For the Good of Our Country
The war against COVID-19 was fought on many fronts, with Ayala Citizens soldiering side by side with government leaders. Get inside the battle room with some of the people who led the way
A Call to Arms
Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (JAZA) remembers the exact moment in late April like it was yesterday. In the midst of the Annual Stockholders Meeting of Manila Water, he saw an incoming call from Finance Secretary Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez III. When they finally spoke, Secretary Sonny asked JAZA if he could help organize more private sector support for the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) in its war against COVID-19.
Specifically, he asked for help on two battle fronts: First, set up regular IATF-private sector consultations on how to deal with the economic impact of COVID-19; and second, rally the private sector around the testing, tracing, and treating efforts being led by National Task Force Chief Implementer Secretary Charlie Galvez.
JAZA agreed to help on the spot. “We have always recognized the need to take a whole of nation approach, and support national objectives wherever possible, but during an unprecedented crisis like COVID-19, the desire to help becomes urgent and compelling,” he explains.
Fred Ayala
JAZA then tapped Fred Ayala, who leads Ayala’s investments in the education sector, to get things moving. “I had been helping Jaime, together with Paolo Borromeo (Corporate Strategy and Development head, Ayala Corporation), Carissa Feria-Darre (Corporate Strategy and Development, AC), and McKinsey’s Kristine Romano, to provide inputs for various government dialogues with the business community about how to balance the difficult tradeoffs between health and the economy,” recalls Fred. “So when Secretary Sonny said he needed help, Jaime asked me to pitch in.”
Things moved very quickly after that. On the same day that Secretary Sonny called, April 22, JAZA and Fred set up a Zoom meeting with the Asian Development Bank’s Director Paul Dominguez and Principal Health Specialist Eduardo “Dodo” Banzon, Foundation for Economic Freedom Vice Chairman Romy Bernardo and former Secretary of Health Manolet Dayrit, to discuss how the private sector could help the IATF on both fronts.
The following day, Dodo organized an exploratory meeting with the Department of Health (DOH), Asian Development Bank (ADB), AC Health, led by its President Paolo Borromeo, and Ayala-backed Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, represented by its Chief Resilience Officer Bill Luz.
On the very next day, April 24, the private sector group (which now included the Metro Pacific Hospitals of the MVP Group and Unilab) and the IATF, represented by Chief Implementer Galvez and the DOH’s Undersecretary Rosette Vergeire and DOH Consultant Marife Yap, publicly launched Task Force T3, a name coined by Chief Implementer Galvez for Test, Trace, Treat.
T3 is a government-private sector partnership whose original goal was to help increase the country’s rated capacity for RT-PCR (Reverse Transmission-Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing from approximately 4,500 tests per day at the time of launch, to 30,000 tests per day by May 30, as this was deemed to be one of the top priorities.
United, we stand. Many of the leading private companies and NGOs in the country joined the T3 public-private effort versus COVID-19.
Over time, T3’s scope expanded greatly to include the full range of the fight against COVID-19, spanning prevention, testing, tracing, isolation, treatment (One Hospital Command), data management, analysis and insights, LGU playbooks and training, PPEs and funding. And its membership grew to include virtually all the leading companies in the country, working closely with the lead executive branches of the government. (Read more: Ayala Supports Government’s Task Force T3.)
Present at T3’s birth that day from the Ayala group, were Fred, Bill, Paolo and his team (Dr Rizzy Alejandro and Janelle Panganiban), and Jun Bisnar (President of Ayala Land’s Cebu Holdings). Also present were Ayala advisors, Secretary Manolet and McKinsey Country Head Kristine Romano, who would both go on to play key roles in T3.
On April 23, in parallel with the T3 launch, Fred and Romy Bernardo initiated their dialogue with Paul Dominguez and IATF Co-Chair and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, on how to best to start the second battle front, regular consultations between the government and private sector on the most urgent economic policy matters.
“That was certainly an intense week,” recalled Fred. “Little did we realize the avalanche of activity and public-private collaboration it would unleash.”
Vince Dizon
The Czar
The voice on the other end of the call is energetic and surprisingly amiable. It is Secretary Vivencio “Vince” Dizon, Deputy Chief Implementer of the government's coronavirus response and Testing Czar. He speaks in a quick staccato but does not rush. In the background, the sound of passing vehicles and other voices are heard; he is clearly in the middle of things. But he’s got time, he quickly assures.
He is in the middle of what he himself describes as a war. He has been ramping up testing capacities, building laboratories, and quarantine facilities, yet the infection numbers continue to rise. On top of these roles and heading Task Force T3, he is still juggling two other huge jobs, that of president and CEO of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), and being Presidential Adviser for Flagship Programs and Projects.
““I can’t even begin to describe how important this partnership is. We can’t thank the private sector enough for responding to the President’s call for a whole-of-nation approach to dealing with the pandemic.””
That he carves out time for an interview is revealing not only of Vince’s leadership style—quick to act, hands-on, and intense—but also of his relationship with the private sector and, in particular, with the Ayala Group. He is aware the interview is about Ayala’s participation in the public-private partnership forged to support T3. Within the first minute of the conversation, he is already effusive: “I can’t even begin to describe how important this partnership is. We can’t thank the private sector enough for responding to the President’s call for a whole-of-nation approach to dealing with the pandemic.”
In mid-June, at the time of this interview, the country’s installed capacity for RT-PCR testing stood at 41,000 test per day, handily exceeding T3’s original target of 30,000. Vince rattles off the numbers to make a point: “I think the successes and inroads that the government has reached since T3 was launched speak for themselves; testing capacity has increased by tenfold. It is really the kind of quick response that the government has been able to do with the private sector.”
Nailed it. Despite a shortage of materials, suppliers and equipment, the MDC team of engineers were able to convert the World Trade Center into a quarantine facility ahead of schedule. (Read the full story in “Building a Better Future.”)
World Trade Center
In fact, the willingness and ability to respond quickly were some of the reasons why Vince had come to seek strong partnership with private sector stakeholders like the Ayala Group to meet his T3 targets.
Even before becoming Deputy Chief Implementer, he had taken the lead in the government’s effort to unclog hospitals by setting up mega quarantine facilities all over Luzon. Modeled after those in countries like China and Spain, the quarantine facilities were built through private sector partnerships. On April 2, Eric Francia, president and CEO of AC Energy received an urgent request for beds to fill up the World Trade Center Metro Manila (WTCMM), one of three quarantine locations selected by the government for NCR. He immediately set up the “Ayala-WTC initiative task force” and called on his fellow CEOs—Bobby Dy, Art Tan, Rene Almendras, and JP Orbeta to help out in the best way the group can.
““The conversion of the World Trade Center is a testament to what the public and private sectors can achieve when they work together for the good of our country.””
The “best way the group can” turned out to be not just a donation of beds, but a full fit-out of a 9,700 square meter space at WTCMM, turning it into a functioning quarantine facility within just seven days.
Bobby tasked Ayala Land’s Makati Development Corp. (MDC) to lead the construction with guidance from the Department of Health and Architect Daniel Lichauco. [Link to MDC Darwin Salipsip’s story] Globe Telecom funded a large portion of the facility’s construction cost and provided unlimited Wi-Fi services. Manila Water built shower areas. IMI provided sanitation booths at the entrance and exit ways. And AC Energy committed to cover 50% of the facility’s electricity costs while partner donor Meralco covered the other 50% (until May 31, 2020), plus the 500 beds originally requested for. The Ayala Group pooled together P46.6 million for the project and its partner companies another P29.5 million.
Down to the nuts and bolts. Vince Dizon huddles with the engineers during an inspection of the World Trade Center. Teams worked around the clock for 10 days to complete the project on time—while meeting all safety and construction standards. (Video source: Ayala Corporation Youtube Channel, The Ayala group helps convert the "WTC: We Heal As One Center" COVID-19 facility. April 14, 2020.)
With the support of the Ayala Group, ICCP’s Manila Exhibition Center Inc. (which provided the spaces in WTC rent-free with janitorial services), the Bases Conversion Development Authority, and other partner companies, the facility was completed within the deadline. When the facility was turned over to him on April 15, Vince said: “The conversion of the World Trade Center is a testament to what the public and private sectors can achieve when they work together for the good of our country.”
Attention to every detail. Following safety specs from DOH, swabbing booths were designed, produced and delivered in a matter of days. Just in time for the arrival of thousands of OFWs. “Jun and Yla played key roles in getting the booths made on time,” Fred Ayala says, referring to Jun Bisnar of Ayala Land and Yla Patricia Alcantara of Ayala Corporation. Photo by KrizJohn Rosales/Philippine Star.
Swabbing Booths
Fred recounted one of the first crises he worked on with Vince, shortly after Vince was named Deputy Chief Implementer on May 1. Due to the pandemic, thousands of Filipino overseas foreign workers (OFW) were being forced by their host countries to return home. Many of the expulsions were arbitrary, most were immediate. The challenge was how to bring them home as quickly and as safely as possible, while minimizing the risk of spreading the infection.
To understand the enormity of the problem they faced on their first week on the job, we have to see the big picture. The large-scale movement of migrant workers was a phenomenon unique to only a few countries—Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. In most countries, sealing off borders was a primary step to protecting the population, but how could the Philippines close its gates to our own countrymen?
Expected to arrive in a matter of days were 35,000 OFWs, each a potential virus carrier. Everyone had to be tested and quarantined before being allowed to go back to their families and communities. But at that point, daily testing capacity was only 4,000 per day, and the long waiting list was already alarming. Back then, tests were done mostly on symptomatic cases in hospital settings. Big group testing of asymptomatic people was not yet a priority, and hospitals could not accommodate such an influx.
““We were just in the mode of saying, ‘We will do whatever we can to help.’””
Vince and his team hurriedly made arrangements to convert four large venues into Mega Swabbing Centers—the Palacio de Maynila tent, the Mall Of Asia Arena, Enderun Colleges, and the Philippine Arena. These areas could hold large crowds while following social distancing. But he had a problem, he told Fred. He only had empty spaces; he didn’t have the necessary cubicles for the massive swabbing operations.
“I remember saying to him: ‘Today is Thursday. You’re launching next Wednesday?!’” Fred recalls his disbelief. Still, he decided to look for a solution. “We were just in the mode of saying, ‘We will do whatever we can to help.’” So Fred called JAZA and Fernando Zobel de Ayala (FZA), COO of Ayala Corporation. They both agreed to take it on.
The team knew exactly who could lead the effort to achieve the impossible, and reached out to Aniceto “Jun” Bisnar, President of Cebu Holdings and Chief Operating Officer of Ayala Land Inc.’s Visayas-Mindanao group. An Ayala executive for 25 years, he was also a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy and the Asian Institute of Management. In Jun, T3 found the unique skill needed for the job: one who is undaunted by challenges, who knows how to harness the resources of Ayala best, and who also understands how to work with the leadership of the IATF and the various government agencies involved in the fight against the pandemic.
Jun Bisnar
In fact, in his own personal capacity, Jun was already involved in the government efforts to curb the effects of the pandemic. Seeing several of his PMA batchmates at the frontlines, including Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rolando Bautista, and IATF Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez, he knew he had to make himself useful. “You feel that you need to do more,” Jun says. “On my part, it was really automatic. When I see the sacrifices being made by my colleagues in the military, I feel a need to contribute in whatever way we can to the gigantic task of containing the disease and helping stop the spread all over the country.”
““When I see the sacrifices being made by my colleagues in the military, I feel a need to contribute in whatever way we can to the gigantic task of containing the disease.””
If he could get them done, the swab booths would be an important step in doing exactly that. But he had only six days, including Labor Day weekend, to pull together the logistical requirements needed to build over 300 booths, from design to manufacturing to delivery. Overnight, an Ayala team (all working from home) was asked to work on the DOH-approved designs, so Jun could have working plans ready for distribution before the weekend was through. He pulled teams from MDC together, through Engr. Darwin Salipsip, to help the IATF-appointed contractor to work fast, even as they scrambled for additional welders, workers, and construction materials, which were all hard to source under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
The herculean task had to be managed with battlefield focus and grit. By Wednesday, May 6, through the empty streets of Manila, Jun had large trucks deliver 65 swabbing booths to Palacio de Maynila, 72 to MOA Arena, 54 to Enderun, and 96 to Philippine Arena —just in time to receive the arriving OFWs. Later, booths were also deployed at all the arrival terminals in NAIA.
After the swabbing booths, Jun would increase his involvement in T3, helping to build out AC Health’s RT-PCR lab capacity and joining the T3 Core Group with its daily standup calls. Vince says of Jun, “His expertise in dealing with logistics and his experience with the AFP have been so critical to all our efforts.”
Increased testing capacity. With the help of the Ayala Group, Anthony Geronimo and his team at the Tropical Disease Foundation converted a tuberculosis research lab into a COVID-19 testing facility. (Read the full story in “Finding the Enemy.”)
Testing Laboratories
Jacket hurriedly put on, his collar standing and dog-eared, Vince is slightly slumped over an outdoor table. It is the early evening of what has been a whirlwind day for him, and he is waiting for his cue to give an update to heads of the biggest companies in the Philippines—all of them his partners in T3, the public-private coalition. It is July and they have come a long way from their running start in April. Moderating the large Zoom meeting is Bill Luz, who warmly welcomes over 150 participants as they ping in. He calls out the presence of as many participants as he can, many by their first names.
Bill has been with the T3 Task Force from the get-go. He is an obvious and necessary choice. Through the years, as chief resilience officer of Ayala-backed Philippine Disaster and Resilience Foundation (PDRF) and private sector co-chairman of the National Competitiveness Council, his name has become synonymous with public-private partnerships. He has proven time and again that he can bring people and organizations together to work collectively for a great cause. He is the third Ayala executive in the T3 Core Group.
“The initial idea was I would make suggestions on who to invite and bring in to really make contributions to the solution,” Bill explains. “I’d reach out to different companies, organizations, and people to show where help was most needed. In that way, I helped T3 connect the dots and bring in the private sector.”
STA ROSA, LAGUNA, MAY 30, 2020. National Action Plan (NAP) on COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito G. Galvez Jr. and NAP Deputy Chief Implementer Vince Dizon inspect the newly-constructed automated reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) laboratory inside the compound of the Qualimed Hospital on Saturday in this city.
In April, the marching orders for the task force were to build up lab-testing capacity. The country would not have a fighting chance against the invisible virus if there was no means to confirm its presence. “If we go back to January to early February, the country had only one lab for testing,” Bill says, referring to the government-run Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM). “By the time T3 rolled around as a group, total estimated rated capacity in April was only 4,500 tests a day. That’s it! That’s nothing in a population of 110 million. It was an incredibly low figure compared to other countries.”
They were given only five weeks to ramp up the testing capacity to 30,000 tests per day, and four weeks more to bring it to 50,000 per day. “No one believed it could be done,” Bill says.
To move mountains, the task force had to clear the way and find fellow warriors to lift the heavy load. Bill found out there were many private labs willing to jump in, and just as many private corporations willing to donate so existing labs could convert to COVID-testing. There were even conglomerates willing to build brand new labs. The Ayala Group, for instance, through AC Health’s Paolo Borromeo, committed to building four BSL-2 laboratories, securing DOH license to operate and helping capacitate three existing laboratories in Makati [Link to TDF story], Cebu, and Davao. That set alone would knock off 5,500 tests from the daily target. With other private sector commitments coming in, the target seemed attainable.
[Link to AC Health PR]
Bill Luz
““I’d reach out to different companies, organizations, and people to show where help was most needed. In that way, I help them connect the dots and network people.””
The Ayala Group also formed its own Project T3 Task Force to help the government reach their testing capacity goals fast. It was formed with the Qualimed, AC Health and MDC teams under the leadership of Aniceto V. Bisnar Jr, VP of ALI, and with Paolo Borromeo, head of AC Health as main sponsor, and Dr Edwin Mercado of Qualimed Hospital as co-sponsor. They were able to bring in COVID-19 testing equipment and supplies from abroad, plus secure the DOH license and build five COVID-19 testing laboratories. It also helped upgrade the testing equipment for three partner hospitals: SMPC, Davao; UC Med, Cebu, and Tropical Disease Foundation hospital in Makati City. These efforts added a total of 5,500 testing capacity per day, a substantial contribution during the early days of the pandemic.
But there were also large roadblocks frustrating their best intentions. Three of the biggest obstacles were: access to lab equipment, scarcity of lab supplies, and a complex licensing process.
The demand for lab testing equipment was, of course, very high. Many countries were also scrambling to build up testing capacities and competing for equipment. Several private sector members of T3 stepped up to the plate, secured lab equipment abroad and quickly brought them in.
Other forms of partnership were not as dramatic but equally crucial. A steady flow of laboratory supplies, for example, was critical to keeping the labs functioning. “There are things that the government is not used to dealing with on a day to day basis,” Vince admits. “Supply chain management in this magnitude and scale is one of them.”
Fred and Bill stepped in by bringing together experts from the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry to help strengthen the supply chain for the ambitious number of labs that the task force would eventually set up all over the country. “In the past, our labs literally had to shut down because of lack of supplies,” Vince says. “But now with the assistance of the private sector, the system is in place and we are able to manage better. That has very real effects in terms of our daily challenges in dealing with the pandemic.”
Aceing the test. Thanks to the joint efforts of the government and private organizations, the Philippines’ testing capacity rose to become one of the highest in Asia by July. Source: BCDA, PH tops six Asian countries with highest COVID-19 tests conducted in July. August 5, 2020.
Unclogging the lab licensing issues required much deeper involvement. The T3 Core Group worked closely with DOH Undersecretary Rosette Vergeire and DOH Consultant Dr. Marife Yap, Senior Technical Advisor at Thinkwell, and set up SWAT teams to assist the lab applicants navigate the intricacies of the DOH approval process. Like pulling trekkers through a tough paper trail, guides helped make sense of the requirements, while sweepers located and chipped through the blocks so the process could move forward. Through hand holding and pester power, and much hard work by the DOH teams, the number of labs jumped from only 17 in April to 48 in May, 66 in June, 75 by July and 83 by August.
At the July Zoom update, when he is finally called to take the spotlight for his report to all the T3 partners, Vince perks up. He is amongst comrades. His presentation shows that with the support of 56 private companies and organizations, the DOH and the IATF had reached a rated capacity of 74,000 per day by the end of June, more than double the original goal in May, even surpassing other countries in the region, including Japan. Gratefully he says to the group, “We’re all in this together.”
McKinsey Philippines headquarters in Makati
The SWAT Team
The SWAT team that helped work through licensing and supply chain issues , and then later many other issues, was not just any ragtag group. It was composed of expert partners, project managers and associates of McKinsey & Company, a top consulting firm that helps transform businesses and governments all over the world.
A few days before the March lockdown, Kristine Romano, McKinsey managing partner for the Philippines (the first Filipina to be elected partner in the firm), gave a presentation to the Ayala Group ManCom. “They were giving advice about the impact of COVID-19 and the potential scenarios coming out of the pandemic,” Fred recalls. Culling from rich data analysis and global benchmarks, they gave important guideposts to help businesses navigate through the crisis. Their inputs were so helpful that when he was asked to help support the government’s anti – COVID efforts, the McKinsey team immediately came to mind. Fred says, “I knew I had to ask Kristine to help us.”
Kristine responded immediately by fielding McKinsey people and resources where they would be most helpful. For the next four months, day in and day out, the McKinsey teams worked tirelessly on the frontlines and in the war rooms, helping with both T3 and the private sector economic consultations.
On the economic front, Romeo “Romy” Bernardo, Vice Chairman of the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) and former Undersecretary of Finance, was chosen to be the lead facilitator of the government-private sector dialogues requested by Secretary Dominguez, to figure out how to best address the pandemic’s twin threats to lives and livelihood. “Romy was the perfect choice as he is highly competent and trusted by both government and the private sector,” explains Fred, who is an FEF Fellow. The McKinsey and Ayala teams gave Romy the support he needed, from research and interviews, to designing the dialogue framework, consulting with numerous industry associations, coming up with policy recommendations and inviting business leaders to the discussions.
Over several months, a series of in-depth dialogues were convened, with deep dives on the public transport, construction, retail and malls, labor, and education sectors in particular. Romy, McKinsey and Fred worked closely with IATF Co-Chair Karlo Nograles and Paul Dominguez to organize intensive Zoom discussions between the relevant cabinet secretaries and numerous business leaders and associations, and then synthesize the feedback for the IATF’s consideration.
On the T3 front, the McKinsey team played a key role as Secretary Vince’s full time SWAT team. They helped him to identify the pain points, put together an end to end strategy, set targets, identified and project managed the priority workstreams, and then handed off to permanent owners of the workstreams.
Blueprints for safety. Vince and his team inspect the site plan. The safety protocols of testing and quarantine facilities involve strict attention to the smallest details, including where medical staff should disrobe and disinfect PPEs, air quality, and segregation of patients based on risk.
““The Core Group’s role is basically to help Vince problem solve. It comes up with the data insights, sets the metrics, highlights the issues to be resolved, and brings the key people together to quickly solve them.””
McKinsey was the nucleus of the T3 Core Group which meets daily and includes Vince, former DOH Secretary Manolet Dayrit, Fred, Bill, Jun and other government and private sector leaders. “The Core Group’s role is basically to help Vince problem solve,” Fred explains. “It comes up with the data insights, sets the metrics, highlights the issues to be resolved, and brings the key people together to quickly solve them. We meet every day, even if it's only for 30 minutes, and call them Stand Up meetings.
The Core Group Stand Ups have been held every 8 AM, Monday to Friday, without fail since April, and are often supplemented by weekend Stepback sessions to review the big picture. And they are complemented by the other regular Stand Up meetings for the various work streams.
When T3 first started, there were only two work streams (lab licensing and supplies), but the number grew as the task force’s role expanded. As of August, there are nine work streams, each headed by a public sector chair and a private sector chair, supported by McKinsey project managers and multi-sectoral teams. They meet almost every day, feeding updates and recommendations into the T3 Core Group Stand Up for decision-making and action.
Recently, the Core Group Stand Ups has evolved into OpsCen (Operations Center) Stand Ups, which Vince chairs and where he coordinates initiatives with the recently appointed Tracing, Isolation and Treatment Czars Mayor Benjie Magalong, DPWH Secretary Mark Villar, and DOH Undersecretary Bong Vega, respectively. OpsCen is focused on significantly speeding up turnaround times for testing and tracing, and building out isolation and treatment capacity, as the country grapples with the rise in cases.
Claudia Ayaquil
““Vince is the main decision maker. If he can do it himself, he will pick up the phone right there and then and make the call himself.” ”
Claudia Ayaquil, an incoming associate at McKinsey, has had a unique vantage point on T3. She had just come back to the country in mid-April after graduate studies at Wharton when she decided to volunteer for the McKinsey team assigned to the task force. “It’s been crazy and fulfilling, I feel there’s really so much we can do. It has been a privilege to work with this dynamic team before I officially join McKInsey,” she says. Before leaving for Wharton, she worked for Globe and joined GCash/Mynt when it was being set up. “So, I have always been an Ayala citizen,” she says.
From her post as one of the McKinsey project managers for T3, Claudia has a front row view of Vince’s leadership and the support that the Ayala team provides him.
“Vince is the main decision maker. If there is a recommendation, he is straightforward—yes, no, or do it another way,” Claudia reveals. “And Vince is also very much an action man. If he can do it himself, he will pick up the phone right there and then and make the call himself.” In fact, it has become the goal of the teams around him to assure Vince that he doesn’t have to do everything himself. “We help Vince focus on the more strategic stuff.”
The big event. Vince inspects the PH Arena. The concert and event venue was converted into the country’s largest COVID-19 testing facility. It houses 96 testing booths, and can conduct up to 1,500 tests a day.
Fred and Bill are a good counter balance. “I see them as Vince’s main advisers in T3,” she says. “They bring up the critical issues that Vince also needs to think about. Everything may seem urgent today, but what do we need to think about in the next three to six weeks? They give him perspective and insight, and the big picture.” To broaden the perspective even more, McKinsey tapped their global reach to bring in experts that could advise the task force on strategies and options open to them.
“What really sets the Ayala assistance apart is their engagement on a day to day basis,” reflects Vince. “Over and above the donations that the Ayala Group had given, it is really the engagement in trying to help the government manage the pandemic and manage the challenges we face day to day that we are most grateful for.”
The Ayala team is equally grateful they have Vince to work with. Bill says: “Things would not get done if it were not for a guy like Vince. He’s a very hands-on guy. He knows the details really well. I mean it’s not like he is shooting from the hip. This guy absolutely drills down and knows the data extremely well. He really studies everything carefully before he makes decisions or proposals. And he knows the nuances in the public sector that we don’t know. We leave that up to him. He is very good at navigating that, in a way that we could never do. So, it’s a great partnership.”
With materials in short supply because of the lockdown, the MDC found ways to work what they had—like making the testing booths from the high-quality aluminum frames that WTC used in their exhibits. (Read more about the construction process in The Seventh Day.)
August 21 marked the end of McKinsey’s assignment to help T3. At the Zoom goodbye for the McKinsey team, Secretary Vince conveyed his thanks to all the government and private sector individuals who have volunteered to assist in T3’s efforts:
“I can’t even think about where…the entire Philippine effort against COVID would be today if not for the hard work of everybody here…we could very well be in a much worse position than where we are today if not for all the hard work…this just underscores the importance of all the work that everyone has put in over the last 4 months…[From] lab licensing, to helping the OFWs…[to] setting up One Hospital Command…it just underscores that if private sector, government, [and] civil society all work together…what we can achieve together is unthinkable…The job is not done, it’s far from done…but if we keep working together, we can get this done. The most important thing is we are all doing this for the country.”
JAZA and Vince Dizon inspect the Qualimed COVID-19 hospital in Sta. Rosa. (Read about the experiences of its doctors and nurses in “Ready for Duty.”)
““What really sets the Ayala assistance apart is their engagement on a day to day basis. Over and above the donations, it is really [their] trying to help the government manage the pandemic and the challenges we face day to day that we are most grateful for.””
The work continues for Fred, Bill, and Jun, who will stay on with Vince to represent the Ayala Group’s sustained commitment to public-private partnership as a solution to the pandemic.
“Crises really bring out one’s core beliefs,” says Fred. “I think the Ayala Group’s DNA has always been about spotting the opportunities to make a difference in solving national problems, attracting the best possible talent or expertise from both public and private sectors to address them, and then coming up with a framework where everyone can work together in a very collaborative way.”
Partnerships like T3, between the private and public sectors, help the Ayala Group respond to the country’s changing needs— constantly and consistently, in the best and worst of times. #
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 11, 2020
