The online hour-long Bayanihan Musikahan fund-raiser, a live concert-from-house of musical theater artist Lea Salonga has scooped up P1.5 million in total donations Thursday intended to give muscle to the fight against COVID-19.
Salonga, known for her role in “Miss Saigon” in the 1970s after the fall of the South Vietnamese capital to the communists, began and ended the 60 minutes concert, livestreamed on FaceBook, with composition by the principal organizer of the project, national artist for music Ryan Cayabyab.
Salonga underlined citizen participation in this unprecedented pandemic season, which in the Philippines killed 136 and registered 3,018 positive cases by 4 pm Friday while health authorities are shifting to high gear to beat the coronavirus.
The amount will be added on to the earned P22.3 million already raised hours earlier on Thursday, which encouraged Filipinos at home and abroad watching from their homes – in the forced self-quarantine restrictions imposed by the national government – to donate.
The donated amount is expected to help increase the fund-raising momentum and speed up delivery of food packs to the marginalized communities in Metro Manila, where nearly 13 million of the country’s 108 million people live.
The Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Pamilya ng Pantawid, a 70,000-member urban poor organization, began distributing the Bayanihan Musikahan food packs from a few days after the launch of the marathon concert series.
Official sources said the distribution is increasing pace and reach daily since the concert series launching, with almost 15,000 food packs given to families in the near uncharted stretches of the congested metropolis.
Filipino musical artists participating in the one-hour concerts and sustaining the Bayanihan Musikahan fund drive include Martin Nievera, Ebe Dancel, Acapellago, Karylle Tatlonghari and Spongecola, Bullet Dumas, Rachelle Gerodias and Byeong-in Park, and Morisette Amon.