THE Aboitiz Group’s total contribution to the national coronavirus disease (Covid-19) response effort has surpassed P214 million as of Tuesday, April 14, showing the group’s sustained campaign to help address the urgent needs of frontliners and affected communities nationwide.
Since the implementation of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in various locations nationwide, various Aboitiz business units have deployed their own Covid-19 response activities, while centralized donations were made through the group’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm, the Aboitiz Foundation.
“As the Covid-19 situation remains uncertain, the Aboitiz Group will continue to deploy assistance nationwide. Simultaneous with ensuring that our team members’ needs are covered, we also focused on our in-kind and monetary donations to communities that need them the most,” said Sabin M. Aboitiz, Aboitiz Group president and chief executive officer.
Combined in-kind and cash donations have reached P46 million, in addition to an earlier P100-million donation made through the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation’s Project Ugnayan.
Project Ugnayan aims to provide assistance by distributing grocery vouchers. To date, about 7.6 million people in poor communities in the Greater Manila Area had benefited from the project.
Visayas and Mindanao aid
The Aboitiz Group has also poured in significant aid efforts in the Visayas and Mindanao through the initiative of Aboitiz business units based in the area.
In the Visayas, business units such as Visayan Electric Co., Inc., Therma Visayas, Inc., Therma Power Visayas, Inc., East Asia Utilities Corporation, Pilmico Foods Corporation, Aboitiz Land, Inc., Republic Cement and Building Materials, In., and Aboitiz Construction, Inc. have donated food and personal protective equipment (PPE) to various local government units (LGUs) in Cebu and Leyte. AboitizPower unit San Carlos Sun Power, Inc. donated food to ECQ-affected residents of San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
Privately-held Aboitiz & Co. (ACO) donated PPE sets to Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City, while the Cebu-based Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI), the Aboitiz family foundation, also partnered with the Cebu City government and Metropolitan Cebu Water District for the launching of a handwashing campaign called #Hunaw to combat the spread of Covid-19.
RAFI has also provided the accommodation, meals, and training facilities for healthcare workers at the Bayanihan Cebu SHS Field Center, with its contribution amounting to P58.2 million.
It has also provided PPE kits, relief goods to Cebu and Masbate’s poor residents, health kits (in partnership with World Vision) for 600 families, food and hygiene products to elderly homes and children centers, meals for select Cebu City checkpoints, and relief assistance to street dwellers. Aboitiz family members in Cebu have personally helped in these initiatives.
In Mindanao, Aboitiz business units like Davao Light & Power Co., Inc., Hedcor, Inc., Therma South, Inc., Cotabato Light & Power Co., Pilmico, and Apo Agua Infrastructura, Inc., donated food and medical supplies to the hospitals, checkpoints, and LGUs in Davao City, Cotabato City, Iligan City, Sultan Kudarat, Cotabato and Datu Odin Sinulat, Cotabato.
Meanwhile, other in-kind donations from the group consisting of medical supplies from ACO; bread and food kits, PPE kits, and sanitation supplies from Pilmico; masks, alcohol, and thermal scanners from AboitizLand; and food packs and medical supplies from Aboitiz Power Corporation, SN Aboitiz Power, Aboitiz Infracapital, Inc., and Republic Cement were turned over to frontliners nationwide.
An additional donation of P200,000 through the Aboitiz Foundation was also given to support the National Museum’s casual employees affected by the Luzon ECQ.
Together with these efforts, the Aboitiz Foundation has also raised P1.82 million (as of April 14) through its crowdfunding platform KINDer by Aboitiz (https://kinder.aboitiz.com/).
The proceeds of the Help Our Health Workers Fight COVID-19 campaign will be used to acquire PPE kits for several hospitals nationwide. This is being done in partnership with the University of the Philippines Medical Foundation and The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service Foundation.
“These were made possible through the hard work of our team members, and the diligence of our partners inside and outside the company. These times are challenging, but we want to assure that the Aboitiz Group will do everything it can to continue building sustainable, empowered, and now more than ever, safe communities,” added Aboitiz. (PR)