International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), taking the lead for the Razon Group, has seized a range of initiatives to help the Philippine government in its pandemic recovery efforts, making social investments of approximately US$30 million (PHP 1.5 billion) over the course of 21 months, since the Covid-19 pandemic started.
In particular, during this period, the global terminal operator has purchased vaccines and facilitated rollouts, built quarantine and testing facilities, supported programs on hunger alleviation, assisted health care workers and institutions, in collaboration with the government and the private sector.
“The battle to turn the tide of this pandemic continues, and there is no room for complacency,” said Christian R Gonzalez, ICTSI executive vice president, who added, “The social investment is worth it as we see lives saved and the economy gradually opening.”
Firstly, ICTSI assisted the government purchase vaccines, while from the first three million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, the port operating company sponsored 300,000, half of which were donated to the national government and half to local government units.
The company also donated 20 million doses of Moderna vaccines, 13 million of which were allotted to the public sector and seven million to the private sector, according to a statement.
To facilitate the vaccination of employees and dependents of the private sector buyers of Moderna vaccines, ICTSI through its Razon Group together with Bloomberry Resort Corp. retrofitted portions of the Solaire Resort and Casino into vaccination areas.
Additionally, the Manila-based terminal operator, together with Bloomberry and Prime Infrastructure Holdings, Inc., supported the government in retrofitting existing public infrastructure into quarantine and isolation facilities, in order to mitigate the spread of Covid prior to the vaccine rollout.
Aside from the isolation facilities, ICTSI helped in the set-up of testing facilities in Enderun in Taguig, Palacio de Manila, and the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, and it converted another area of Solaire into a testing facility.
Through its Foundation and partner organisations, ICTSI participated in social programs through funding involvement in various projects, such as hunger alleviation by the Project Ugnayan of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, and funding in the re-purposing of an 8,000 m² football field into vegetable plots by Saint John Bosco Parish in Manila.
The ICTSI Foundation also reached out to the elderly through the Coalition of Services for the Elderly, aiming to augment the meagre supplies of over 10,000 senior citizens in Metro Manila, as well as indigenous people through Project Liwanag to assist 2,000 Aeta families in the mountains of Capas in Tarlac.
Last but not least, ICTSI extended scholarships to indigent students of the Don Bosco Youth Center, a technical vocational school in Manila, covering tuition fees of close to 300 students whose sponsors failed to continue financial support due to the pandemic.
