MANILA, Philippines—“Now no child will die because he slept in the park after undergoing chemotherapy.”
This was the assurance made by Paul and Sigfrid Flores, founders of Project: Brave Kids, one of the beneficiaries of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.’s (Pagcor) “25 Days of Christmas, 25 Years of Pagcor” program.
“Christmas came early and this is the first big donation that our foundation has received and we intend to put up a halfway home for child cancer victims from the provinces who have no place to stay in Manila after undergoing chemotherapy sessions” the Flores couple told the Inquirer on the sidelines last Monday’s launch of Pagcor’s gift-giving project in Quezon City.
The couple said a halfway house was the first thing that came to mind as one of their projects to be funded by the Pagcor donation.
“We do not want a repeat of the death of a boy who had leukemia and had just undergone a chemotherapy session and died because he was forced to sleep in Luneta for lack of money to pay for an overnight room,” said the couple, who founded the foundation to help other parents with a cancer-stricken child like themselves.
Pagcor spokesperson Maricar Bautista said that apart from the Brave Kids foundation, 35 other institutions were selected to receive an allocation from the P25-million budget for the gaming company’s gift-giving program.
“The recipient foundations and institutions were chosen according to their needs and meet the requirements set up by a committee in line with the administration’s ‘matuwid na daan’ principle,” Bautista said.
In a statement, Pagcor Chair Cristino Naguiat Jr. said: “Instead of Pagcor spending lavishly for its silver anniversary, we opted to hold the bigger Pamaskong Handog project to share our blessings with the poor, the needy and neglected sectors of our society.”
Naguiat said he hoped that with their project they could serve as an example to other government agencies.
“The idea of our Pamaskong Handog project is to give help where it is most needed. While what we are giving this Christmas season may not be enough to help everybody, we want to lead the way in helping the neglected sectors of the society,” he said.
The project, which started on Nov. 25 and will last until Dec. 19, covers more than 7,000 beneficiaries mostly from the neglected sectors of society and 36 charitable institutions nationwide.
“It is Pagcor’s way of sharing its blessings with the needy on its 25th year,” Bautista said.
Among the beneficiaries, Bautista said, are children and adult cancer patients, the blind and visually impaired, abused children and women, juvenile delinquents, the elderly and handicapped, crippled children, Aetas, wounded soldiers and policemen, street children, street families and physically challenged children.
Bautista added that starting this year, Pagcor will also begin its gift-giving projects outside Metro Manila, particularly in cities where there are Pagcor casinos, like Angeles, Bacolod, Davao, Cebu, Olongapo and Tagaytay.
Among the program’s recipients were Breast Cancer Inc., Philippine Army General Hospital and the Philippine National Police hospital.