Insider Spotlight
Relief pipeline widens
During a recent visit to Cebu, San Miguel chair and CEO Ramon Ang said the conglomerate will roll out another wave of food aid by December, expanding earlier distributions that saw employee-volunteers hand out thousands of relief packs in the province.
Cebu hosts several of San Miguel’s facilities, including a plant near Barangay Subangdaku, one of the hardest-hit urban communities.
Ang and Cebu Governor Pamela Baricuatro led distributions to employees and nearby residents who helped clear Mahiga Creek, which straddles the boundary of Cebu and Mandaue cities, and encouraged more San Miguel workers to join the December relief run to reach households still struggling with the typhoon’s impact.
River rehab playbook
Ang was in Cebu for the government’s launch of “Oplan Kontra Baha: Metro Cebu,” led by President Marcos and attended by key Cabinet officials, including from the Department of Public Works and Highways, alongside private sector partners.
Under the multi-agency program, San Miguel will deploy heavy equipment and personnel to help rehabilitate eight waterways across Cebu City, Mandaue, Talisay, Liloan and Consolacion. The effort will mirror the company’s Better Rivers PH initiative, which has already cleared millions of tons of silt and waste from river systems in Luzon over the past five years.
Why it matters
San Miguel says it will apply the same large-scale river rehab model used in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga and Laguna to restore river depth, improve water flow and ease flooding in low-lying communities, at no cost to the government.
The combined strategy of immediate food assistance and long-term flood mitigation positions San Miguel as a key private-sector player in Cebu’s post-typhoon recovery, while potentially reducing future disaster risks for one of the country’s most important regional hubs.
— Ed: Daxim L. Lucas
