The food and beverage giant’s president and COO Ramon S. Ang has declared that “we are all in this together as he expressed commitment to growing its funding for Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and to continue allocating resources for the purchase of much-needed protective items.
San Miguel Corporation (SMC) has tapped on its global network of suppliers for the purchase of P500-million worth of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) so that health care workers can continue saving lives amid the pandemic.
For Ang, filling the gap on the lack of PPEs is crucial and he emphasized that protective masks, gloves, and surgical gowns must be made available as fast as possible.
“We are hoping to fill the gap and continue supporting our government in whatever way we can,” said SMC president and COO Ramon S. Ang.
“Our health care workers and government responders are risking their own lives to save ours but they are running out of equipment to protect themselves,” Ang underscored.
SMC also invited other businesses to join in this initiative and to work together to support selfless health care workers on the front lines by urging domestic manufacturers to retool their facilities, if they can, to produce needed equipment and ramp up production to secure the supply chain.
The company has started to leverage on its network of suppliers to help government address the shortage. It mapped out the capacities of its own suppliers who can produce PPEs while it continues to look for domestic manufacturers who can support an increase in the production of the protective equipment.
“That’s why we are also calling on local suppliers, even the small ones, to come forward. We will help purchase your products and get it out in the market where it’s most needed,”added Ang.
San Miguel has requested the government to provide the technical specifications and standards on PPEs to the private sector and it encouraged to streamline the certification and approval processes so that those who wish to respond can immediately provide the needed medical supplies.
From its end, SMC has re-purposed its facilities to respond on the need for more protective items for the hardest-hit communities. Hence, it retooled Ginebra San Miguel’s liquor plants nationwide to produce rubbing alcohol.
In addition, it started producing Nutribun-inspired breads which it continuously donates to communities that are severely affected by the quarantine together with over half a million kilos of rice, canned goods, biscuits and coffee in donation.
By far SMC has accounted over 100,000 liters of ethyl alcohol and around P100 million on food donations for hardest hit areas.
These support and donations were received by the national and local governments; public and private hospitals in Luzon; and areas like NCR, Cavite, Bulacan, Batangas, Laguna, Pampanga, Bataan, Zambales, Quezon, Pangasinan, Marinduque, and Sorsogon.
More food donations is expected to be released in the coming days by SMC.