BUSINESSMAN Manuel V. Pangilinan assured President Rodrigo R. Duterte that the companies he leads under the so-called MVP Group of Companies are helping their employees cope with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that has forced his government to declare a Luzon-wide lockdown.
“Heeding the President’s call tonight for business — large or small — to rise to the challenge posed by Covid-19, the MVP Group is one with the President in coping with this virus. We are helping our employees by maintaining their salaries and benefits during the crisis,” Mr. Pangilinan said in a social media post late Monday night.
He added: “We have asked them to work from home. We continue to serve our customers with the service they need at this time, including the provision of relevant financing, when required.”
Mr. Duterte, in his message to the public on Monday evening, appealed to businessmen to help their workers.
“You might be able really to alleviate the situation by just understanding also the plight of the workers who are not working now and lawfully not really in a position to demand,” he said.
The President ordered that Luzon be placed under “enhanced community quarantine” to stop the outbreak that has killed at least 12 people and sickened 128 more in the Philippines.
The virus that the World Health Organization has called a pandemic has killed more than 6,500 people and sickened about 170,000 more worldwide, mostly in China.
The Trade department said supermarkets, drugstores and banks would remain open, while cargo transporting basic goods would be allowed to cross the checkpoints unhampered.
Police earlier deployed 1,600 cops and set up 56 checkpoints in Metro Manila to monitor the movement of people under the month-long metro lockdown that started on March 15. — Arjay L. Balinbin
