Diversified conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc. (JGSHI), along with affiliates Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) and Summit Media in the Gokongwei Group, continues with its efforts to capacitate its workforce against the threat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus through its COVID Protect vaccination program.

“This initiative of the Gokongwei Group is in line with our effort to protect the well-being of our workforce and empower them to carry out their responsibilities by providing them a safe workplace, while ultimately contributing to the soonest attainment of the government’s goal toward achieving herd immunity in our country,” says Gully Go, JGSHI Chief HR Officer.

As of mid-August, 36,676 of the Gokongwei Group workforce have already been inoculated through COVID Protect and LGU vaccination programs.

The COVID Protect program includes employees and their dependents, as well as third-party workers among the beneficiaries of the total 190,000 doses procured for their free vaccination.

Capt. Joey Mananghaya, a Cebu Pacific Airbus A320 and A321 pilot since 2008, is among the many workers of the pioneering budget airline who are grateful for the added confidence they have attained in carrying out their duties to the flying public. “We are thankful to Cebu Pacific management for always ensuring we fly safely amid this pandemic, so we can also make sure we deliver the best service to our passengers,” he said.

In Negros Occidental, Universal Robina Corporation Sugar & Renewables (URC–SURE) operates a number of its most important sugar plantations and mills, as well as ethanol and biomass power plants, employing an estimated thousands of local workers.

Fifty-three-year-old Marius M. Abkilan Jr., a shift supervisor at the SONEDCO sugar mill in Kabankalan City, shares that he has been quarantined twice under suspicion of having contracted COVID-19. Thus, having received the vaccine has been of great relief to him.

“I am the breadwinner of my family and I don’t want them to be affected with COVID-19, as well as my co-workers at the plant,” he says. “As long as we don’t have any positive cases, we are able to continue with our work and operations.”

Similarly, power plant supervisor Edsel Yanson at URC La Carlota in La Carlota City has been looking forward to receiving a COVID-19 jab at their workplace, especially since his own father passed away due to the coronavirus disease. “This pandemic has been an extremely difficult experience for the whole world, including my very own family. With my father’s death, our family livelihood has been greatly affected,” he explains. “I thank the Gokongwei Group’s COVID Protect program for this valuable opportunity to get vaccinated for free at the soonest possible time, for our welfare and protection.”

The COVID Protect program was launched last January 2021 as part of the Gokongwei Group’s relentless support toward the government’s anti-COVID efforts. This support also includes the air transport of some 16.5 million vaccine doses from China to Manila, and the distribution of more than 8.5 million jabs to domestic locations across the country. Thirty Robinsons Malls nationwide have also teamed up with local government units to provide safe, comfortable and accessible sites for their respective vaccination administration drives.

JG Summit President and CEO Lance Y. Gokongwei said the “Gokongwei Group remains committed to our nation’s collective efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide protection to our countrymen against this deadly disease, as well as to help reinvigorate the national economy through the resumption of business and commercial activities at the soonest and safest possible opportunity.”