By James A. Loyola
Project Ugnayan, the fund-raising initiative led by top business groups in cooperation with the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), has helped over 7.6 million people in the vulnerable communities of Greater Metro Manila.
“As we close, we wish to reiterate our wholehearted thanks to all our generous Donors for making this project possible,” said Project Ugnayan Lead and Ayala Corporation President Fernando Zobel de Ayala.
He noted that “By coming together in a Bayanihan spirit so quickly, we were able to create a program of this scale and importance. This unprecedented assembly of so many of the country’s corporations and business families coming to the assistance of the most vulnerable in our society illustrates and speaks of the heart and generosity of the business community.”
He said the project was assisted by 10 Bishops of the Dioceses in Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite, and Laguna, as well as to Caritas Manila under the leadership of Father Anton Pascual, and the network of Parish Priests, Volunteers, and Barangay Captains who distributed the gift certificates door-to-door in the lowest-income communities of Greater Metro Manila.
"We are grateful for this opportunity to be part of this business community effort to help people in a time of crisis. This is a movement we should nurture as we prepare to let people return to work and to re-start our economy in the post-quarantine period.” said Zobel.
PDRF Co-Chairman and MVP Group Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said “The unity in diversity demonstrated by Project Ugnayan reveals the private sector’s serious commitment to help our country recover from the lost economic momentum because of the pandemic. We are proud to be part of this extraordinary collaboration of industries which will prove most valuable in getting the economy back on track.”
“The true spirit of Easter is about hope and has special significance in these difficult times. We thank all the generous benefactors of Project Ugnayan for this opportunity to fulfill a great mission of compassion for our vulnerable brothers and sisters. Your gifts have warmed their hearts and uplifted their spirits,” Caritas Manila Executive Director Father Anton CT Pascual said.
Caritas Manila’s Project Damayan, the project’s main distributor of emergency cash through ₱1,000 supermarket gift certificates has so far reached 1,070,854 families or 5,354,270 people. It is on target to deliver gift certificates to 1,366,495 families or 6,832,475 people by Wednesday, April 15 (the original end-date of the Enhanced Community Quarantine).