San Miguel building 10 military quarantine facilities

SOLCOM facility in Lucena is 90 percent complete.

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. is building 10 emergency quarantine facilities near military hospitals to house personnel who have tested positive for COVID-19 but have mild or no symptoms, thus helping to address overcrowding of existing healthcare facilities.

“We are thankful to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for giving us the opportunity to collaborate with them on this initiative. This is one way we can help our hospitals efficiently attend to Covid-19 patients with severe symptoms as well those suffering from other life-threatening conditions,” SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang said on Tuesday.

He added that the company is looking for more areas where prototype hospital facilities could be built as existing emergency rooms of hospitals brace for a surge of patients.

“We are one with the country in finding ways to accommodate more patients as hospitals reach their full capacity. These emergency COVID facilities we are helping build will serve not just our military front liners but also other PUIs (persons under investigation) in surrounding communities,” he said.

The 10 facilities will have 15 beds each and will be located beside the following military health facilities: NOLCOM Hospital in Tarlac, SOLCOM Hospital in Lucena City, Eastmincom Hospital in Davao City, CENTCOM Hospital in Cebu City, Westmincom Hospital in Zamboanga City, Veterans Memorial Center, CJVAB Hospital in Pasay City, Naval Air Group in Cavite City and WESCOM Hospital in Palawan.

SMC has also earmarked P500 million to purchase personal equipment (PPE) and augment supply for medical health workers. Initially, the company has committed to buy the first 10,000 PPEs from a local manufacturer through efforts initiated by the Department of Trade and Industry. SMC is also expecting delivery of more PPEs from its suppliers in the coming days.