CHAIRMAN'S SPEECHES AND MESSAGES

4th National Blood Summit and the World Blood Donor's Day Celebration

PRC Chairman and CEO Richard J. Gordon's Speech
June 14, 2010, Bacolod City, Philippines

Figuratively speaking, blood is life; thus, the conception of the idiomatic expression "stream of life" when actually referring to our blood vessels. In this short and simple explanation alone, the importance of today's celebration, the World Blood Donor's Day, can be emphasized. Basically, it reminds all of us of the real essence behind the act of blood donation—an opportunity to selflessly save other people's lives.

With this year's theme "New Blood for the World," I simply couldn't help but be reminded of our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal's timeless words referring to the youth as the hope of our country. Somehow, it had captured his insights in a new perspective, particularly in the aspect of volunteerism. And as ideal as it may initially seem, the passing of time has actually proven this promise; and even I could attest to this claim after I stood witness to several young adults eagerly extending their hands for the benefit of others.

Aside from numerous young volunteers that had passed through me in the midst of the destructive wrath of Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, another citation I can get in relation to this claim is the existence of countless young donors who relentlessly support Philippine Red Cross' Pledge 25 Program. In this particular youth-oriented blood drive, I have seen for myself how these people of such a young age genuinely appreciate the importance of blood donation, and the act of volunteerism itself. The zeal for humanitarian service among our youth is basically imminent, and given this delightful situation, it is then our duty not only to guide them, but also to further inspire them in promoting such cause.

Based on World Health Organization's statistics, there is approximately a need for a blood transfusion almost every second; and given this rather astounding proportion, we, as the major players in this particular field should further increase our efforts to meet this growing demand. Together, let us inspire everyone to take part in voluntary blood donation drives, so that, hopefully in a few years time, we can finally join those other 57 countries recorded by the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations, which had achieved a 100% voluntary non-remunerated blood donation.

And since the celebration of World Blood Donor's Day serves as a chance to collectively recognize all the blood donors for their endless support in providing safe blood that is essential I saving numerous lives, I would like to take this opportunity to show my personal gratitude. I sincerely hope that the kindness in your hearts will remain, and your selfless act of helping us in our endeavor to alleviate human suffering will carry on for many years to come.

PRC Baguio Chapter Assembly

PRC Chairman and CEO Richard J. Gordon's Speech
July 2010, Baguio City, Philippines

Last year is a great challenge for all of us. Unfathomable calamities had stricken our country alongside the successive typhoons, Ondoy and Pepeng. Thousands of our countrymen were left homeless after the floodwaters relentlessly submerged several parts of Luzon; and thousands more were left helpless, nearing hopeless, by the mere thought that most, if not all, of their possessions earned through years of hard work and sacrifice had actually been taken away from them in a matter of minutes.

We have to admit that even we at Philippine Red Cross were caught unprepared by the said series of unfortunate events; but, kudos to us, this limitation did not serve as a major hindrance in our aim to be of service to those who were in need. Apparently, our lack of grounding was overpowered by our organization's strength in terms of manpower, most especially given the overwhelming flow of volunteers that were very much willing to help us in any way they possibly can. Despite the heartbreaking tragedy, it was in fact a heartwarming sight: the way a worst situation brings about the best in people.

Given this rather unexpected demonstration of selflessness among our countrymen, it finally caught my attention that the essence of being a Red Crosser is in practically innate in all of us Filipinos; and that all those who still haven't realized it really need is a little push and a convincing wakeup call that our very own Philippines is actually in need of our collective participation. In this regard, I personally found an encouragement to make the actual dissemination of this cause one of our organization's topmost priorities. Through the continuous propagation of our campaign "Red Cross 143" where we relentlessly invite volunteers to be part of the change we want in our beloved country, imminent calamities shall never again catch us off guard. Before they could even show their horrible faces that are meant to threaten the lives of this country's people, they will at all times be upfront with us standing by the banner that we practically live for: "Always First. Always Ready. Always There."

Of course, our efforts do not end here. In fact, this phase is only the beginning of what I would like to refer to as the "modernization of the Philippine Red Cross." With the constantly changing time, it is only considerable that we remain dynamic and proactive. All the lessons learned from previous experiences must not remain mere memories of what we lacked; it shall serve as a reason for us to strive harder on acquiring everything that is needed that could lead us towards the full execution of our mission as the foremost humanitarian organization in this country.

In accordance to our resilience in terms of gathering more volunteers, it is also part of this plan to further strengthen the organization by constantly updating its current information sharing system and rescue and response equipment. This way, we tend to fully maximize these additional helping hands we get.

Learning from the unforgettable experience brought about by last year's Ondoy and Pepeng, I have finally decided to develop our organization's rescue capacity in times of similar ordeals. To reinforce our emergency response unit's capacity to brave raging floodwaters, I initiated the acquisition of the two amphibious vehicles that are currently in our National Headquarters' warehouse—both ready to use once the need finally arises.

Apart from that, I am also moving to automate our existing information sharing system, so that we can benefit from the same efficiency it brought to our recent national election. In this way, we at Philippine Red Cross can conduct speedier processing and staff deployment in times of actual crises. As we all know, time is undeniably vital in the nature of our job. It is too important that even a matter of a split-second makes a significant difference in our actions' outcome; and given this predicament, all processes within our organization must be able to keep up with the sense of urgency expected from us.

Our organization has been in this country for 63 long years; and all throughout the said timeframe, it has been in the forefront providing aid and empowerment to the vulnerable. With great pride, I stand before you saying that we have actually proven quite a lot; and now that we have gone this far, there seems to be no reason for us to stop at any cause. We exist to alleviate human suffering in this country, and that basis by itself sets our goals straight. All that is left for us to do now, and in the many years to come, is to practically come up with the best ways we can come up with to promote this particular cause; and I am very much looking forward that you are in one with me in the execution of this vision.

8th Philippine Youth Congress in Information Technology

PRC Chairman and CEO Richard J. Gordon's Keynote Message

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate the organizers of this 8th Philippine Youth Congress in Information Technology (Y4IT 2010)—namely, University of the Philippines Information Technology Training Center (UP ITTC), UP System IT Foundation (UP SITF), UP Diliman Department of Computer Science (UP DDCS), Student Volunteer Corps (SVC), Philippine Society of IT Educators (PSITE), Computing Society of the Philippines (CPS), Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), European IT Services (EITSC), Hanns Seidel Foundation, Cyber Press, and Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP)—for facilitating this brilliant event. It is in fact my honor to be a part of this gathering.

The milestone of IT in today's generation is truly irrefutable. Through the changing times, IT has surprisingly evolved, from being a discipline that merely aims to prompt development, to a truly essential part of our everyday lives. Now, in one way or another, each and every one of us actually benefit from the accomplishments of this particular field—ranging from things as simple as receiving text messages from our loved ones, up to those as complex as exercising our right to suffrage.

Practically speaking, technology is a vital player in improving our nation; and given this position, it is only sensible to say that developing this particular area of expertise, alongside with its experts, is an important part of bringing our country towards a brighter future. This basically serves as the jump off point for progress, wherein efficiency will act as the key concept that will keep the wheel turning.
Now, we have an automated election; and soon, we will be able to have a new and improved Philippine Red Cross—since part of our development plan is to be a premier humanitarian organization with a fully integrated information sharing system, aimed to foster speedy processing and staff deployment in times of actual disaster.

In the upcoming future, more are bound to come; and hopefully, all of this event's participants shall partake in making the said vision of a better and brighter tomorrow a reality.

PRC Manila Chapter's 31st Biennial Convention

PRC Chairman and CEO Richard J. Gordon's Message

First and foremost, I wish to extend that it is in fact an honor to be a part of your 31st Biennial Convention, under the theme Krus na Pula: Tumutugon sa Hamon ng Paglilingkod, Mula Noon Hanggang Ngayon.
As all of you may already know, Philippine Red Cross' pool of volunteers is its primary lifeline. Without this group of people—who dutifully uphold the sense of selfless display of compassion, without expecting anything in return—PRC will basically be nothing more than an ideal philosophy in a box.

Given this position, it is only sensible to straightforwardly assume that collectively strengthening this particular arm is the best way for us to obtain excellence in our humanitarian endeavors. And in line with this assumption, it is then my primary goal to rigorously push the expansion of our Red Cross 143 program, which is aimed to uphold and encourage volunteerism all throughout the country.

Red Cross 143's direction is basically to have 44 volunteers—1 leader and 43 members—in every barangay. Its members' role is practically to serve as PRC's "eyes, ears, hands and feet," so that immediate response can readily be available in their corresponding areas once the need arises.

At present, 42,000 barangays all over the country already adopted this program, which more or less cater 1.8 million volunteers; and in the near future, I hope to at least double this number, so that our rescue capacity could be fully maximized.
In order to achieve this vision, we should improve our organization's relationship with other agencies that are willing to promote this particular cause—such as our current tie-up with the Department of Education (DepEd). In the said partnership, the DepEd agreed to instill the Red Cross 143 program in every public school in the country; thus, giving us an opportunity to easily penetrate even the farthest communities there are, assuming that they have a public education facility in their area.

It is important for us to always anticipate the worst, so we could go about apt preparation even for the unexpected. Predict, Prepare, Plan and Practice—let these four (4) P's serve as our guiding principles to accomplish this objective. All we have is to do is to religiously obey this chain, so in return, we can all benefit from the achievement of our collective vision of being the foremost humanitarian organization in the country.

Food Donation Act Brochure

PRC Chairman and CEO Richard J. Gordon's Message

It is no longer an undisclosed fact that hunger is a prevalent phenomenon in the Philippines today. And given its rapidly growing number of cases, it is in fact imposing a serious threat to the health and wellbeing of most of our countrymen; thus, it is only deemed necessary that immediate intervention should be done to address this concern—and this is practically where Republic Act (RA) 9803 or the Food Donation Act of 2009 comes in.

The concept behind this newly-signed RA 9803 basically got into me immediately after it came to my attention how much food hotels, restaurants and food chains get to unfortunately waste every single day despite the absurdly growing starvation rate in our country. Personally speaking, I do not take this against these establishments—since I am also fully aware that they are just doing their part to meet the quality standards that have been set for them. Instead of dwelling on the expected pointing of fingers after such a realization, I simply tried to extend an arm on the evident compromise that has long been there and was merely waiting to be professed on the proper venue.

Apparently, several owners of the concerned business enterprises are in fact willing to pass up the excessive, and yet required, wastages by putting up some of their goods—which are tendered "substandard" by their rather highly set benchmark—up for charitable distribution; but given the circumstances that their good intentions might bring about uncalled for repercussions, due to the lack of proper provisions that would allow them to do so, they are then left with no other choice but to hold back—and this barrier is basically what I tried to break through the Food Donation Act.

Though some may think of it as a venue to foster dependency among our beneficiaries, everyone may rest assured that this is not the case. We are not tolerating this unhealthy practice—particularly on our part at the Philippine Red Cross (PRC). To prove this point, let it be known that the PRC is also strategically incorporating livelihood training programs in this project to instill in each and every one of them the value of living through hard-earned means. And for them to have an opportunity to put these said skills into practice, PRC also made it a part of its plans to offer initial capital assistance that could help them get back on their feet at the soonest possible time.

Essentially, this project only serves as our stepping stone as we struggle to find effective long-term solutions to this seemingly unending issue of hunger and poverty within the Philippines. And in the very near future, it is our utmost hope that we could once and for all directly address the primary issue which is the root cause of this dilemma—the lack of job opportunities or sources of revenue that could actually enable all our countrymen to be self-sufficient—and truly fulfill the PRC's goal of alleviating human suffering and uplifting human dignity all throughout the country.