MANILA, Philippines — After five decades spent building roads, power facilities, water infrastructure and other major projects, Sta. Clara International Corporation (SCIC) is marking its golden anniversary by turning its attention to something designed to grow long after the celebration ends: trees.
Instead of centering its 50th anniversary on an extravagant corporate event, the Philippine engineering and construction company is making tree planting a key part of the milestone, with trees to be planted and named in honor of partners who helped shape the company’s five-decade journey.
Daily Tribune reported that Sta. Clara chairman and managing director Nicandro G. Linao informed Million Trees Foundation Inc. president and executive director Melandrew T. Velasco that the company wanted its anniversary celebration to reflect gratitude, partnership and environmental responsibility rather than extravagance.
The initiative also builds on a relationship that stretches back years — and is considerably larger than a one-day anniversary planting.
From a small business in 1976 to a major construction group
Sta. Clara traces its origins to 1976, when it began as Sta. Clara Trading and Construction Company, a single proprietorship involved in equipment trading, equipment rental and smaller construction work.
The company incorporated as Sta. Clara International Corporation in 1990 and later expanded into large-scale civil works, buildings, water infrastructure, power plants, renewable energy and other engineering projects.
Its official corporate history says Sta. Clara secured a Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board “AAA” classification in 1995 and later achieved the higher “AAAA” category in 2017. Today, the company describes itself as an engineering and main contracting group with operations spanning infrastructure, power and civil engineering, including projects in the Middle East.
That history makes 2026 its 50th year in business.
The company has worked in sectors ranging from roads, bridges, tunnels and dams to water treatment facilities, hydroelectric plants, wind farms and industrial developments. Its recent portfolio has included civil works for the 160-megawatt Pagudpud wind project as well as infrastructure work connected to the Philippine Marine Corps’ development in Morong, Bataan.
The tree campaign did not begin with the anniversary
Sta. Clara’s environmental partnership predates its golden jubilee.
The company has been an institutional partner of the Million Trees Foundation, the nonprofit organization supporting the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s watershed rehabilitation efforts.
In 2022, Sta. Clara publicly committed to planting at least 50,000 seedlings as part of the foundation’s Million Trees Pledge campaign. The company said at the time that its participation was tied to broader environmental restoration and corporate social responsibility programs.
Sta. Clara also helped prepare the site for the Million Trees Nursery and Eco Learning Center at the La Mesa Watershed, deploying equipment for development work, according to accounts of the foundation’s early institutional partnerships.
The five-hectare nursery and learning center was inaugurated in 2022 and was designed to support tree propagation, environmental education and watershed conservation activities.
That history gives the 50th-anniversary campaign more substance than a symbolic corporate photo opportunity: the company is tying the celebration to a program it has supported for several years.
Why the Million Trees campaign matters
The Million Trees Foundation grew from the Annual Million Trees Challenge, which was launched by the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System in 2017.
The original program aimed to plant about one million trees annually across several critical watersheds, including Angat, Ipo, Kaliwa, La Mesa, Laguna de Bay, Umiray and Upper Marikina, as well as areas associated with Manila Bay.
These watersheds are important because they help protect water sources serving Metro Manila and surrounding provinces.
The scale of the campaign has expanded substantially.
The Million Trees Foundation currently says approximately 10.3 million trees have been planted over eight years, with its current long-term target set at 15 million trees by 2030.
Earlier versions of the campaign had targeted 10 million trees by 2030; the foundation’s current website reflects the higher target after the program surpassed earlier milestones.
Tree planting alone, however, is only part of the challenge. Long-term watershed restoration requires seedlings to survive, mature and be planted in appropriate locations — which is why the foundation says it promotes indigenous and fruit-bearing species and follows the principle of putting the right tree in the right place.
Linao poised for bigger role in foundation
Sta. Clara’s involvement may also become more institutional.
Daily Tribune reported that Linao is expected to join the Million Trees Foundation’s board of trustees, potentially giving the veteran construction executive a more direct role in the organization’s environmental programs.
The development reflects the foundation’s strategy of bringing government, companies, civic organizations and communities into watershed rehabilitation efforts rather than relying on any single organization.
Sta. Clara is already among a group of major institutional partners that have supported the program. Philippine News Agency previously identified companies including San Miguel Corporation, Manila Water, Maynilad and Sta. Clara International among the foundation’s partners.
A different kind of 50th-anniversary marker
For Sta. Clara, the symbolism is difficult to miss.
A construction company normally leaves its legacy in concrete, steel and infrastructure. On its 50th anniversary, however, Sta. Clara is choosing something that works on a much longer timetable.
The trees being planted in honor of its partners will not transform watersheds overnight. Their real value will depend on whether they survive and become part of sustained forest rehabilitation efforts.
That is also what distinguishes the initiative from a ceremonial anniversary event.
A gala ends in a night.
A properly protected tree can remain for decades.
And as Sta. Clara enters its second half-century, the bigger test will be whether its golden-jubilee planting drive becomes another temporary corporate milestone — or part of an environmental commitment that is still growing when the company’s next major anniversary arrives.
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