SMC, Sta. Lucia step up Taal relief efforts

More business entities have joined the bandwagon to mobilize resources to help communities displaced by the eruption of Taal Volcano.

The Sta. Lucia Group has opened its exclusive Splendido Taal to families who had to evacuate from their communities. Located along the Tagaytay Ridge in Alfonso, Cavite, Splendido Taal currently serves as a temporary evacuation center for close to 500 individuals while the operations of the facilities remained suspended.

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has so far mobilized resources across its various units, distributing P23 million worth of relief goods and donations. These included food items such as rice, canned goods, coffee, biscuits, milk and eggs. It has also immediately provided food, face masks, blankets, sleeping mats and clothing to thousands of victims in evacuation areas and in affected communities since the volcano erupted on Jan. 12. SMC’s internal donation drive among its employees also yielded clothes, toiletries, sanitary napkins, footwear, detergent, powder and sanitizing alcohol.

“Our businesses are diverse and over the past week, that has allowed us to help many people in so many different ways. We also have a lot of civic-minded employees who have given their time and resources to our own relief efforts,” SMC president Ramon Ang said.

A unit under SMC’s food group also donated more than a thousand kilos of animal feeds to the Philippine Animal Welfare Society for the group’s efforts to rescue domestic and farm animals affected by the eruption.

SMC Infrastructure, through its Bulacan Bulk Water unit, is delivering 15,000 five-gallon containers of drinking water to various locations in the coming days. San Miguel Foundation is also working to deploy a portable water filtration system capable of providing thousands of liters of drinking water. The foundation will likewise deliver 14,000 packed meals and 20,000 shirts to beneficiaries in different areas.

Apart from having an evacuation center in Splendido, the Sta. Lucia Group likewise joined ongoing efforts of the private sector to provide relief packages to communities in Cavite and Batangas.

Spearheaded by the Sta. Lucia Foundation, the immediate relief efforts involved Sta. Lucia Land and its marketing arms Global Marketing, Royale Homes, Sta. Lucia Ventures and Megaeast Properties, which all mobilized their respective teams for the distribution of close to 1,000 food packages and hygiene kits over a three-day period. INQ