CAMP AGUINALDO, Quezon City – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) received P3.95-Million financial assistance and various equipment from the MVP Group of Companies on Monday, April 4.
AFP Chief of Staff General Andres C Centino received the donations on behalf of the AFP during the handover ceremony at the General Headquarters canopy area in Camp Aguinaldo.
Gen. Centino thanked the donors for the continued assistance to the AFP that benefits its personnel.
"The Armed Forces of the Philippines is very fortunate to have partners in the private sector who value the work of our organization and who have continuously supported us and organized programs under their Corporate Social Responsibility arm to extend their expertise and resources to our soldiers," he said.
The cash donations will be turned over to the dependents of victims of the C-130 crash that transpired on July 4, 2021.
Likewise, 30 ambulance bikes were donated to the AFP's major services - the Philippine Army, Philippine Navy, and Philippine Air Force as part of the Makati Medical Center Foundation's (MMCF) Hospital-In-A-Bike Project.
The MVP Group also donated 12,578 doses of COVID-19 vaccines; of which, 12,000 are Moderna while the remaining are Pfizer vaccines. Five computer units were also turned over to the AFP Dental Service for its dental records information management system or DRIMS Project.
The handover ceremony was witnessed by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana; Mr Al Panlilio, President and CEO of Smart Philippines; and key personalities from MMCF, PLDT, Smart, PayMaya, Meralco, Maynilad, and the Metro Pacific Investment Corporation.
Also present were Ambassador Ilan Simon Fluss and Mr. Nir Balzan from the Embassy of Israel in Manila. At the height of the pandemic, the Embassy of Israel sponsored bikes for the MVP group's Hospital-in-a-Bike project for recipients from the Naval Reserve Command.
The program between the MMCF and AFP was initiated in 2013 and has since provided numerous projects for organizational strengthening of the AFP Medical Center and AFP Medical Treatment Facilities.
"This flagship program has brought a lot of positive developments to our military hospitals and has even expanded beyond its initial objectives and mandate, especially during this pandemic. I assure our valuable partners that today's donations will be appropriately and immediately allocated to those concerned," General Centino said.///(Photos by A2C Ted Castro PAF/PAOAFP)
