Manny Pacquiao donates 5 buses to MMDA to provide free rides for healthcare workers

Senator Manny Pacquiao has donated five buses to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to provide free rides to healthcare workers and other frontliners as the country battles the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

With Luzon under enhanced community quarantine and mass public transport suspended, essential personnel need alternative means to get to their places of work such as hospitals, supermarkets, pharmacies, and banks.

The boxing legend has earlier given 700,000 face masks to the MMDA, Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Department of Health, and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

Pacquiao's foundation has also partnered with Chinese billionaire Jack Ma to provide the 50,000 COVID-19 testing kits for the country.

As of Friday, the Philippines has 230 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 18 deaths. 

President Rodrigo Duterte has placed the country under a state of calamity to allow the government to tap more funds to curb the spread of the virus. --MGP, GMA News