Speech delivered by BusinessMirror (BM) President Benjamin V. Ramos at the Unilab’s Appreciation Lunch for Partners on Thursday at the Bayanihan Center in Mandaluyong City.
GOOD afternoon to our friends in Unilab, which has been a good supporter of the BusinessMirror and our projects, through Ms. Claire de Leon-Papa and the office of Atty. Joey Ochave. And also, we are glad to be in the company of Unilab’s partners in its numerous corporate social responsibility (CSR) endeavors. It is certainly an honor for us to be in your midst today.
Back in 2013, during one of our management meetings, the BusinessMirror Founder, Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, instructed us to come up with another CSR project; but this time, something that is unique to the BusinessMirror.
That time, we already have an Elderly page, which we have renamed starting last October to Our Time. It now comes out every Saturday. We are probably the only newspaper in the country that has a weekly special page for the elderly.
Aside from that, we were also ordered by Ambassador Cabangon to think of an advocacy for our senior citizens, to help make sure proper attention and care are being given to them.
So coming up with an annual awards for elderly care was an easy decision for us. It was also a fitting choice for us, because the anniversary month of the BusinessMirror is October, which happens to be the Senior Citizens’ Month.
The next step was to find a partner, an institution or a group that already has extensive programs for the elderly.
And, we thank God, we found Unilab. We learned that Unilab has a special unit called United Bayanihan Foundation (UBF), which not only takes care of the company’s retirees, but also extends its reach to senior-citizen associations at the local government level, as well as institutions that have programs for the elderly.
We had several meetings with Ms. Claire and the team of UBF to firm up the partnership; and later on, RiteMed joined us. We have decided that UBF, through its network in the Office of Senior Citizens Associations all over the country, will be the one to pick the winners.
And so the 1st BusinessMirror Dangal Awards for Elderly Care was held, coinciding with the eighth anniversary celebration of the BusinessMirror in 2013.
Since then, we have already recognized 17 senior citizens, some of them over 80 years old. These are the seniors at the grassroots level, generally unnoticed, but still persevering—despite their age and condition—to do good deeds for their fellow senior citizens.
We have also given citations to nine senior-citizen associations and institutions. These are the groups with the best programs for their elderly constituents and, at the same time, are pushing their local government units to launch better programs for our seniors.
Every time we sit down with these people, listen to their stories and see how passionately they share their works and their projects in their areas, we always wonder why these people are not being recognized that much at the national level. Up to now, I think we are still the only institution that is giving this kind of recognition at the national level.
But we hope that would change soon. The BusinessMirror and Unilab Awards for Elderly Care needs more company. If the actors and actresses get to receive awards from numerous award-giving bodies for entertaining us, our senior citizens deserve more…they have not only entertained us over the years, they have also nurtured us and helped build the foundation of this society.
Not only that, up to now, some of our senior citizens are still working for the benefit of others in their twilight years…truly these people are worthy of recognition. And thank you to Unilab for helping us ensure, at least in our own little way, the works of these senior citizens are not left unnoticed.
Thank you.