Give to Bohol earthquake victims

If you are a compassionate citizen affected by the suffering of the earthquake victims in Bohol province, don’t wait for your government to make a move to help the victims.

Make your own move and don’t rely too much on the government.

Although the government is doing everything to ease their suffering, the aid pouring into Bohol is not enough.

Private groups and individuals should extend a helping hand.

Let us show our unity as a people by helping the earthquake victims in Bohol.

Reports reaching Manila say many people in towns hard-hit by the earthquake were going hungry and in need of medical care, especially those with bone fractures.

How can you help? You can contribute canned goods, medicines, rice, blankets, mats and bottled water which are in short supply in the island province since Tuesday’s magnitude 7.2 temblor.

If you don’t know where to course your donations, send them through the Philippine Red Cross which has offices across the country.

Philippine Airlines, Air Asia and Zest Air, as well as freight forwarding companies JRS and LBC, have volunteered to transport donations free of charge to Bohol (as well as Cebu, which was less devastated).

People who are generous to the needy are always placed in a situation where they find themselves having more than enough—so they can give more.

That is the way of the Universe.

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Officials of the Social Security System (SSS) should donate their P1-million bonus to the Bohol earthquake victims to atone for their shameless act of awarding bonuses to themselves when most members and pensioners of the government-controlled corporation are not given efficient service.

SSS President and CEO Emilio de Quiros should be ashamed of himself for saying that the bonus was a reward to the officials for reaching the agency’s collection target.

Awarding hefty bonuses to top SSS officials when most of the members and pensioners of the agency are wallowing in poverty is immoral.

De Quiros’s statement—that in order for the government to attract brilliant minds it should pay them salaries equivalent to those given to executives of private companies—is callous.

He forgets that the government is poor and that even the salary of the President of the Republic can’t match those of the chief executives of private companies.

People recruited to serve in the Cabinet, for example, left their high-paying jobs in the private sector because of their intention to serve the people.

De Quiros shouldn’t have left his lucrative job in the private sector if he didn’t want to earn a pittance at the SSS.

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If there’s anybody to blame for Monday’s paralysis of Metro Manila and the horrendous traffic jam caused by the medical mission and gift-giving project of the Iglesia ni Cristo, it’s Francis Tolentino, chair of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

Tolentino could have confined the influential religious sect’s noble undertaking in wide open spaces in the metropolis, like Rizal Park in Manila and Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City.

Those places can accommodate millions of people.

The problem with politicians—Tolentino is one of them since he’s a former mayor of Tagaytay City—is that they’re afraid to cross the vote-rich INC.

The MMDA chair should be a nonpolitician.