January 27, 2011
Sharing Those
I just spent the whole night with my boyfriend’s friends playing poker and taking pictures of ourselves. We had dinner earlier and decided to hang out at bf’s place. We were laughing and having so much fun until we saw Julius Babao’s Krusada on ABS-CBN.
It’s as if someone called our attention and pinched our hearts. We stopped the fun and watched the show. The topic for the night was the Food Donation Act proposed by former Senator Dick Gordon (current president of
Philippine National Red Cross). According to this bill, the hotels and restaurants shall donate their excess foods for the day to the poor people instead of throwing it to the trash bins. As the ex-Senator has said,
“Ang ideya nito, halimbawa kung nagpaparty ka, marami kang excess food, o yung sa mga buffet. Hindi yung pinagkainan, hindi yung tira kundi yung hindi nagalaw na pagkain, kukunin yan ng mga taga-Red Cross, o kaya iba’t ibang mga tao. At alinsunod sa isang plano na bibigyan yung mga taong hirap na hirap sa buhay, sila ay bibigyan.”
There has been a debate by the Hotels and Restaurants community whether to give their extra food to the poor people. There are two houses. The first house says yes because helping the persons in need doesn’t hurt. Instead of throwing the left-over foods to the garbage can, they believe in filling the empty stomachs of their fellowmen by giving them the excess foods. On the other hand, the second house says no because according to them, the contrary of the goal might happen. Instead of helping out the Filipino people below the poverty line, they might cause more harm to them by giving out spoiled foods. They said that it’s the long-time policy of every food establishments to always throw their excess foods.
Himig ng Pag-asa
I SAY.
I strongly agree with the proposed bill by Dick Gordon. I hope that it may be approved as soon as possible since it was proposed since 2009 and now, it’s 2011. I believe that this is one way of giving hope to the Filipino people who are not given an opportunity to eat meals three times or more a day. Poverty is one of the major problems that the Philippines is currently facing. I heard earlier that there has been a growth of 3 million people who belongs to the “isang kahig-isang tuka” population. I know that it is the country’s government’s responsibility to care for the poor but I also believe that it is every Filipino’s duty to help his or her fellowmen. Let us help one another and fight together against poverty. I know we can make it through. 🙂
To be qualified as food donations, food surpluses should pass all quality and labeling standards enforced by laws and regulations to ensure that all excess food and leftovers collected are fit for human consumption.
Signed by President Gloria Arroyo on November 25, 2009, the Food Donation Act is a consolidated version of Gordon’s Senate Bill No. 150 and Parañaque Representative Eduardo Zialcita’s House Bill No. 420
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