THE PHILIPPINE RED CROSS:

70 YEARS OF PROVIDING HUMANITARIAN SERVICE TO FILIPINOS

The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has always been there in our midst whenever we are
in dire straits. In every emergency situation, calamity or armed conflict, you can be
certain that help is coming your way through the millions of Red Cross volunteers
spread throughout the country.

Since its formal establishment 70 years ago on April 15, 1947, the Philippine Red Cross
has emerged as the country’s leading humanitarian organization. Under the watchful
eye of its present chairman, Senator Richard J. Gordon, more and more people,
especially the youth, are volunteering their services and donors have been more than
generous enough to lend a hand to the agency’s cause of alleviating human suffering
and helping the most vulnerable sector of Philippine society.

With its track record of effectively delivering the goods and services to our fellow men
in need even to the farthest corners of these islands, the PRC indeed deserves all the
support it is getting and should receive. For good measure, your trust is worth the while
for the PRC now has armed itself with modern, state-of-the-art equipment and facilities,
including a newly-bought hospital and disaster response ship which can sail across
choppy seas and can haul itself to shore. All these are intended to ensure swift and
unhampered transit of aid to critical areas because Chairman Gordon, the man dubbed
as the master of disaster, considers each and every Red Cross mission a race against
time.

The Philippine Red Cross never leaves a disaster site even when government agencies
and other private humanitarian groups have left the area to focus on more recent
concerns. The PRC makes sure that its presence lingers until the disaster-stricken
community is able to stand on its own feet again and gets a new lease on life.

As Chairman Gordon aptly puts it, “the work of the Red Cross is always a work in
constant progress.”

We salute and thank the Philippine Red Cross for its 70 years of “Kusang Loob,
Malasakit, at Kapwa Tao,” qualities that demonstrate unselfish dedication to serve the
Filipino nation, and for always being there when we need you the most.

####