Unsportsmanlike critics

Countless Filipinos and overseas friends con

tinue to do their bit for victims of super typhoon Yolanda which devastated the whole of Tacloban and a great part of Leyte, Guiuan in Eastern Samar and Coron, Palawan.

It has been two weekends since we announced that proceeds from sales of tickets to the opening game of the import-laced Philippine super Liga Grand Prix 2013 at the Flying V San Juan Arena on Nov. 10 and the second game on Nov. 15 would be turned over to agencies helping victims in the areas pummeled by Yolanda. San Juan City Mayor Guia Gomez had agreed to the donation, first for the victims of the Bohol and Cebu earthquakes in mid-October and, second, to the victims of Yolanda after it became known that a huge amount of assistance was needed for the hard-hit and devastated areas. Mayor Gomez said that San Juan City has sister-city relationships with a number of cities in Bohol and Cebu.

Over at Wack Wack Golf and Country Club (WWGCC), since the time that we became aware of the destruction wrought by Yolanda, we had decided to transform the yearly President’s Cup (a tournament held to honor the incumbent WWGCC president), to a fund-raising event called the “President’s Cup for Typhoon Yolanda Victims.” Earlier, WWGCC  turned over to ABS-CBN’s Sagip Kapamilya, P50,000 as the Club’s share in helping alleviate the plight of fellow Filipinos in the two areas.

From the moment the President’s Cup fund-raising tasks,  some P200,000 was raised as of the Saturday evening, when the dinner and awarding ceremonies were held. The funds raised came from cash donations, pledges, sale of souvenir-commemorative t-shirts and a unique “exchange deal.” Atty Perry Pe had won the major raffle prize, a huge TV set, but opted to turn it over back to WWGCC with the instruction to sell the TV set and remit the proceeds of the sale of the TV to the Yolanda campaign kitty.

During the early part of the ceremonies, which had 1999 Miss Universe first runner-up Miriam Quiambao as emcee and Ms Faith Cuneta as guest entertainer, we had a chance to deliver a message that used as a take-off point an email sent to us by a classmate at the Asian Institute of Management, Bobby Atendido.

Atendido had noted the one-sided reporting which chastised the government for its alleged slow response. He had read another article which sought to explain the Philippine government’s response in terms of the following: downed communications lines (including the tower at the Tacloban airport), lack of transport facilities and petrol to be used in delivering relief good to far-flung areas, and was thankful for the balanced reporting.

Atendido’s email included a commentary from Theodore Roosevelt which one could say slammed critics who had no intention of helping resolve the situation but rather were more interested in undermining President Aquino’s credibility.

“Critics” by Roosevelt has been disseminated in many ways over the years but it would be a good reminder to all of us during this crisis when so many “geniuses” and so called thought leaders weigh in with their comments: “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly...Who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who, at the best, knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails,  at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

For good measure, Atendido adds his personal belief based on Matthew 7:16 which says: “You will know them by their fruits.” Goodness will bear fruit in the end. Just do good and plant the seeds and they will bear fruit. Do what we can for the needy and the poor.

Aware that every able-bodied person is needed, we joined my wife, Margie (of PCSO), Sunday afternoon, to welcome traumatized passengers from Tacloban in Villamor and to plan PCSO’s medical mission to Guiuan. At least three C130’s landed within an hour bringing with them men, women and children, many of them shedding tears upon being welcomed by clapping and cheering volunteers.

In between arrivals of evacuees, we struck a conversation with a friend we had been out of touch for many years. Juris Umali-Soliman, consultant for corporate affairs of SM Investments Corporation. Soliman had volunteered to minister to the needs of the evacuees in the medical tents put up by SM Foundation, headed by the low-key but effective Debbie Pe-Sy, wife of Harley, the youngest of Henry Sy’s sons.

Soliman advised us that after treating hundreds of patients since Thursday last week, one just gets the work done and doesn’t pay attention to critics, some of whom are neither well-meaning nor constructive at all and are simply interested in their political agenda of undermining Pres. Aquino’s administration.

We merely nodded in agreement as we both vowed that helping ease the situation would be the highest priority.