IN the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions on the public and on the economy, our private sector has stepped up with programs and projects to help people, especially those hardest hit by the unprecedented crisis.
One such undertaking has been Project Ugnayan, an initiative of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation and Caritas Manila.
Project Ugnayan seeks to provide emergency cash transfers to the poorest families in Metro Manila as well as in Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite, and Laguna, with which to buy food. So many breadwinners have found themselves without work and therefore without income in these last few weeks as a result of the enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila and all of Luzon.
Ugnayan seeks to provide up to 1.5 million families with P1,000 each in the form of gift certificates and grocery vouchers for use in supermarkets. Caritas Manila, under its Project Damayan, is distributing the assistance through parish priests, barangay chairman, social action directors, and volunteers.
Corporations in various industries have also come up with their own programs. The world’s largest food and beverage company Nestle has a R500-million project to aid one million families along with thousands of anti-COVID-19 frontliners, people in need of healthcare through the Red Cross, and its own employees and those of its business partners.
The country’s oldest conglomerate, Ayala Corporation, has now extended P5.5 billion in donations, business operation waivers, donations, and employee support.
San Miguel Corporation has extended over P1 billion in cash, food, personal protective equipment, alcohol disinfectant, free toll, fees, and fuel to communities in need. It has constructed emergency quarantine facilities with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
PLDT Smart Foundation and Smart Communications are conducting a Text-to-Donate drive, to which Smart, TNT, and Sun customers have responded. Smart extended communications assistance to various hospitals.
SM Foundation and Goldilocks contributed meals and baked food products to healthcare workers in over 170 government and private institutions nationwide.
Honda Cars Philippines lent 15 cars with free gasoline for a month to healthcare workers. Petron Corporation, Seaoil Philippines, Total Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum, and Cleanfuel are contributing fuel subsidies for buses providing free rides for health workers.
The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over here and in the rest of the world. The nation’s private sector has responded strongly to the need that has arisen in our midst. We hope it will not succumb to donor fatigue and it will continue to see how it can help the government and the people in this great time of need.
