THE PJLFI AND ITS BEGINNINGS

In pursuit of the P.J. Lhuillier Group of Companies' basic corporate value of social responsibility, Mr. Jean Henri D. Lhuillier, now President and CEO of the P.J. Lhuillier Group of Companies (PJLGC), directed the establishment of the P.J. Lhuillier Foundation, Inc. (PJLFI). Incorporated under the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 28, 2000 as a non-stock, non-profit charitable organization, the PJLFI has since then served as the corporate vehicle of the PJLGC and of the family of Ambassador and Mrs. Philippe J. Lhuillier for sharing their blessings with the immediate sources thereof, namely, the community and country -- all for the greater glory of the Ultimate Source of all blessings!

The first major project of the PJLFI is its Nationwide Scholarship Program whose primary purpose is to produce family bread-winners and contributors to the country's economy from the vast reservoir of deserving but economically handicapped youth throughout the country. Such scholarship program is intended to assist the pawnshop companies of the PJLGC in the pursuit of their social mission of serving as the major partner of the people in their war against poverty by directly making available to them the most effective weapon against poverty, namely: Education.

On its sixth year from incorporation, the PJLFI has so far produced eighty-three (83) graduates, more than thirty-six percent (36%) of whom graduated with honors and/or special awards (4 Magna Cum Laudes, 15 Cum Laudes and 11 Special Awards). From an original of fifty-eight (58), the scholarship slots have since been increased to one hundred seventy-two (172), including the scholarship slots for children or siblings of PJLGC employees and the various special scholars of Amb. Philippe J. Lhuillier, Mrs. Edna D. Lhuillier and Mr. Jean-Henri D. Lhuillier

Likewise, the first half of the first decade of PJLFI's existence saw the setting up of the "Amb. Philippe J. Lhuillier Lecture Room" at the University of the Philippines College of Business Administration (UPCBA) in Diliman, Quezon City, the PJLFI Montessori Pagsasarili Classroom in Angeles Elementary School in Pampanga, the Novitiate House of the Dominican Daughters of the Immaculate Mother in Angat, Bulacan, as well as the holding of the Annual Create-a-Business Contests for UPCBA graduating students, the regular donations and/or gift-giving to the UP-PGH Cancer Institute, the Create-a-Job for the Disabled Foundation, the Caritas Manila, the Street Pals Foundation, Inc., various orphanages and homes for the aged and other social institutions, and the various relief operations for disaster victims like those of the Quezon and Leyte landslides, among others.

Aside from the ever-expanding scholarship programs, the present projects of PJLFI and those in the pipelines, include, among others, the Adopt-a-School Project with CAL Informatics in San Manuel High School in Tarlac City, the National Can and other fund-raising projects, the Nationwide Create-a-Business Contest, the various Adopt-a-Barangay projects and the other regular donation and/or gift-giving projects. From a general advocacy of poverty alleviation, the PJLFI has now focused its energy and resources on the specific areas of Health, Education, Entrepreneurship and Direct Intervention in selected cases.

Like a love virus, the Lhuilliers' lead response to social responsibility has easily spread to and overwhelmed the hearts and minds of the officers and employees of the P.J. Lhuillier Group of Companies (PJLGC). So much so that a simple e-mail recommending collective response to a distress call could easily generate a collective pledge of substantial amounts in cash and/or in kind, most especially when the same concerns matters of national interest. And the consistent response of the PJLFI President, Mr. Jean Henri D. Lhuillier, who is also the President and CEO of the PJLGC, to such employee-initiated social responsibility projects is not only to allow the respective companies of the employees to advance the amount pledged and just deduct the same later from the employees' salaries, but also to give a counterpart assistance, through the PJLFI, which is double or triple the total amount pledged by the employees. Thus, numerous relief operations for disaster victims, like the Quezon and Leyte landslides, financial assistance to the families of soldiers and those adversely affected by the Mindanao conflict, regular donations and gift-givings to the Cancer Institute, orphanages, home for the aged and other social institutions, and assistance to deserving individuals and families, like the case of the 6-month premature baby, Fatima Faith Maza, were implemented upon said employees' initiative. In fact, the degree of positive contamination of the love virus is such that even in small groups of Divisions or Departments, the employees have initiated social responsibility projects using their own personal funds.

Indeed, social responsibility is not only a corporate goal in the P.J. Lhuillier Group of Companies, but has already become a culture -- a way of life -- both for the corporations and the individuals!