RDF | Investing in Minds, Inspiring Futures | When Dr. Robert H. Lo established the Robert H. Lo Foundation, Inc. on his 64th birthday in 2023, it was more than just a milestone. It was a promise fulfilled.
After decades of transforming RDF Feed, Livestock & Foods, Inc. into one of the country’s leading agribusinesses, Dr. Lo sought to give back to the community that had shaped his journey. Through his foundation, he envisioned creating sustainable avenues for education and empowerment, helping students, educators, and small business owners in the agriculture and food sectors rise with access to knowledge and opportunity.
That vision has since taken tangible form in two educational projects that speak powerfully to the Foundation’s spirit: the Adopt-A-Room Project at Cavite State University and The Eduardo Collection, a coffee table book honoring the late parasitologist and mentor, Dr. Salcedo L. Eduardo. Though different in nature—one a learning space, the other a legacy in print—the same themes bind both: Fulfilling a Promise, Legacy, and Giving Back.
Fulfilling a Promise: Building Spaces That Inspire Learning
For Dr. Robert H. Lo, education is a promise to the future. This belief inspired the Adopt-A-Room Project at the new College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (CVMBS) building at Cavite State University (CvSU) in Indang, Cavite.
Launched in time for the CVMBS’ silver anniversary on October 15, 2025, the Adopt-A-Room initiative demonstrates the Foundation’s commitment to building environments that nurture curiosity and excellence among future veterinarians and leaders in the animal industry.
Through the project, the Robert H. Lo Foundation donated nearly ₱400,000 worth of materials and equipment, transforming a classroom into a fully functional, modern learning space equipped with a sound system, a smart TV, an air conditioner, tables, and chairs.
This generous contribution goes beyond infrastructure. It creates a conducive atmosphere for students to learn, explore, and grow. This also provides them with the tools and comfort needed to engage deeply with their studies. The new classroom stands as a symbol of hope and opportunity, reflecting how a single act of giving can elevate an entire community.
The project also serves as a testament to Dr. Lo’s lifelong connection to education and veterinary science. As a veterinarian himself, he understands that knowledge flourishes best when learning conditions are optimal.
In this sense, the Adopt-A-Room Project is not just a donation. It is the fulfillment of a personal and professional promise: to ensure that students have what he once wished he had: modern, well-equipped spaces that foster learning and collaboration.
A Legacy in Print: The Making of The Eduardo Collection
If the Adopt-A-Room Project represents the Foundation’s investment in the future, The Eduardo Collection embodies its reverence for the past. The project traces its roots to a promise made years earlier between a mentor and his student.
When the late Dr. Salcedo L. Eduardo, a renowned parasitologist, taxonomist, and academician, was still alive, he once approached his former student, Dr. Robert H. Lo, with an idea: to create a coffee table book featuring his lifetime of discoveries in veterinary parasitology. Dr. Lo agreed to fund it, but as academic duties and time took their toll, the project was put on hold.
Yet Dr. Lo never forgot his promise. In mid-2024, he tapped the services of Mr. Wil Maligalig, his PR Consultant for Corporate Affairs, to bring the long-awaited book to life.
By February 2025, the project had taken full shape: a concept was approved, a timeline was set, and a vision was crystal clear: to immortalize Dr. Eduardo’s contributions to science and education. From March to April, the coffee table book team conducted interviews with Dr. Eduardo’s family, former students and thesis advisees, colleagues, and friends, and gathered publications, photographs, and archives. Between May and July, the team began writing, taking pictures, and creating 3D illustrations of parasites. Around August, the book’s final layout was completed after meticulous proofreading of text and images. In September, printing began, culminating in a full-color, hardbound volume that spans 118 pages and weighs 0.85 kg.
More Than a Book: A Tribute to Science and Humanity
The Eduardo Collection is a living testament to passion, precision, and mentorship. Funded by the Robert H. Lo Foundation, the book was launched on October 5, 2025, during UPLB’s Loyalty Day alumni homecoming.
Wil Maligalig, who is also the Project Director and Book Editor of The Eduardo Collection, shared, “My goal was to make the book less technical; to make it interesting to all readers, not just to veterinary medicine students and practitioners.
The book itself is a masterpiece of storytelling and science. It features 50 parasite species sourced from both domestic and wild animals across the Philippines, many of which were discovered and named by Dr. Eduardo himself. These species are grouped into three sections:
- Firsts – Parasite species documented for the first time under Dr. Eduardo’s meticulous research, marking groundbreaking milestones in Philippine parasitology.
- Uniquely Pinoy – Endemic species that highlight the country’s biodiversity, and Dr. Eduardo’s belief that local science must serve local communities.
- Very Important Persons – Parasites named after mentors, colleagues, and friends who shaped his career, symbolizing gratitude and the human connections behind scientific discovery.
Even its design tells a story. The front cover features a fluke discovered in the common moorhen—a species so small, only half a millimeter, that it’s invisible to the naked eye. Fittingly, one of these flukes was named after Dr. Robert H. Lo, in recognition of his contributions to the livestock industry and his deep respect for science.
The back cover displays two more remarkable specimens, Echinostoma lindoense and Fischoderius upiensis, alongside blurbs by distinguished scholars, Former UP Diliman Chancellor Dr. Michael L. Tan and Dean of the UP College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Maria Amelita C. Estacio, both of whom praised the book for blending art and science in honoring life’s smallest yet most fascinating forms.
Through this book, the Foundation fulfilled a promise not just to a mentor, but to generations of learners who will now have access to the wisdom and wonder of Dr. Eduardo’s life’s work. It is, in every sense, a legacy preserved and a monument to the bond between teacher and student, as well as to the enduring power of education.
Giving Back: Education as Lifelong Service
Both the Adopt-A-Room Project and The Eduardo Collection reveal that for the Robert H. Lo Foundation, education is not charity, but service. The Foundation’s projects go beyond the traditional notion of corporate giving. They bridge generations, connecting the classroom with the community, and the past with the future.
Through its initiatives, the Foundation ensures that knowledge remains accessible, whether through physical learning spaces or the pages of a book. It also embodies RDF’s broader culture of giving back, a belief that business success must translate into social good.
The Foundation’s programs in education, entrepreneurship, and small-business mentoring demonstrate how giving back can spark transformation far beyond the beneficiaries themselves.
Learning That Lives On
Promises, once fulfilled, become legacies. Legacies, when shared, become acts of giving. Through these two projects, the Robert H. Lo Foundation reaffirms that education is the most potent means of changing lives.
In Indang, Cavite, students now walk into a classroom built through kindness and foresight. In Los Baños, scholars open a book that captures decades of discovery and mentorship. In both places, the spirit of learning lives on because one man kept his word, and one foundation turned that promise into an enduring impact.
For Dr. Robert H. Lo and his Foundation, giving back is not an end, but a beginning. Each classroom, each page, and each project is a reminder that when promises are kept, education thrives, and legacies never fade.