THE Ayala Group has responded to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for help and announced Tuesday, March 17, a P2.4-billion Covid-19 emergency response package to provide financial relief to its employees during the 30-day quarantine in Luzon.
In a post on Facebook, Ayala Corporation chairman and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said the fund will be used to pay the wages, bonuses and leave conversions of Ayala Group employees as well as offset the revenues that would be lost due to loan deferments.
“In these most trying times, those significantly affected by the COVID-19 situation are the thousands of workers that will be affected by the enhanced community quarantine because their places of work have been closed,” Zobel de Ayala stated.
“These include retail workers, construction workers, service providers, security agencies and employees of many similar businesses who are largely on a no-work-no-pay type of employment,” he added.
The package includes P600 million in salary continuance for displaced workers from construction sites of Makati Development Corporation and from the shuttered malls and retail spaces of the Ayala Malls.
Telecommunication giant Globe Telecom has earmarked P270 million for its retail store support staff and vendor partners while all other Ayala companies will reserve another P130 million in personnel-related financial support.
Ayala Malls will also condone around P1.4 billion in rental fees from mall tenants who are not allowed to operate from March 16 to April 14 “so they can in turn provide the much-needed financial support for their employees during this period”.
There are more than 20 Ayala-owned malls in Luzon.
Under an enhanced community quarantine, all malls are closed except for merchants that sell basic necessities such as groceries and supermarkets, pharmacies, hardware stores and convenience stores. Banks in malls are also allowed to operate.
Ayala Corporation, the listed holding company of the Ayala Group, will also provide salary continuance and financial support, where possible, to its employees, noting that most of these employees will be getting their midyear bonuses anyway.
The midyear bonus is normally released in April, but Zobel de Ayala said they will release this starting Tuesday, March 17, until the end of March.
Ayala has also postponed or delayed employee loan payments due to the Ayala Multi-Purpose Cooperative and introduced special financial assistance programs at subsidized rates.
Duterte called on the private sector to extend financial help to their employees when he announced Monday, March 16, the stricter quarantine measures and expansion of the quarantine area to Luzon.
Among others, he called for the release of the pro-rated 13th month pay of employees, reprieve from payment of utility bills and house rent, and other social amelioration benefits from the over 50 million residents in Luzon.
Under the enhanced community quarantine, which will last until April 14, 2020, public transport systems are suspended, domestic air and sea travel are suspended, and the people are expected to stay at home. Only one person per household is allowed to go out for groceries and other basic necessities.
The Philippines has been placed under a state of public health emergency and a state of calamity because of the continued rise in cases of Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
As of Tuesday, the number of Covid-19 cases in the country has risen to 187. Fourteen had died while four patients have recovered. (MVI/SunStar Philippines)