Business giants like SMC — given the billions of wealth that they have — should be at the forefront in providing these kinds of initiatives. Not only can they afford to provide mass testing to millions of Filipinos, they could also easily shoulder the expenses without a blemish on their savings account.

With a decaying public healthcare system, it is quite unfortunate that our country is largely dependent on the donations and funding of private companies. By donating P3 million worth of PCR tests to 17 LGUs, automated RNA machines to key government hospitals, and RT-PCR testing machines to LGUs and DOH — SMC is already hinting on who holds power in the country's health sector.