SMC sports facility turned into vaccination site
THE newly opened sports complex of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) is serving a new purpose for now as it has been turned into a vaccination site to augment the country’s fight against the spread of the coronavirus.
Completed in May, the facility, which is located along C-5 road in Pasig City, was recently the venue of a two-day vaccination event for employees, essential workers and extended workforce across the San Miguel Group.
SMC President Ramon S. Ang, in a statement, said the temporary conversion of their sports facility is part of their push to align their efforts to help the government during this time of the pandemic.
“Vaccinating as many Filipinos as we can is important to reaching herd immunity and getting our economy back up. That is why we have been helping our LGUs (local government units) with their vaccination rollout, in whatever way we can,” said Mr. Ang, whose group has been active in setting up vaccination sites both for the public and frontline and essential workers.
“To help decongest the city’s vaccination venues and reduce the strain on health workers, we volunteered our new basketball facility and enlisted our own doctors and nurses to help Pasig City personnel in conducting vaccination here,” he added.
The ongoing effort, SMC said, is under the company’s P1-billion “SMC Ligtas Lahat” vaccination program.
Aside from the sports facility, SMC has a vaccination site at the La Salle Green Hills campus in Mandaluyong which will be fully operational by August. It also partnered with the city to comanage the Jose Rizal University mega site that caters to A4 category workers and city residents.
SMC is also looking at activating 14 other vaccination sites in Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, Albay, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Isabela, Bataan, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, and Cagayan de Oro, once its own vaccines arrive next month.
The SMC Sports Complex is intended for use by the teams under the conglomerate playing in the Philippine Basketball Association, namely, the San Miguel Beermen, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Gin Kings, and Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok.
It has three air-conditioned main basketball courts covering a total of 5,013 square meters. It features “Regupol” rubberized basketball court flooring.
Areas can be separated with an electric curtain divider. It is equipped with electric ceilingmounted (forward folded) and fixed-wall mounted basketball systems, and portable basketball systems.
The facility also has a fitness gym with separate male and female lockers and shower rooms, as well as three viewing decks with toilets on the second floor.
“We are proud of this facility and the excellent job that our architects, engineers, and workers have put into building it and ensuring that it adheres to international standards. We are even prouder of this facility now because even though it can’t be used by the teams yet, it is serving a meaningful purpose protecting lives during the pandemic,” Mr. Ang said.