Basketball fan Dick Gordon embraces football amid country’s ongoing Sendong relief efforts

UNO briefly caught up with former Senator Richard “Dick” Gordon, who’s been busying himself with the Philippine Red Cross, to discuss the group’s efforts in aiding the victims of typhoon Sendong. Known for supporting the men’s senior basketball team of ADMU (his alma mater) especially during the UAAP basketball season, Gordon confessed his lack of knowledge of football during the press conference, but expressed his openness to checking out the country’s other favorite sport, especially if it meant raising funds to help out the survivors of the typhoon, which hit major parts of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.

Red Cross was one of the organizations behind the recently-held charity match between Azkals-UFL Alyansa and FC Internacional de Madrid last January 7 at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, wherein the Spanish club won 3-1 against the host. At the half, the generous team from Spain formally donated 10,000 euros, plus signed jerseys to be auctioned off all for charity. Gordon was also present to accept the gifts.

Below are photos (taken by Juan Benjamin Janeo) from the press conference and match, and exclusive interview with the Philippine Red Cross chairman:

How have you been since after the Senate?
I’ve been working on the Red Cross. I have a radio program and a TV program on TV5. I also sit on the board of several corporations, but my focus has been mainly on the Red Cross–[we're] humanitarian, we’re non-profit. I’m a volunteer; I don’t get paid any money. And I enjoy [working with] talented people [putting] all our efforts into the Red Cross as volunteers. And this is a definite example. The request is starting to build now–1000 homes right away in Cagayan De Oro. And with the other 2 hectares again we have another 300, and if we get the land in Iligan, we get another 1000 homes as well. And we’re ahead of giving the non-food items and food items, and the idea here is to provide not just survival but dignity and recovery.

How are we with our target? Are we far from it?
No, we’re alright except that we want them to go from dependency mode into recovery right away. We want them to get their minds off the idea that there will always be handouts and that they need all hands to carry the load. So I think that we’ll be able to do that once the housing starts. Beneficiaries will be the ones to build the house. So we have a thousand tents that will be placed right away so that they can get out of the schools and a family of six can stay in a tent; even a family of seven. And [with] a thousand tents across the land–they can just build their homes and we’ll provide them with the materials and we’ll provide them with the equipment: saws, hammers, everything. At the same time they’re building on it, we’re giving them food so that they won’t be stressed [out] looking for food. And if there’s more money later on, we’ll provide them with Php7,000 as startup capital.

How’s the experience going to the site and seeing everything first-hand?
Oh, first day was really a shocker. You have a lot of people who not only lost their homes, but lost families. They’ve not gotten closure because there have been missing people in their families. And there’s no future because they’ve lost everything. They’ve lost their past, they’ve lost their present and it’s a very uncertain future, so it’s a very difficult proposition. That’s why we’re exerting all our efforts to help them.

How’s the group been working with our government for this cause?
Oh, we do that. We need a lot more coordination because everybody was doing it in Christmas, so there’s probably an oversupply of food there. But the request goes for the “over-served” and the “under-served.” So the under-served, we take care of as well.

What’s next for you? Are you planning to go back into politics?
There’s always that option. In the Senate, perhaps, I don’t know. I’ve not been offered any of the Cabinet [positions]. They were making noises, but the decision is theirs, it’s not my decision to make.