“INC Executive Minister Brother Eduardo V. Manalo has directed the church to give all-out aid and assist government efforts to quickly alleviate hunger by distributing food packs around the country, maximizing the logistics advantages of having churches and district offices all over the archipelago,”

–INC Auditor General Glicerio Santos Jr

THE Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) has ramped up its assistance to poor families and front liners who continue to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

It has distributed food packs nationwide and provided personal protective equipment (PPE) for front liners in medical institutions.

INC Auditor-General Glicerio Santos Jr. said the INC would continue to mount massive food distribution programs across the country.

The group pledged “all-out aid” to underprivileged families and medical front liners.

He added that the INC would provide “tangible and usable assistance to our brave front liners.”

The INC recently donated 1,000 pieces of PPEs and 1,000 gallons of disinfectant to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute worth P2 million.

It also donated 1,000 PPEs and 500 bags of rice to the Malasakit Movement, which was received by Metropolitan Manila Development Authority spokesman Celine Pialago.

Earlier, the religious group provided hospitals in Quezon City with P13 million worth of PPEs and disinfectant.

“This batch of PPEs and equipment is the latest wave of supplies we have been giving to our hospitals. We won’t stop here. We are in fact already preparing our next set of donations,” Santos said.

When the enhanced community quarantine started, the INC initially donated P5 million to Quezon City and P3 million to Davao City.

Santos said they had been coordinating with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases for the use of the Philippine Arena, the Philippine Sports Stadium, the Garden Suites and various facilities inside the Ciudad de Victoria in Bocaue, Bulacan.

These INC-owned properties will be used by the government for centralized medical operations and massive coronavirus testing.

 The country has 12,420 total bed capacity in different health facilities dedicated to cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Monday (Contributed photo)

Ciudad de Victoria’s Garden Suites will house and quarantine around 150 overseas Filipino workers that have been repatriated from various parts of the globe.

Santos emphasized that the INC leadership wants the group “to be pro-active in helping the Filipino, especially at this crucial time when national public health and safety is at stake. We continue to work with both public and private sector stakeholders in coordinating assistance efforts because we recognize that everyone must pitch in so we can overcome this outbreak.”