SMC, NGCP hike aid to fight virus
By VG Cabuag, Lenie Lectura -April 16, 2020
from Business Mirror
Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) on Thursday said its donation to fight the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) reached P947.7 million, as the company said it continues to find ways to bring relief to the hardest hit communities and provinces nationwide.
Company President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon S. Ang said SMC has responded to calls for assistance from local government units (LGUs) outside of Metro Manila, reaching provinces as far as Iloilo and Leyte. “Our people are working hard to be able to extend our assistance to more provinces and communities and to support our national government’s efforts. Our goal is to help keep our countrymen away from hunger and illness, and somehow, in our own way, give them hope during this difficult time,” said Ang.
As of April 14, the company’s total allotted food donations topped P227 million, which consisted of canned goods, biscuits, coffee, and milk delivered through the LGUs, nonprofit organizations and church-based groups, among others.
San Miguel distributed some 1.1 million kilograms of rice, worth an estimated P38.4 million and donated a total of 864,740 liters of 70 percent ethyl alcohol worth P64.9 million. The alcohol was produced from the Ginebra San Miguel facilities and are being distributed to various hospitals, LGUs, national government agencies, and other institutions and organizations. Half of the company’s donations of about P500 million were used to purchase protective gear from local and international suppliers, including those in China.
The company said it also gave P100 million to “Project Ugnayan,” a broad coalition of businesses groups also helping in the Covid-19 battle.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said Thursday that it donated P5 million worth of gift certificates to assist families affected by the pandemic.
The grid operator said it turned over 10,000 supermarket gift certificates worth P5 million to Project Ugnayan, the collaborative initiative between the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) and top business groups, companies, and institutions.
Project Ugnayan aims to support families affected by the outbreak of Covid-19 and the imposition of the extended enhanced community quarantine by providing supermarket gift certificates to over 1.5 million economically displaced families in Metro Manila.
The project has also tapped Caritas Manila’s Project Damayan, which will conduct the door to door distribution of the gift certificates, to comply with the social distancing guidelines imposed by the Department of Health. The project, which began last March, is set to end by April 30.
NGCP’s latest donation is on top of the P1-billion assistance earlier provided to the national government’s Covid-19 response and relief efforts.
