The Manila Times

Lucky 8 Star Quest remits P2.6B to govt, donates nearly P1B via CSR arm Pitmaster Foundation

BY DAFORT VILLASERAN

ASIDE from being one of the country’s largest taxpayers with P2.6 billion remitted to the government in taxes (P985 million) and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. fees (P1.64 billion) within just a year and a half of operations, Lucky 8 Star Quest Inc. has donated more than P955 million for various programs, including Covid-19 response and vaccination, hospital equipment and rehabilitation, disaster and hunger relief, livelihood assistance and other programs. This also makes the company’s charity efforts among the country’s largest in the private sector.

Apart from contributing immensely to government efforts to fund its Covid-19 response, Lucky 8 Star Quest has conducted its massive charity work programs through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm, Pitmaster Foundation Inc., whose name is an acronym for “Providing Indigents with Timely Medical Assistance Services and Targeted Emergency Relief.”

Although formally founded in November 2020, the CSR organization of Lucky 8 began allocating aid and assistance to individuals and communities throughout the country in 2016, and most especially during the Taal Volcano eruption in 2019.

The vice president of Lucky 8 Star Quest and chairman of Pitmaster Foundation himself, Charlie “Atong” Ang, had already been helping many people since he was in his teens but would only remember if somebody came along and thanked him for his generosity.

Under the leadership of Chairman Ang — together with Atty. Caroline Cruz, Pitmaster Foundation executive director, and fellow members of the board of directors — the foundation of Lucky 8 has continued to back up the efforts of the Duterte government and vows to sustain all-out support for the plans of the incoming Marcos administration.

Covid response and vaccination

The foundation has been recognized as one of the most generous and effective private-sector contributors to the government’s fight against Covid-19.

In Metro Manila alone, its timely efforts to boost Covid-19 efforts helped prevent the need for further lockdowns. As chairman, Ang instructed the foundation to find ways to help ensure that Covid-19 efforts would not kill jobs. Answering the chairman’s call, the CSR arm gave P50 million worth of antigen kits, P50 million in cash and P20 million worth of home care kits to the 17 local government units (LGUs) of Metro Manila in partnership with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, the Department of Health (DoH), and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Within days after Pitmaster Foundation distributed its P100 million in mass testing assistance to municipalities and cities in the National Capital Region (NCR), the moving average of cases began a steady decline.

In Albay, where the foundation’s efforts were praised by a district-wide Covid-19 management committee and was cited in interviews by the DoH as a model for managing the pandemic, the foundation gave away 700,000 face masks.

Two weeks after the foundation distributed face masks, cases in the province slowly declined. Since the incubation period was around two weeks, the timing of the distribution indicated that the use of face masks had helped stop the further spread of Covid cases.

Pitmaster Foundation also donated 11,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to the Municipality of Santa Cruz in the Province of Laguna to help address the gap in vaccine access. Recently, the foundation has partnered with other private sector groups such as JG Summit Holdings Inc., which donated 20,000 more doses of AstraZeneca and Moderna, and civic organizations such as Rotary International 3780 Quezon City, which will help to roll out the vaccines.

To aid LGUs in their vaccination efforts, the foundation allotted four vaccine freezers for the Province of Batangas, ensuring safe and effective handling and storage. It has also subsidized the salary of contractual medical staff of the Provincial Hospital of Isabela to ensure continuous medical assistance in the said province.

The foundation also provided massive support for treatment efforts. It gave 10,000 home care kits to various LGUs, supplemental oxygen tanks or mechanical ventilation and medicines such as 200 bottles of Baricitinib and 364 vials of Remdesivir — one of the drugs used to treat then-US President Donald Trump during his Covid-19 bout — for Covid-positive patients with lower respiratory tract infection in Bulacan province.

Further validation of the charitable community work of Pitmaster Foundation has been demonstrated through its accomplishments throughout the pandemic, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, fires and floods.

By means of Ang’s vision of gathering the foundation’s resources to provide aid and hope to as many indigent Filipinos across the country, the board of directors — including its president, Gerardo Ramos; Celso Salazar; Lornalee Vingson; Eric dela Rosa; Miles Andrew Roces; and of course, Executive Director Cruz — have made it their mission to continuously help the people who were diagnosed with serious health conditions and provide assistance to the destitute in times of necessity.

All these acts have concretely and sincerely demonstrated Lucky 8 Star Quest’s values of collaboration and compassion through its CSR arm, Pitmaster Foundation.

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2022-06-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://digitaledition.manilatimes.net/article/281590949254466

The Manila Times