WHILE expanding its assistance to typhoon-hit communities in Cebu, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang announced that the company will roll out another wave of food aid by December, during a personal visit he made to the said affected area.
Ang’s trip came a week after SMC deployed employee-volunteers distributed thousands of relief packs across the province, as Cebu is home to several of SMC’s operations.
Among others, his visit included distributions to employees and nearby communities that assisted in clearing Mahiga Creek which lies along the boundary of Cebu and Mandaue cities, even as additional gift packs were handed out in Barangay Subangdaku, one of the areas closest to the company’s plant.
Ang encouraged more employee-volunteers to join the December effort, saying the expanded distribution aims to reach more households still dealing with the impact of typhoon ‘Tino’.
He was in Cebu for the government’s launch of “Oplan Kontra Baha: Metro Cebu,” led by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and attended by Cabinet officials, including from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), along with other private sector representatives.
The multi-agency program will tap SMC’s river rehabilitation expertise under its Better Rivers PH initiative, which has removed millions of tons of waste and silt from river systems in Luzon over the past five years.
It was learned that the SMC will deploy heavy equipment and personnel to support the cleanup of eight waterways across Cebu City, Mandaue, Talisay, Liloan, and Consolacion.
The company will apply the same large-scale approach used in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga and Laguna to help restore the rivers’ natural depth, improve flow and ease flooding in low-lying communities — provided at no cost to the government, he said.
