With the objective of educating the Filipino youth on road safety, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation partnered with the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP), and Automotive Association of the Philippines (AAP) in mounting the Road Safety Virtual Camp where hundreds of attendees acquired ample knowledge on pedestrian and commuter safety, motorcycle and bicycle safety, and traffic management and emergency response.
Launched in 2019, Shell’s BiyaHero—a wordplay on ‘Be A Hero’—campaign’s primary goal is to bring together the private and public sectors towards making the nation’s roads safer for Filipinos. In its initial efforts, Shell has already introduced safer driving practices and road safety for children in communities within Batangas; pinpointed Mandaluyong City as the campaign’s pilot city receiving Shell’s road safety efforts; and partnered with a private driving school to teach its customers defensive driving skills as well as to impart a better understanding on the signs, symbols, and tips mounted at the retail stations.
Meanwhile, National President of BSP Roberto Pagdanganan underscores the need for information dissemination on road safety due to the alarming mortality rates caused by road accidents. “About 1.3 million people die around the world due to road mishaps. It is the biggest killer of people in their most productive years, from ages 15-29,” Pagdanganan remarked. He encouraged the virtual camp’s attendees to take the matter seriously as this is a world-wide concern.
Pilipinas Shell Country HSSE (Health, Safety, Security and Environment) Manager OIiver Ortega praised BSP for its ingenious strategy of virtually gathering hundreds of boy scouts all over the country to extensively convey the significance of road safety. Ortega aspires every boy scout in the country to become a ‘hero’ in his own way, exhibiting the proper traits an individual must possess whenever he is out on the roads: “Whether you’d be driving, commuting, cycling, or even just walking, you must be a ‘BiyaHero’ who is looked up to by your peers for possessing safety knowledge and displaying proper behavior.”
The roster of experts who provided information on road safety is composed of Cynthia Reyes, Advocacy Manager of Automotive Association of the Philippines, who gave useful pointers about road safety in the Philippines; Marte Perez, Consultant of Automotive Association of the Philippines, who discussed pedestrian and commuters’ safety; Marvin Sayurin, Chief Instructor of Safety Riders Training Center, who generously gave information on motorcycle and bicycle safety, and Antonio Pagulayan, Traffic Operations Officer of Metro Manila Development Authority, who discussed traffic management and emergency response.
During the sessions, the boy scouts were able to raise their smart questions to the speakers who then gave clarity in topics the boys were immensely curious about.
Apart from this initiative geared towards the youth, Shell has also commenced its BiyaHero engagement with the NLEX management team, field staff, and enforcers last November 20 with the intent to promote road safety in major thoroughfares, and work on solutions in order to achieve reduction of road incidents along NLEX. The engagement is a series of eight sessions that will be participated in by 300 NLEX team members.
Shell’s BiyaHero campaign will continuously implement initiatives that advocate road safety in the Philippines.