HEEDING the call to protect the heroes of these trying times, more private companies, some in partnership with public entities, are putting their money where their heart is by, among others, retooling machines and restructuring their services such that those who serve the sick and the community are themselves served.
Aid at tollways
San Miguel Corp. unit SMC Infrastructure continues to provide various essential equipment and supplies to personnel at checkpoints in its tollways. The checkpoints are manned by staff from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
SMC Infrastructure operates the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), Southern Luzon Expressway (SLEX), the Skyway system, NAIAX, and the Tarlac- Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX).
These include portalets, motorcycles and riders, tents, passenger vehicles, generator sets, tower lights, traffic cones, and barriers. The company also regularly provides drinking water and sends disinfection teams and supplies.
These efforts complement SMC Infrastructures’ support to 2,000 medical practitioners who received toll-free RFID stickers for a hassle-free travel in its tollways.
SMC Infrastructure said in less than a week of implementation, over P1.1 million worth of toll fees have been waived for medical frontliners.
The company also put up priority lanes at the SLEX for medical personnel and equipment, as well as essential goods such as food and raw materials for production.
Warranties extended
Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (HARI), the official distributor of Hyundai vehicles in the Philippines, said it will extend the coverage of all Hyundai passenger car owners whose warranties would lapse within the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) period until May 31.
Hyundai vehicle owners currently enjoy an industry-first five-year unlimited mileage warranty.
HARI also said it was mobilizing support for front liners with an initial donation of 2,500 personal protective equipment (PPEs) to a leading public hospital. This will be followed by the distribution of PPEs to other public health facilities and schools and churches where front liners are housed.
P&G to make masks
Procter & Gamble (P&G) Philippines said its manufacturing plant in Cabuyao City, Laguna will be one of the P&G manufacturing sites globally that will produce critically needed face masks to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
The company has confirmed the face masks will not be available for sale, but will be for donation and for use of their employees.
This comes on top of its P100 million worth of product donations to hospitals and frontliners, employee job safety and security assistance, and aid that it has extended to business partners.
P&G will be investing in additional equipment for the plant to manufacture face masks for donations which will be routed through the DOH.
Pre-loaded mobile phones
Globe Telecom has turned over 1,000 mobile phones to police, military, and naval forces and select hospitals nationwide.
The mobile phones are preloaded with 30-day unlimited AllNet Call & Text to all networks to enable the frontliners to attend to emergency situations quicker.
Among the recipients were Rizal Medical Center, Baguio General Hospital, San Lorenzo Ruiz General Hospital, National Center for Mental Health, Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center, San Lazaro Hospital, Tondo Medical Center, Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, Valenzuela Medical Center. Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, National Kidney Transplant Institute, Manila Naval Hospital, Veterans Hospital, Northern Mindanao Medical Center, Ospital ng Maynila, Pasig City General Hospital, Rosario Maclang Bautista General Hospital, Southern Philippines Medical Center, Caloocan City Medical Center, Manila East Medical Center, San Juan Medical Center, Philippine Heart Center, Lung Center of the Philippines, Ospital Ng Makati, Philippine General Hospital, Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital, and Research Institute of Tropical Medicine.
Other recipients include the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Navy, Philippine National Police, and the Ranao Rescue Team.
Earlier, Globe also provided free GoWIFI internet connection in various hospitals and supermarkets across the country to address the connectivity requirements of frontliners, patients, and the general public.
Emergency response
Software solutions company Multisys Technologies Corp. has launched a community-driven social distancing system via an emergency response website called StaySafe.ph.
With StaySafe.ph, site visitors can report the health conditions of family members without disclosing sensitive information. This can help the private sector and local government units (LGUs) attend to employees or locals under their jurisdiction.
To enable more citizens to access the platform, MultiSys has joined hands with the B2B arm of the PLDT-Smart Group, PLDT Enterprise, to whitelist the said website.
Users will be requested to record their health status in the household based on the COVID-19 symptoms listed for individual classification.
Reports will be submitted and added to the “heatmapping” dashboard which will visually show the areas with increasing or improving rate of COVID-19 cases. The admin, whether from the public or private sector, will note any ‘severe conditions’ reported, and reach out to those individuals.
Recovery efforts in VisMin
With more areas in the country now placed under enhanced community quarantine due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Aboitiz Group has ramped up its efforts in helping frontliners and affected localities amid the ongoing health crisis, extending aid to Visayas and Mindanao in addition to simultaneous efforts in Luzon.
While the Aboitiz Group’s headquarters is in Manila, Cebu is home to some of its businesses including several AboitizPower subsidiaries, AboitizLand, Pilmico, CitySavings, and Aboitiz Construction, among others.
On April 3, AboitizPower unit Visayan Electric Company (the country’s second-largest privately-owned distribution utility) dropped off 1,500 N95 masks, 10,000 pairs of nitrile gloves, and 1,300 safety goggles at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, the designated testing facility for COVID-19 in the Visayas.
AboitizLand also turned over 2,000 surgical masks to the local government of Liloan in northern Cebu while Aboitiz food business unit Pilmico is also distributing 1,200 pieces of bread to frontline workers around Cebu for one month starting March 26 and also gave N95 masks and goggles to the provincial government of Leyte.
The Aboitiz Group likewise donated nitrile gloves to the Bureau of Immigration in Cebu.
Earlier in March, AboitizPower-led Therma Visayas, Inc. (TVI) turned over close to P500,000 worth of medical supplies, personal protective equipment, and food to the Toledo City government. The donation included 200 bottles of ethanol alcohol, 100 boxes of surgical face masks, 100 boxes of sterile gloves, 2,500 food packs, 2,000 canned goods, 20 sacks of rice, and liquid hand soap and bleach.
TVI also extended support to the rest of Cebu’s third district through its donation to the office of Deputy House Speaker Pablo John “PJ” Garcia. Among the items that were turned over last April 2 were 175 HazMat suits, 100 N95 masks, and 20 boxes of nitrile gloves.
The City of Naga received from TVI P500,000 worth of rice through its General Services Office on March 26 and March 31, which the local government is eyeing to complement the food packs due for distribution to constituents within the month of April.
Meanwhile, the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI), the Aboitiz’s family foundation, has partnered with the Cebu City government and Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) for the launching of a handwashing campaign called #HUNAWunaw to combat the spread of COVID-19.
In Mindanao, the Aboitiz Group, through the Aboitiz Foundation and AboitizPower subsidiaries Davao Light and Power Co., Inc., Hedcor Group, and Therma South, Inc., donated over P785,000 worth of items (162 rice sacks and 17,665 assorted canned goods) to Davao City local government unit. The donations were turned over to Task Force Davao.
AboitizPower unit Cotabato Light & Power Co. also pitched in, donating 125 rice sacks and 3,648 canned goods to Cotabato City and the municipalities of Sultan Kudarat and Datu Odin Sinulat.
Free accommodation
ZEN Rooms in Quiapo has accommodated doctors and nurses from the Philippine General Hospital Emergency Department free of charge.
This partnership between ZEN and PGH is set to last till the end of April, but may extend depending on the situation in the coming weeks.
ZEN is expanding this initiative to other parts of Metro Manila.
ZEN is also collaborating with the Philippine Red Cross for the Red Cross Donation Drive.
The donation process can be found on ZEN’s website, and all funds collected will go directly into the Red Cross GCash e-wallet.
ZEN will be providing free accommodation for the Red Cross volunteers who are working to supply food, distribute personal hygiene items, and give medical assistance to communities across Metro Manila.
The funds gathered from its donation drive will be allocated for conducting hygiene promotion sessions, providing water and handwashing facilities to hospitals and other areas, providing food and financial support to the less fortunate, and offering psychological aid to those who need it given the current situation.
RedDoorz for its part said it has offered to medical frontliners three of its locations as free lodging places.
The hotels, located around UST Manila, Quiapo Church, and LRT Quirino station, are part of RedDoorz’s “Red Heroes” initiative, now being rolled out across the region.
The initiative is designed to help and provide frontline healthcare workers with an accessible and comfortable place to stay and rest during the COVID-19 pandemic as hospitals and local authorities continue to treat and manage a growing number of cases.
RedDoorz said the hotel sites were selected and offered due to their close proximity to the following Manila-based hospitals: Gat Andres Tondo, Hospital ng Tondo, Justice Abad Santos, Hospital ng Sampaloc, Hospital ng Manila, and Sta. Ana Hospital.
Health and wellbeing kits will also be distributed within select nearby hospitals in Manila, consisting of Skin Can Tell’s washable face masks and alcohol-based hand sanitizers, Bacchus energy drinks, boxes of Salonpas, and droplet hats, RedDoorz said
PEZA firms
Economic zone locator companies are manufacturing, and donating personal protective equipment (PPEs), medical supplies and equipment to help the COVID-19 frontline workers, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said.
These include member-companies of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc.
At the Alviera Industrial Park Special Economic Zone, Badan Building Materials Corp. donated last week a total of 6,600 pieces of face masks to various beneficiaries within the vicinity of the zone in Porac, Pampanga.
Japan Tobacco International donated 20,000 face masks for hospitals in Batangas. A number of donations were likewise done by SEIPI, TDK Philippines and Sunpower in Laguna Technopark-SEZ.
A total 29 PEZA-registered companies from the Laguna Technopark Inc., First Cavite Industrial Estate , Gateway Business Park , First Philippine Industrial Park, Angeles Industrial Park (AIP) Special Economic Zones and Baguio City Economic Zone have come together to donate various PPEs and other items like bunny suits, N95 and surgical masks, testing kits for frontline workers and for the community.
P10M worth of PPEs to QC hospitals
The Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) has started providing protective equipment as well as hospital supplies to key public hospitals in Quezon City to assist the local government and health authorities in the fight against the Covid-19 virus.
INC General Auditor Glicerio B. Santos Jr. said that INC Executive Minister Brother Eduardo V. Manalo directed the church to be “all out” in its aid and assistance efforts to prevent the spread of the virus.
INC’s Philippine Arena is also being made available for use by the government in fighting this disease.
Santos said the facility’s management has already discussed this with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID). Government representatives have conducted a site visit and ocular inspection of the Arena, the Philippine Sports Stadium and The Garden Suites, all inside Ciudad de Victoria in Bocaue, Bulacan.
The Philippine Arena, the largest indoor arena in the world and can sit over 50,000 spectators, has a floor area of 99,000 square meters.
The Arena, explained Santos, could be temporarily converted into a makeshift “mega medical facility” where Covid-19 patients could be transferred for treatment.
Santos pointed out that the Philippine Arena “can easily be isolated and secured as ingress and egress can be regulated. It is also easily accessible via NLEX.”
“Medical personnel assigned to the venue can also use the rooms at The Garden Suites in the Ciudad de Victoria as their quarters, so they need not commute to and from Metro Manila.”
In addition to medical equipment, the Church has also given a five million-peso donation to the Quezon City government through Mayor Joy Belmonte, as well as three million pesos’ worth of medical assistance to Davao City.
