San Miguel Corporation continued to show its strong resolve to help medical frontliners in the fight against COVID-19 by recently providing medical insurance worth P2 million each to 5,000 medical workers in Cebu, which, in recent months was one of the most affected cities in the country.
According to SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang, the company’s effort was aimed at showing support for medical workers in Cebu at the height of the number of cases there. Now under General Community Quarantine, Cebu recently logged less COVID-19 cases and improved recoveries.
“If there is anything this pandemic has made clear to all of us, it’s that nothing is more valuable than a human life. But our reality today is such that our medical professionals continue to risk their lives every day in order to save others,” said Ang.
“This effort is a gesture of support and solidarity with our medical professionals in Cebu. We want them to know we are looking out for them, and our country recognizes their heroism and sacrifice,” Ang said.
The insurance package, to be given to medical workers in government hospitals, is among the forms of assistance that the food and beverage, fuels, power, and infrastructure conglomerate has extended to Cebu.
In April, it donated two Polymerase Chain Reaction testing machines—considered the gold standard in COVID-19 testing—and a high-throughput, automated RNA extraction system to Cebu, through the Department of Health.
The equipment was turned over by the DoH to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Hospital. SMC also donated free food and disinfectant alcohol to Cebu throughout the quarantine.
Since the pandemic struck and necessitated quarantines throughout the country, SMC has mounted a heroic effort to help government, disadvantaged Filipinos, and medical practitioners meet the challenges it has brought.
As of June 25, the company’s COVID-19 response efforts had reached a whopping P13.112 billion, including P8.77 billion in advance payments for taxes and contractual fees to government to help ensure availability of funds.
It had also donated P516 million in food, the largest in the company’s and perhaps, the country’s history. It also reconfigured the operations of its liquor subsidiary, Ginebra San Miguel Inc., to produce and donate 1.3 million liters of alcohol disinfectant worth P97.1 million.
The company also put up a P500 million fund to purchase life-saving equipment, including testing machines and personal protective gear, to support medical front liners.
Recently, it inaugurated its own PCR testing laboratory, Better World Edsa, which is capable of processing up to 4,000 tests per day.