Belle Corporation's company policies were created to supplement its Manual on Corporate Governance and Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. The Company regularly reviews and updates these policies to ensure it keeps up with current best practices.
The Company uses a Whistle-Blowing Policy, which employees, customers, shareholders and stakeholders can make use of to report questionable activities, unethical conduct, fraud or malpractice by mail, phone or electronic mail in strictest confidentiality to allay fears of retaliation. The Company's Head of Corporate Governance (CG) shall establish the materiality and validity of all whistle-blower reports. Reports may also be submitted to any Department Head of the Company. The Head of CG shall endorse the report to the Ethics Committee (Management level) for further investigation if the report is deemed well-substantiated. On the other hand, if the report is deemed unsupported, the Head of CG shall inform the whistle-blower of the status of the report within 24 hours from receipt of the assessment. All disclosures, statuses and resolutions shall be regularly reported to the CG Committee. Reports may be submitted to the:
Head, Governance Department
Belle Corporation
5/F Tower A, Two E-Com Center
Palm Coast Ave., Mall of Asia Complex
CBP 1-A, Pasay 1300 Philippines
email address: ethicscommittee@bellecorp.com
Tel. No.: (632) 8662-8888
Belle Corporation also has in place an Insider Trading Policy. This policy prohibits the Company's directors, officers, and employees from using privileged company information for personal gain. View Trading of BEL shares.
Contact for Stakeholders' Concerns
MICHELLE T. HERNANDEZ
Vice President for Governance
Email: michelle.hernandez@bellecorp.com
Tel. No.: (632) 8662-8888
RIGHTS OF STAKEHOLDERS
Customer Welfare. Ref. Code of Business Conduct and Ethics: Belle recognizes that the core of its business is its customers, and values customer satisfaction and loyalty. Thus, all directors, officers and employees shall be guided by fairness, professionalism, courtesy and respect when dealing with customers, and shall endeavor to provide excellent and diligent service at all times. No false or misleading information shall be provided to customers. The Company has a dedicated customer service group to address the concerns / queries of all current and potential buyers.
Environmentally friendly value-chain. The Company shall ensure the environmental friendliness of its operations, and shall contribute to the overall sustainability of the physical environment where it operates. In addition, it shall support activities that lead to the protection and preservation of Mother Earth for the benefit of the future generation. The Company shall continue to comply with all applicable environmental laws and regulations.
a. Tree-planting: The Company has been conducting regular tree-planting activities at Tagaytay Highlands and neighboring communities and has partnered with different organizations in line with its aim to plant One Million Trees in 50 years inside the Tagaytay Highlands Complex, its flagship project.
b. Waste segregation and energy conservation: Inside the said Complex, it has also promoted waste segregation activities, incandescent bulbs have been replaced by compact fluorescent ones to reduce power consumption by 60%.
c. Sewage treatment: It has also put up its own sewage treatment plants that converts wastewater to usable water, which is being used for irrigation and maintenance of the Complex’s surrounding landscaped areas.
d. Desilting works: While the effects of heavy rains and flooding are unavoidable for communities in the low-lying areas where the Company operates, the Company rehabilitates these environmental impacts by providing the resources for desilting works where required.
e. Farming for livelihood: To encourage sustainability, the Company facilitates a livelihood program to provide training and resources to residents of neighboring communities on effective farming techniques to grow fruits and vegetables either for own consumption or for market sale, thus helping improve their quality of life.
Community Interaction. The Company respects relevant laws and/or regulations in the community where the Company operates. Compliance with those laws and regulations is strictly monitored to prevent any damage to the quality of life of society, surrounding communities and the environment. The Company has also introduced initiatives on health, education, livelihood and social services to improve the quality of lives of its host communities.
The Company’s Corporate Social Responsibility arm Belle Kaagapay aims to make a difference by partnering with the local communities where it operates its businesses. Implementation of initiatives is geared towards health, education, aid and assistance, livelihood and social services. These are meant to teach the local communities realistic, sustainable and easy to replicate activities that will create empowered and productive citizens.
Feeding programs to support the Department of Education’s Adopt-A-School program was conducted and for which the beneficiaries are school children of several public schools in Talisay and Tanauan, Batangas, areas of which are close to Tagaytay Highlands, Belle Corporation’s flagship project. The same program was also accorded to wasted and severely wasted elementary students of the Tambo Elementary School (Unit 1) located in Paranaque City where the City of Dreams Manila project is located. The goal is to help these students reach their ideal nutritional status affording them to perform better in school and improve their class attendance.
The Company also selects financially challenged students from SM Foundation’s pool of scholars and commits to sponsor their entire college education. The educational grant shall afford them to acquire more and hone their skills, improve their social standing and encourage them to be active citizens, thereby creating a better society to live in.
Safeguarding Creditors’ Rights. The Company upholds the rights of creditors through the timely and accurate dislosure of material information, including, but not limited to, earnings results and significant risks that may materially impact the Company’s ability to comply with loan payments and covenants.
Activities done to demonstrate implementation of the above policy are the timely and proper disclosures on the Audited Financial Statements, publication and accessibility of Annual Reports in the corporate headquarters and site office of the Company.
