MINDANAO DAILY TRUTH. JUSTICE. PROGRESS.
Volume IX, No. 254
www.mindanaodailynews.com
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
P15.00
SMC sets aside P500M to purchase PPEs for frontliners SAN Miguel Corporation (SMC) is tapping its global network of suppliers to purchase P500-million worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) that doctors, nurses and other health care workers desperately need now to continue saving lives amid Covid-19. “It’s very crucial that we get more PPE – protective masks, gloves, surgical gowns, among others - out
there as fast as we can. We are hoping to fill the gap and continue supporting our government in whatever way we can. 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,” SMC president and COO Ramon S. Ang said. At the same time, Ang
also urged domestic manufacturers to retool their facilities, if they can, to produce these equipment and ramp up production to secure the supply chain. SMC is currently mapping out available PPE capacity from its own suppliers even as it continues to look for domestic suppliers to help increase production of the protective equipment if they can as the battle against
the virus continues. “We are leveraging our network of suppliers to assist government in addressing this shortage. But this may not be enough. 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,”Ang said. He requested for govern-
ment, though, to provide private sector with technical specifications and standards the protective items must meet. “And we need to streamline the certification and approval processes so that those who wish to respond can immediately provide the supplies our medical front liners need.” The company has been repurposing most of its
NGCP donates PhP1-B for COVID-19 response efforts See SET, page 11
IN support of President Rodrigo Duterte and the national government’s efforts to combat the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Philippines, grid operator and transmission service provider NGCP will be donating PhP 1 BILLION to aid medical frontliners. In a letter to the President, NGCP declared its support to the ongoing battle against the pandemic with a PhP 500,000,000 donation in the form of goods and medical equipment and another PhP 500,000,000 for the procurement of other COVID-19 response measures, as may be determined by the Office of the President. “Through our initial coordination with their OfAlliance Global Group and Megaworld donated 1,000 liters of disinfectant alcohol to Cagayan de Oro City local fice, we were instructed to government unit to support the city’s efforts in the fight against COVID-19. The boxes of disinfectant alcohol were donate entirely in the form of medical equipment, with personally received by the CDO Mayor Óscar Moreno’s daughter, Imee Moreno-Lapuz.
Agusan Sur starts lockdown April 1 By CHRIS V. PANGANIBAN Contributing Editor
PROSPERIDAD, Agusan del Sur -- The entire province of Agusan del Sur will be under lockdown starting today, April 1, as provincial
specific items such as video laryngoscopes, ventilators, and total face masks,” stated the company. The PhP 1 Billion donation is over and above earlier NGCP assistance, including a donation of personal protective equipment (PPE), face masks, meals, and other supplies for the frontline workers in the health industry and the Meals on Wheels program conducted to distribute hot meals to indigent members of the community. NGCP’s technical partner, the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), also donated 500,000 face masks through the Philippine Red Cross. “Our stakeholders, particularly the public, can be assured that NGCP will See DONATES, page 11
Avoid politicking in DAFAC listing, brgy chairmen told
officials wanted to make sure that the rising cases By MARK FRANCISCO of Corona Virus Disease Correspondent 2019 (Covid-19) in Davao region will not spread in AT least two officials from this landlocked province. the city government of Cagayan de Oro called on See STARTS, page 11
all barangay chairmen in the 80 villages of the city to avoid politicking in the listing of persons displaced in the ongoing COVID-19
crisis. “Ayaw sa mo pamolitika kay dili panahon sa pamolitika karon,” Councilor Lordan Suan said during
the City Council weekly session Monday. This, even as Suan called on his colleagues that the See AVOID, page 11