NGCP donates P500 million for COVID relief groceries

MANILA, Philippines — The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has donated P500-million worth of grocery items as part of its COVID-19 relief and response efforts.

NGCP said it started to distribute the grocery items over the weekend.

“We are very pleased to turn over these relief packs as we hope these will help sustain our partner communities given the extension of the enhanced community quarantine. Distribution in select locations in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao will be made over the next weeks,” it said.

The donation is over and above earlier NGCP donations of personal protective equipment (PPE), meals, and other equipment for medical frontliners, as well as the Meals on Wheels program where hot meals are distributed to indigent members of the community.

NGCP said it plans to continue helping various host communities even beyond its previous efforts and P1 billion pledge of assistance.

“We understand the importance of a collective, unified effort to combat this pandemic. NGCP assures its stakeholders that the company will continue to support the government in battling this global health emergency,” the company said.

It said it will donate P500 million in the form of goods and medical equipment and another P500 million for the procurement of other COVID-19 response measures, as may be determined by the Office of the President.

The Office of the President initially told the grid operator to donate entirely in the form of medical equipment, with specific items such as video laryngoscopes, ventilators, and total face masks.

“NGCP’s pledge of medical equipment is also in the process of procurement. The much needed equipment will be distributed to identified hospitals as soon as they arrive,” NGCP said.

NGCP’s technical partner, the State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC), also donated 500,000 face masks through the Philippine Red Cross.

NGCP is a Filipino-led, privately owned company in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s power grid, led by majority shareholders Henry Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto, Jr.