MANILA - The group of tycoon Manuel Pangilinan said Tuesday Metro Pacific Investment Corp through its logistics arm has "taken the initiative" to store batches of China's COVID-19 vaccine Sinovac in its facility.

MetroPac Movers Inc, the logistics arm of Metro Pacific, helps store Sinovac vaccines in its warehouse in Marikina City, the company said in a statement.

“We are now embarking on our journey towards economic recovery, and we at the MVP Group are honored to be an instrumental part of it...,” Pangilinan said.

An initial batch of 600,000 doses of Sinovac jabs arrived in the country, the first legal vaccine to land in the Philippines. The country started inoculating frontliners on Monday.

Pangilinan, along with the country's other business leaders, committed to helping the government by providing 2 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for frontliners, the statement said.

• Philippines receives first official supply of COVID-19 vaccines
• Philippines begins COVID-19 vaccination drive

Metro Pacific and other top conglomerates in the country were instrumental in ramping up the COVID-19 testing and isolation capacities in the country.