Helping and Healing
By Rodrigo A. P. Montinola
A good way to respond to disasters is to prepare for them well in advance. Actually, even better than preparing, is finding ways to prevent calamities from happening. Easier said than done, you might say? Actually, each of us can do our share to make it happen, and it's really not that difficult, but more on this later...
While it is best to prepare or prevent, there are also situations where the deluge is so unexpected and so overwhelming, that all we can do is to extend assistance to those most affected by the calamity. Such was the case with Typhoon Ondoy, which poured so much rain in Metro Manila and Rizal last September 25 and 26, 2009, leading to massive flooding in several areas. We pay tribute to the ordinary Filipinos who performed extraordinarily heroic feats, in rescuing neighbors and strangers from the strong currents and rising waters. On their behalf, and as our small contribution to the rebuilding efforts after Ondoy, your PCTA Board donated P150,000 worth of much-needed supplies such as medicines, blankets, mosquito nets, soaps, to the Philippine National Red Cross, last October 8. Present during the donation were PCTA President Leo Wong and Board Director Bing Ledesma.
How can each of us, in our individual capacity and collectively in groups, help prevent the disastrous effects of Ondoy and Pepeng, from happening again? This is the one of the aims of a modest CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative that your Board would like to propose, for implementation by our membership starting 2009 and onwards.
By now, it is widely-accepted that the phenomenon of global warming, is a major cause for the extreme weather disturbances we are experiencing. Little, seemingly innocent, things that we do, like taking that extra car trip instead of walking, or don't do, like not turning-off lights that are not in use, when multiplied many times over, hurt the earth, and eventually, hurt us, too. Throwing that one chewing gum wrapper on the ground, might not look so bad, but all those wrappers taken together, block our sewer drains and lead to rapid and prolonged flooding.
So, instead of hurting the earth, let's do the little things that can help Heal it. This initiative is called 5 Habits for a Healthy Earth. The mechanics are quite simple:
- Attached to this article is a Commitment Sheet of the 5 Habits.
- Knowing that it is best to start these endeavors at home, we request the family members of each employee of the PCTA member-companies to sign the sheet and commit to doing these 5 items consistently for the next 30 days. This should be enough time for habits to be formed. The enthusiastic participation of your children and household help, is very important to the success of this initiative!
- Post the signed Commitment Sheet prominently in the home, so everyone is constantly reminded of it. Feel free to translate the 5 Habits into the local dialect, if you think it will be more effective and accepted.
- Once the habits are established among our employees and their families, we can also start disseminating these among our cable subscribers, via plugs and art cards in our community channels and barker channels. These info materials do not have to cost much, as they will just mention the 5 Habits, the invitation for the subscriber's family and households members to sign the Commitment Sheet, and encouraging them to do this consistently for at least 30 days.
Let me emphasize again - Let's start the 5 Habits for a Healthy Earth with our own selves, employees, and family members. Then, let's spread the word among our subscribers!
