Gordon re-elected Red Cross chairman

MANILA, Philippines—Richard J. Gordon has been re-elected chair of the Philippine  Red Cross by the majority of its 30-member board of governors who convened for their first monthly meeting of the year in Manila on Thursday.

This is the fourth time Gordon, a former senator and a volunteer of the Red Cross for more than 45 years, has been re-elected chair since he was first voted to the position in 2005. He will serve a fresh two-year term.

In a statement, Gordon vowed to continue to lead the transformation of the local Red Cross to meet the growing humanitarian challenges in accordance with the fundamental principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, namely: humanity, impartiality neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

He also pledged to keep the  Red Cross “always first, always ready, always there” in times of calamities.

Other PRC officers elected by the board were: former Mayor Amelita Navarro of Santiago City, Isabela, as vice chair; former Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Alma de Leon, secretary; constitutionalist, consumer rights crusader and women’s welfare advocate Leonida Ortiz, treasurer; lawyer Lorna Kapunan, counselor; former Cagayan Economic Zone Authority chair Rodolfo Reyes, assistant secretary; and Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian, assistant treasurer.