In photo: P&G Communications Senior Manager Charm Banzuelo and P&G Communications Director Anna Legarda turn over hygiene products for frontliners to PGH Director Dr. Gap Legaspi and PGH Coordinator for Infrastructure and Special Projects Dr. Ericson Berberabe
Big companies play massive roles during crises because they are usually in a better position to weather crises and lead positive action. Procter & Gamble Philippines (P&G), the company behind trusted names like Safeguard, Ariel, and Head & Shoulders, has consistently shown how their business resources and expertise can demonstrate their enduring care for their employees, consumers, and communities, and in the process become a beacon of hope and growth for the country.
Over the past year, Filipinos have seen P&G’s contributions to help safeguard frontliners and protect communities with various programs, initiatives, and innovations from manufacturing millions of medical-grade face masks, donating thousands of hygiene kits and handwashing facilities in public spaces to partnering with government agencies like DOH for hygiene promotion campaigns.
These efforts all support P&G’s thrust to be a force for good and a force for growth. Citizenship or corporate social responsibility is built into P&G’s business strategy and priorities.
Prioritizing people’s welfare and economic continuity
Protecting the health and safety of all Filipinos will be critical to recovery. For P&G’s part, they have procured and committed vaccines for all their employees and dependents who choose to get vaccinated.
P&G has always expressed that their employees’ health and safety is their number one priority. They ensured job security and employment at the onset of the pandemic by keeping employees at 100% full pay and benefits and even continuing to hire over 500 hundred employees last year.
As one of the biggest consumer goods companies and advertisers, P&G also continued commercial investments in advertising and trade and continued capital investments with the construction and expansion of their P&G distribution center even in the challenging landscape. All these support economic continuity amid the crisis and help the country have a stronger recovery.
Protecting their employees also enables P&G to continue serving and improving the lives of consumers who rely and trust on their branded products to protect their homes and daily life. Especially during disasters and challenging times such as this COVID-19 pandemic, their brands are uniquely positioned to help provide the comforts of home, health, and hygiene. Recognizing this, P&G has ensured their products are always available in online and offline channels for its everyday consumers and has also donated over a hundred thousand hygiene kits to government agencies like the Department of Health, Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), Philippine National Police and the Metro Manila Development Authority, as well as local government units in the NCR and Cabuyao and organizations like the Philippine Red Cross.
Safeguarding frontliners and aiding communities
P&G was one of the first responders at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the IATF required face masks in public, P&G saw the country’s need and supply shortage, so they quickly configured their Cabuyao plant to manufacture medical-grade face masks for donation to the country’s frontliners and for use of employees to keep them safe while they continue to work and serve essential health and hygiene products for the country. They donated 3 million face masks to the government and organization partners such as the Department of Health, Local governments, Philippine Red Cross, and Philippine National Police to help hospital frontliners, essential workers, and COVID-19 hotspot communities and families.
P&G’s assistance continues with its second wave of donations to help in the country’s fight against the current health situation. It recently announced supporting the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in the construction of urgently needed decontamination showers for frontliner use and sewer ejection system projects in their OB ER Complex which will be used as their interim COVID-19 emergency room. Three new handwashing facilities inside the hospital will also be constructed with the help of Manila Water Foundation.
They are also supporting hospital frontliners in hospitals like the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), Dr. Jose Rizal Memorial Hospital, East Avenue Medical Center, Lung Center of the Philippines, and hospitals in Cabuyao.
Aside from frontliners, P&G is committed to help keep families and communities safe and protected. P&G is donating P&G products to various government agencies, including the COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases Resolutions (IATF), DOH, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Philippine National Police (PNP), Office of the Vice President’s Angat Buhay programs and other local government units. This will help various essential workers and vaccines as they continue their everyday responsibilities.
Helping their employees, consumers, and bigger community with continued employment, commercial, capital, and community investments is how P&G is stepping up to be a Force for Good and a Force for Growth towards recovery from this pandemic.