In response to the COVID-19 crisis, 20 top business groups raised over P1.5 Billion to fund the distribution of grocery vouchers to urban poor residents in the Metro Manila Area.

In a statement posted online, Project Ugnayan targets to distribute P1,000 gift certificates to over 1 Million households in the poor communities of the greater Manila area.

“Project Ugnayan is a collaboration with business groups in cooperation with the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) to raise funds in support of ongoing initiatives to help poor families that were economically displaced by the ongoing Enhanced Community Quarantine in Metro Manila.”

“In compliance with social distancing guidelines, gift certificates delivered door to door will be redeemable for food items from accessible groceries and supermarkets.”

“We shall initially engage with Caritas Manila’s Project Damayan and ABS CBN’s Pantawid ng Pag-ibig program for the door to door distribution of grocery vouchers redeemable for food items from accessible groceries and supermarkets. Distribution is ongoing in four pilot areas and will scale-up in cooperation with project partners,”

The business groups supporting Project Ugnayan are (in alphabetical order): Aboitiz Group, ABS-CBN/Lopez Group, Alliance Global/Megaworld, AY Foundation and RCBC, Ayala Corporation, Caritas Manila, Century Pacific, Concepcion Industrial Corp, DMCI, ICTSI, Jollibee, Leonio Group, Metrobank/GT Capital, Nutri-Asia, Oishi/Liwayway Marketing Group PDRF, PLDT/Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, Puregold, San Miguel Corporation, and SM/BDO, Suyen Corp.

The group said that there are ongoing talks with more companies who have signified their intention to contribute more resources to expand the reach of this project.

Fr. Anton C. Pascual, Executive Director of Caritas Manila said, “We are grateful for the support of the business community and hope that this initiative will inspire more acts of kindness in this time of crisis. Now is the time for our communities to help as one.”

“The national health crisis that confronts us is instructive of the need to adopt a holistic perspective that enjoins every sector of society to partake in mitigating the adverse effects of this health debacle.

We believe that the current national emergency needs pro-active and harmonized intervention of all sectors of society. An inclusive approach that taps all available resources and talents.”