Biz Buzz: Biggest donor
San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) contribution to alleviate the challenges brought about by the pandemic has now reached P1.15 billion, as it has now branched out to helping poultry farmers and poor communities.
The Ramon Ang-led conglomerate has set aside P150 million worth of poultry products from its inventory to be given to poor communities, mostly in areas where it operates, as part of its continuing drive to aid those who are in need.
“With the resources that we have, we are in a position to help and provide essential relief, especially to our neighbors, in these difficult times. To use these resources well and put them to good use is the right and responsible thing to do,” SMC President and COO Ramon Ang said.
SMC’S distribution of fresh poultry products has pushed the company’s total food donations to about P391 million consisting of canned goods, fresh meats, biscuits, bread, coffee, milk and flour.
It has also distributed some 1.1 million kilos of rice worth P38.4 million and 150,000 bags of flour as part of its food donation drive.
SMC has also repurposed its liquor facilities nationwide to manufacture disinfectant alcohol, which continues to be donated to hospitals, government agencies and local government units. The program has so far distributed over 1 million liters of alcohol amounting to P83.3 million.
The conglomerate has been reconfiguring operations at its Ginebra San Miguel Inc. facilities nationwide even before the quarantine to produce 70 percent ethyl alcohol, all of which are donated to address the coronavirus disease (COVID19) pandemic.
It has also donated 10,000 medicalgrade personal protective equipment (PPE) to medical frontliners, while an additional 54,000 of PPE sets from China are also waiting to be distributed.
The PPE are part of a P500million fund that the company pledged for medical frontliners and hospitals.
The list goes on and on for the San Miguel Group’s charitable deeds. In these trying times, you cannot help but wonder how other tycoons are spending their billions.
Beware!
The raging COVID19 pandemic has not stopped unscrupulous and admittedly imaginative individuals from scamming their fellow Filipinos.
Pilipinas Shell has thus warned the public against being duped by those who have been using the name of Pilipinas Shell to falsely recruit applicants and then ask them to pay for supposed placement fees and the purchase of PPE.
Pilipinas Shell has received reports that fraudulent individuals and organizations have been posing as the company’s HR personnel and posting fake job advertisements online, instructing applicants to submit their resume to shellphilippines. talents@gmail.com, a fictitious email address which is not an official email account of Shell or any of its partner organizations.
Following the submission of the resume, applicants are then reportedly instructed to advance an unspecified amount to cover a cash bond and the cost of PPES, with an assurance that the amount would be reimbursed once the applicant gets the job.
Once monies are transferred, the scammer cuts off all contact with applicants.
In a statement, Pilipinas Shell stressed that these individuals and/or groups are not connected to the company.
Shell advised prospective applicants to contact the company through its official channels to verify job postings.
Model bank
Techsavvy Union Bank of the Philippines is the “2020 Model Bank for Financial Inclusion,” according to global financial services technology firm Celent, a subsidiary of New Yorkbased global management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. Aboitizled UnionBank bagged this award for its two fintech initiatives, Send i2i and API Marketplace. Now on its 13th year, the “Model Bank” Awards recognize financial institutions for best practices of technology usage in different areas critical to success in banking. Celent cited Unionbank’s unique B2B2C (businesstobusinesstoconsumer) approach (a company is able to access the consumer market not directly but via another business) to financial inclusion. The bank enables third parties, through Send i2i and API Marketplace, to provide or develop products and services to reach underbanked endusers in the Philippines. Sendi2i uses blockchain technology to connect Philippine rural banks by enabling them to perform crossborder remittances from a partnerbank in Singapore to rural areas in the country where most of the underserved communities are located. Meanwhile, the API Marketplace aims to empower third party developers in creating new products and services, which can reach unbanked customers by exposing a range of application programming interfaces in a developer-friendly platform.