Everything San Miguel Corp. and Ramon Ang Have Donated for the Fight Against COVID-19
“What is more important are lives, not money,” said San Miguel Corp. (SMC) president and COO Ramon Ang last week to CNN Philippines. “We can make money again, but life, once you lose it, it’s gone forever. So between life and money, I’d choose life.”
And now Ang is living up to his words after his conglomerate reported that its contributions to the fight against COVID-19 have reached P877.8 million as of April 4, 2020.
The corporation disclosed that its total donations currently include:
- P500 million worth of personal protective equipment
- P199.4 million worth of canned goods, meat products, biscuits, bread, coffee, and milk
- P38.9 million worth of 70-percent ethyl alcohol (approximately 518,340 liters)
- P38.4 million worth of rice (approximately 1.1 million kilos)
- P1.1 million worth of free toll for over 2,000 medical frontliners, as well as donations to PNP and AFP stationed at SLEX, Skyway, and Star Tollway checkpoints
And there’s no doubt that these numbers will grow as quarantine extends to April 30.
According to SMC, these donations have been given to affected and vulnerable communities, particularly the urban poor of Luzon who are now struggling to put food on the table.
If that wasn’t enough, Ang and his family personally donated P100 million of their personal wealth to Project Ugnayan, a collaboration of the country’s biggest businesses committed to feeding the urban poor in and around Metro Manila.
According to Forbes, Ramon Ang’s net worth is currently estimated to be around $1.5 billion, and the tycoon has reportedly lost 46 percent of his wealth due to the economic impact of COVID-19. But as Ang has stated before, if given the ultimatum between life and money, this businessman will choose life every single time.
