MANILA, Philippines — The Lopez Group and MetroTent Convention Center in Pasig City have partnered to provide a temporary home for The Medical City employees on the frontline in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease.
Lopez company First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH), with help from its construction arm First Balfour, will retrofit MetroTent in Ortigas Center, Pasig, into a 120-bed temporary shelter for employees of TMC, a hospital also in Pasig just a few hundred meters away from MetroTent, owned by former Ilocos Sur governor Luis “Chavit” Singson.
After First Balfour completed the retrofitting last April 18, Singson turned over MetroTent to the management of TMC, which in turn put in place its own anti-COVID-19 protocols to assure the safety of its medical frontliners temporarily housed there.
Singson said FPH subsidiaries First Gen Corp. and Energy Development Corp. also shared the cost not only of MetroTent’s retrofitting but also the cost of providing food and even free WiFi for the TMC employees.
While at MetroTent, the TMC employees can stay in touch online with loved ones and colleagues through an internet service provided by Sky Cable, another Lopez Group company.
First Balfour provided mattresses, pillows and blankets spread in rows over the cavernous floor of MetroTent for TMC male employees. Female employees can stay in individual tents set up by First Balfour also within MetroTent.