RED CROSS FOCUSED ON DISASTERS, NOT LIBANS CASES

Ipagpaliban muna natin yan si Dante Liban, said Senator Richard J. Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, in response to former Congressman Dante Libans threat to have Gordon removed from the Senate.

Personally, Id rather focus on the disasters happening in the country, on what I can do for all the people affected by all the last storms that have hit us. Hindi pa tayo nakakabangon mula sa mga bagyong tumama sa bansa natin. Diyan nakatuon ang isipan ko, at hindi sa mga alegasyon ng isang tinanggal ng Red Cross dahil sa mga katiwalian, Gordon said.

The Red Cross is a voluntary organization. In fact every single Filipino citizen dedicated to serving with dignity and honor his fellow human beings should be a member of the Red Cross. And in the face of all the disasters this country is trying to deal with, where is he? Has he dug people out from under landslides and rubble with his own hands, whether in Quezon, in Southern Leyte or in Albay? Where was he? Was he instead filing cases left and right against the organization and its officers, slowing it down and dividing its resources?

I find it so strange that Liban is threatening to sue me for sitting in the Senate while serving through Red Cross. Wasnt he Chairman of the Quezon City Chapter and a member of the National Board when he was himself a Congressman?

Dante Liban has been kicked out of Red Cross by unanimous vote of the National Board because he violated fundamental policies and procedures. He did not follow orders of the Secretary General. He did not follow the National Board. The Court of Appeals has upheld the actions of the National Red Cross Board. He has not turned over more than 10 million pesos of Red Cross funds. He continues to use Red Cross property as if it were his own despite reprimands, despite his expulsion. We have criminal cases of robbery and estafa pending against him. All that you are hearing from former Congressman Liban are the whinings of a man who has been disgraced for breaking the law.