Corporations sustain assistance vs COVID-19
Help from the corporate world continued to pour as the Luzon enters third week of its month-long lockdown. San Miguel Corporation, through subsidiary SMC Infrastructure, is waiving toll on its expressways - STAR Tollway, South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), Skyway, NAIAX, and the TarlacPangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), for all health care professionals for the duration of the Enhanced Community Quarantine until mid -April.
To avail of the toll-free privilege, medical personnel have to secure a special RFID sticker from SMC Tollways, or have their existing RFID sticker converted.
They can avail of the stickers at temporary booths the company has set up, initially, at the Shell Magallanes gas station and the NAIAx toll gate, from 8am to 7pm. Medical practitioners only need to present their PRC license card.
An SMC tollway personnel will install the toll-free RFID stickers on their vehicles or convert their existing stickers to toll-free stickers. SMC will make the toll-free RFID stickers available at other major locations soon. “This is the least we can do to show our appreciation and gratitude for our doctors and nurses who are working under extremely challenging circumstances to save lives," announced SMC President Ramon S. Ang.
"Considering the sacrifices they make on a daily basis, this is a small gesture. But nevertheless, we hope it helps make life easier for them," he added. “With this program, our medical frontliners would have one less thing to worry about.”
SMC is donating 560,000 kilos of rice to various communities throughout Metro Manila as part of its ongoing initiative to help mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the hardest-hit Filipino families.
“One week after the Community Quarantine was first implemented – followed by the Luzon-wide Enhanced Community Quarantine—we have been able to deliver food to some 126,000 families through various channels,” Ang said.
He added they will also be adding rice having secured 560,000 kilos.
Ang reported that the company had, thus far, provided 1.1 million pieces of canned goods; 695,000 sachets of coffee, 288,000 packs of biscuits, 21,630 servings of its version of “nutribun” and 24,338 servings of pandesal. It has also donated spreads, dairy milk drinks, and water.
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has facilitated the distribution of 25,000 food packs from March 21 to 25 for various Local Government Units (LGU) in Luzon as part of the government’s efforts to combat COVID-19.
The food packs with total worth of P10 million were purchased by the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO). An additional P50 million was spent for 125,000 more food packs for distribution to other LGUs in Luzon.
On top of this, P90 million has been allocated for medical supplies for healthcare frontliners.
PAGCOR Vice President for Corporate Social Responsibility James Patrick Bondoc said the food packs – which contain rice, water, and canned goods were picked up by assigned LGUs from March 21 to 25 for distribution to families under quarantine.
Manila Water Foundation has deployed much needed drinking water and water dispensers to six Quezon City public hospitals for medical frontliners on March 25.
A total of 280 units of 5-gallon bottled water with water dispensers were deployed to various hospitals.
Manila Water Foundation Executive Director Reginald Andal stressed that helping our frontliners is an expression of gratitude for their service.
Araneta City has implemented several programs that will help employees, tenants, and the community in these trying times.
It has advanced last week its employees’ salary for the end of March and will continue to pay through the end of the ECQ on April 14. Sick or vacation leave credits will remain intact regardless of whether they are able to work from home.
Employees who need to come on site are provided with assistance such as hazard pay, food, and temporary accommodation. Also, everyone will be given half of their 13th month pay in advance instead of the usual mid-year schedule.
“We are waiving the rent of all retail tenant-partners that are prevented to open for business because of the ECQ. We are hoping that the waiver will enable our tenant partners to attend to their own needs, especially those of their employees,” it added.
Araneta City is also extending help to its immediate community in Quezon City by donating food packs to neighboring families affected by the ECQ. Also, J. Amado Araneta Foundation has pledged to donate test kits that would provide additional support to the operations of the Quezon City General Hospital to assist our government in the speedy diagnosis of cases.
Multi-media giant ABS-CBN reported a 300 percent surge in views of its library of over 1,000 movies after it was made available for free to users if its iWant streaming service as the nation deals with COVID-19.
Republic Cement has tapped local partner women’s cooperative, the Asosasyong Katuwang sa Pangkabuhayan ng Bilogo (AKAP) to sew 1,000 cloth masks for the benefit of local frontliners and residents in the 20 barangays of Taysan, Batangas.
AKAP was organized in December 2016 but the Republic Cement Batangas Plant as one of its beneficiaries of the livelihood initiatives under its Social Development and Management Program (SDMP). Currently the group is composed of all women in different roles including production, purchasing, marketing, and finance and bookkeeping.
As the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) continues to affect the entire country, 2GO Group Inc., the country’s largest logistics and transportation provider, in partnership with City of Dreams, delivered 125,000 food packs to those in need.
The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI), the corporate social responsibility arm of the Aboitiz family, has partnered with the Cebu City government and the Metropolitan Cebu Water District for #HUNAW (Cebuano for “to wash one’s hands”), a handwashing campaign launched as an intervention to fight the severity of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
D.M. Consunji, Inc. (DMCI) has completed the retrofitting of twowards inside the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) intoa COVID-19referral center. The medical facility,which will houseconfirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients and highrisk persons under investigation (PUI), was formally turned over to UP-PGH yesterday.
To fasttrack the constructionprocess and control the exposure of its workers, DMCI prefabricatedoffsite thepartition walls,exhaust frames and stairsneeded to isolate theCOVID-19facility from the rest of the hospital. A dedicated team of DMCI workers handled the installation of the prefabricated materials.
The UP-PGH COVID-19referral center is one of three government-designated coronavirus referral hospitals in the National Capital Region. It has"negative pressure" rooms that suck in contaminated air, ventilatorsand separate access points for patients and medical staff.
DMCIworkers rushed tocomplete the project in five (5) days in response to PGH’s tight deadline. Earlier this week, UP-PGH Director Dr. Gerardo “Gap” Legaspi said they needed a week to fully prepare the hospital for its role as a coronavirus referral center.
“Much of the credit goes to our workers who rose to the challenge of delivering this project on-time and in accordance withsocial distancing and sanitationprotocols. We also commend the management of UP-PGH, Architect Dan Lichauco and Bloomberry foundation for supporting our workers throughout the construction work,” said DMCI President and CEO Jorge A. Consunji.