The general community quarantine still follows the same guidelines from the enhanced community quarantine: go out only when necessary, practice social distancing, and wear masks at all times. To help maintain these guidelines, the Bataan local government unit (LGU) has tapped Globe to streamline the processing and approval of its Social Amelioration Program (SAP) for constituents. 

Globe via its innovative developer arm, Globe Labs, and Bataan LGU harnessed technology through Amber, the telco’s SMS blasting tool that allows businesses and organizations to send branded and customizable messages to engage their target audience.

Through the service, information about the SAP was disseminated to constituents safely and effectively. Since reports about the subsidy were circulated via text message, it helped minimize overcrowding in public spaces, thus curtailing and eliminating the spread of COVID-19. 

“As they say, modern challenges require modern solutions. Given that our national government mandated most of us to stay in our homes, some LGUs may find it difficult to share information about the SAP cash aid,” shares Globe Chief Commercial Officer Albert de Larrazabal. “This is especially true for provinces who have limited access to social media. Amber allows LGUs to be prepared in responding to their constituents’ needs through connectivity and communication.”

Under the partnership, Bataan authorities received one million incoming SMS credits and 500,000 outgoing credits.

“We were pleased with the results of our partnership with Globe and Amber. Almost 170,000 households in Bataan participated in providing us with the information we needed to allocate and identify the recipients of food packs," says Joet Garcia, 2nd District Congressman of Bataan. "Instead of requesting people to fill up a form and submit their basic data to a representative, we asked our residents to send their details via text response, making our process accessible and centralized."

Amber is Globe Labs’ all-in-one SMS solution. Clients can develop campaigns in minutes and send out thousands of messages at once. They can also track their communications in real-time to ensure that recipients get access to information on time, all the time.