Project ARK vows to help in Cebu COVID-19 response

MANILA, Philippines — The business community through the Go Negosyo Project Antibody Rapid test Kit (ARK) initiative and the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) have vowed to help the provincial government mitigate the increasing cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Cebu, presidential adviser for entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion said yesterday.

Concepcion had a virtual meeting yesterday with chief implementor of the National Task Force on COVID-19 Carlito Galvez Jr., Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu, CCCI president Felix Tagium and Go Negosyo mentor and CCCI past president Virgilio Espeleta along with different conglomerates and business chambers to discuss the situation in the province.

“Controlling the health situations well will allow us to control and avoid letting go of people and save jobs and livelihood, especially for the MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) who are struggling right now. Cebu will definitely rise above this challenge,” Concepcion said.

He said the private sector is committed to work together to help the province of Cebu.

“The private sector will really work with different chambers. We will help support whatever programs the chamber has. We will work with the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) and the approach is mutual trust and cooperation. Our goal is to save as many lives as possible and sustain the jobs and livelihoods of our people,” he said.

Galvez said it is important for the private sector and the government to work together to check the spread of the disease in Cebu.

“We want to mobilize all the support like what we did in Manila. We have created a lot of quarantine areas and centers. We also call for support to boost the morale of the frontliners and/or warriors fighting every day, provide frontliners relief from months of exposure, encouraging messages, small amenities to give relief, expand quarantine areas, boost testing capacity to quickly identify asymptomatics,” he said.

“In all this, we need people’s self-awareness and discipline to protect themselves and the people around them,” he added.

Project ARK, an initiative which seeks to ramp up testing in the country through rapid test kits and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, is supported by conglomerates as well as various companies, business organizations and associations across the country.

To help fight the disease in Cebu, Project ARK will work with CCCI, Mandaue Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other business chambers.