or Republic Act 9003, to make companies and manufacturers more accountable for polluting the country’s water resources with plastic wastes.
Villar first made the proposal at the 12th session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS-COP12), and said such public accountability can be patterned after the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) concept practiced in European countries where manufacturers are mandated to recover plastic wastes through buy-back or recycling program.
A University of Georgia study has ranked the Philippines as the third largest producer of plastic wastes that could potentially enter the seas and oceans. Among 192 countries surveyed, the study also showed China and Indonesia as top plastic waste producers.
According to the UN Environment Programme or UNEP, eight million tons of plastic wastes are dumped in the ocean every year. The UNEP has warned that by 2050, there may be more plastic in the sea than fish.
“We need to come up with more innovative ideas to transform garbage into valuable materials, like these school chairs and other furniture manufactured from plastic wastes as raw ingredients,” Villar says.