In early 2014, the Manny O Group of Companies[1], led by Mr. Manuel H. Osmeña (no relation to the prominent Osmeña family of Cebu), started providing relief goods to victims of the 2013 earthquake in Bohol and Cebu and typhoon Yolanda in Leyte and Samar as part of its corporate social responsibility. It later partnered with Gawad Kalinga for the construction of 160 permanent housing units in four relocation areas in Bohol, Bantayan Island, Samar and Leyte. The CSO program of the Manny O Group of Companies was formalized through the setting up of the HopeNow Foundation which was registered with the SEC in October 9, 2014. Its main purpose is to provide relief and rehabilitation to those in need by reason of circumstances beyond their control that include disasters.
The Foundation has 11 members of the Board of Trustees. It holds office at the Mezzanine Floor, Tower 2, Mövenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu, Punta Engaño, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. It has three (3) regular staff, one part-time staff, one consultant and its accounting is done as a shared service with the Manny O Group of Companies.
HopeNow Foundation, Inc. was granted a one year certification by the BIR on March 22, 2016 and which ended on October 28, 2016. It was given another one year certification on November 10, 2016 which ended on September 9, 2017.
In addition to its housing and livelihood projects, the Foundation is embarking in its hospital-on-wheels (said to be a first in the Philippines) for the poor project. The facility will be capable of providing physical examination, testing and operating procedures that will not need confinement. The start of said project has been hampered by the lack of guidelines of Department Of Health covering the operations of a hospital-on-wheels medical facility. A series of meetings between HopeNow Foundation and DOH were conducted to define the basic rules and regulations in the construction, setting-up and operation of the hospital-on-wheels. HopeNow Philippines Foundation, Inc. has placed its order of the Hospital-on Wheels from a company in China that specializes in the said facility.
Of the ????_?±16.6 million pledged donations raised through a wine auction, only ????_?±3.3 million has been given to the Foundation to meet its operating costs from 2014 to 2016. Mr. Osmeña does not want to collect the pledged amounts until after the permit from DOH for the setting up and operation of the hospital-on-wheels, the main purpose of the fund raising wine auction was held.
[1] Among the corporations of the Manny O Group of Companies are the Sky Kitchen Philippines (in-flight catering services), Sky Logistics Philippines, Inc. (provides ground handling services to the Mactan Airport), Oikonomos International Resources Corp. that owns the Mövenpick Hotel Mactan and the Manny O Wines.
