Gordon to run in 2013 elections

Former senator and current chairman of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Richard Gordon said that he planned to continue serving in the government.

During a recent exclusive roundtable with The Manila Times, Gordon announced that he would run in the 2013 elections.

“I consider two options . . . to go back to the local government or at the Senate,” he said.

The PRC chief was a mayor of Olongapo City in Zambales province from 1980 to 1992 and was senator from 2004 to 2010.

“I’m not ashamed of my records at the Senate or even as mayor of Olongapo,” Gordon, who ran for president in the 2010 elections under newly-formed Bagumbayan Party, told The Times.

He, however, lost his bid for Malacañang.

As mayor of Olongapo, Gordon was seen to have turned the former “sin city” into a model by strengthening its police power, ensuring accountability through identification card systems, improving sanitation and waste management and strictly enforcing a color-coding scheme for public transport.

In 1992, he became the founding chairman of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

He successfully converted the former US naval base into a prime economic zone that attracted 300 foreign and local investors to Subic, which became the site of the 1996 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit.

In the Senate, he passed the very first law in the Thirteenth Congress, Republic Act (RA) 9333, fixing regular elections at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and several other important laws, including RA 9369 or the New Automated Election System law; RA 9334, the Sin Tax Law; RAs 9399 and 9400, fixing the tax regime in Special Economic Zones and Freeports in Clark in Pampanga, Poro Point in La Union and John Hay in Baguio City;

RA 9346 abolishing the death penalty; and RA 9367 or the Biofuels Act of 2007.

Million volunteers

For the PRC, Gordon is mobilizing its partners and volunteers for the Million Volunteer March (MVM) on December 4 this year.

The MVM will highlight the United Nations Declaration of 2011 as the International Year of Volunteers.

The Times will also drum up the PRC appeal for volunteer blood donors to come forward and supply 400,000 units of blood needed for 80,000 patients.

This gap of 400,000 units of blood is based on the Department of Health estimate that each patient usually needs an average of five units of blood.

The Philippine Red Cross and The Times on Monday signed an agreement making the country’s oldest newspaper a media partner.

The agreement was signed by Gordon and The Times President and Chief Executive Officer Dante “Klink” Ang 2nd.

Gwendolyn Pang, PRC secretary general, and Rene Bas, The Times editor-in-chief, signed the agreement as witnesses.

Under the agreement, The Times will help promote PRC’s advocacies and activities.

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz