https://www.istorya.net/forums/blog.php?31998-r3roble en Tue, 26 May 2026 13:33:42 GMT vBulletin 300 https://www.istorya.net/forums/images/metro/blue/misc/rss.jpg https://www.istorya.net/forums/blog.php?31998-r3roble https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2258-Our-quest-to-help-even-a-little-to-our-fellow-Filipinos Tue, 19 Nov 2013 12:59:28 GMT Three weeks after we suffered a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, a category 5 typhoon locally named Yolanda hit the heart of the Visayas. Few days before we were warned about the super typhoon. Even the international news makers preempted it's force as it will make landfall and that this is one of the most powerful storms ever recorded.


My wife revisited our 72-hour kit and store it in place that's accessible to grab in case we need to run. We got the idea from our LDS friends. Although we keep this kit now-a-days but we pray that we won't be able to use it in our time.

The typhoon made it's first landfall at dawn of November 8, 2013. Upon waking up, I hastily decided to go to work since the sky is still clear. My wife would not want me to since it's her first time having to experience a super typhoon in Cebu. Although she's quite familiar with strong typhoons as she came from Bicol, she not comfortable if such would hit Cebu.

Upon arriving at work, people are already going home as the media coverage in Tacloban shows that the wind and rain is very frightening. When my boss, ordered to let us go home, I immediately went home as my wife is already calling me because of what she was watching ABS-CBN.

At home, I opened the windows and the door. I sat beside the door watching the trees as the wind suddenly grows stronger. We can even hear the wind howling as if hundreds of plane passed by. We thank God that we endure that day with only our power and water lost. We expected it that way that's why part of our preparation is to store a lot of water and charged our flashlights/emergency lights.

The news came as a shock as we learned that the typhoon ravaged the northern part of Cebu and some places in Negros. What's more dreadful is the tragic report that 10,000 died in Tacloban, 95% of the 220,000 residents lost their houses and that everyone there needs help. I don't know what went wrong with their preparation but with the magnitude that typhoon packed, it won't matter how prepared you are.

Help poured in from within and abroad. But I don't really understand why after a week, there are still some areas in Leyte that has not received any help. I guess some people are busy blaming each other and thinking how they can turn the event to favor their side. With everything going on, it's either you join them or you shut up and help. I prefer the latter.

Each one tried to help in their own ways and stay away from politicians. My share came when evacuees from Leyte are being brought to Cebu by C130s. I'm a member of AMCA so I saw from emails their plans to help those evacuees. My boss supported me to help them so I was able to solicit from my company. I opened up the idea of having to give something to these evacuees to my neighbors and they gladly take part in it. We didn't anymore ask help from our homeowners association's president as we are already traumatized during the first time we asked help from him. It may not be prudent to share that traumatic instance but I can still clearly remember when our association's secretary asked him to open up to the BOD to approve and release us P10,000 to P15,000 so that we can buy relief goods. He said "P2k lang, hindi natin obligasyon ang gumastos ng pera para sa kanila". It pains me to hear these words, even though I was not there when he said it.

So we took on ourselves to organize and plan what needs to be done. Our secretary drafted the solicitation letter and then some visited each houses. For six hours the contributions reached almost P15,000.00, someone donated ingredients for "pansit", juice, water, coffee and milk. We use the money to buy packed food and hygiene kit and coordinated with Col. Perez (Mactan Airbase) to take the dinner slot of November 16, 2013 (Saturday).

When Saturday came, with the 200 pack food, 204 pcs hygiene kit (toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and shampoo), 200 pcs 3-in-1 coffee and 200 pcs swak pack milk, together with my neighbors and my colleagues, we went to the Mactan Airbase where we can personally give these to the newly arrived evacuees at the passenger terminal.

We were so happy that in our own way we we're able to provide help to our fellow Filipinos. It really shows that many of us are willing to help. You can see the "bisdak" spirit of being generous and humble burning in all the people in MAB during that moment. We hope that we keep the desire to help burning without expecting something in return because in this way we rise above our old self and be a better person. We are grateful to all those who contributed, may it be your resources, time and effort. This would not be possible without you. Last but not the least, to our dear Lord for giving us the opportunity to help others. One thing is certain, this is not the first nor the last. As long as someone out there has the ability to reach out and help each other, we will continue this quest.



]]> r3roble https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2258-Our-quest-to-help-even-a-little-to-our-fellow-Filipinos https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2227-Episode-1-THE-UNANSWERED-CALL Wed, 18 Sep 2013 07:45:05 GMT Peace roams throughout the subdivision; there were few misunderstandings but harmony kept us together. For the last 3 years (since Aug 2010) that I and my family lived within the walls of my house, it was quite, bright and pleasant. Officers come and go without much ado, and documentations are handled well including turn-overs. There was once instance that I could remember wherein one officer has a problem with association funds. The solution until now may have been stumbled into the mist but the officer admitted what he has done and accepted his mistake. A rare conduct now-a-days but don’t get me wrong for the admiration because for me it’s not a good example either.

I have not been active from the start. I let my loving wife represent us in the association meetings and activities. She was active and at one point became a secretary. I supported her effort and help in some ways I can until we decided that she should resign because the one rule that we agreed for her to accept the position has been broken. The rule was: Family first. If responsibilities with the association clashed with responsibilities at home, no second thought as to what will come first but the family. We are in a culture that we value family a lot and I intend to keep it that way.

I cannot clearly remember when exactly the friction sparked but in my observation, it started with the resignation of our president early this year which placed the vice on top. Personally, I don’t know him. I’m not in any position to judge a person without knowing him/her and I also don’t have the tendency to know every person I met. I always kept a few and trustworthy circle of friends and that circle expand so little over the year. The intent to be an active member grew stronger for most of us who knew we can be of help due our corporate experiences. At one point associations are under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and since my experience has involved me with SEC, I have quite a picture of the corporate world. With the approval of Republic Act 9904: Magna Carta for Homeowners Association last Jan 7, 2010, associations are now under the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB). I don’t know what event started first, whether the resignation of the president or the turn-over of Pro-homes Development Inc. (PDI) to our association the monthly dues and water facilities funds but these events are the right ingredients that when mixed, just by shaking even without stirring, boils up to a few degrees that our members monthly meeting (now-a-days) must have a presence of a police officer and/or few “tanods”.

I felt ashamed with this meeting set-up as we are neighbors, we are in one community and we should be united. You might ask, what’s with “the placing of the vice as the president” and “the turn-over from PDI” got to do with all of this? Those actions are in the right course. In my opinion, I would say that’s because it involves a large amount of money and the one entrusted doesn’t know how to do things if it involves money that many people owns.

So it’s all about the money then. As an accountant for quite some time, I would say “Yes” it’s all about the money. Nobody will question you if you spend your money on anything you want but if you spend somebody’s money the problem arises. Members own the funds of the association and we as members have the right to know the what, where, when, why and how it was spend. Most of the questions were answered but the most important of all was not and continues to evade. Let me site an example:

What – Office construction project
Where – At the back of the multi-purpose hall
When – Immediately
Why – Because the association needs to have an office
How – Prepare construction stuffs, budget, board resolution, bidding and etc. After all documentary requirements are satisfied, construction starts then ends with turn-over/delivery of the project and the full payment.

Most of the people will stop with the Why and will neglect the How. The “How” is the most important question of all since this is the question where lots of answers are needed and therefore the most tiresome one. As a valid association under HLURB, we have By-laws to guide us. But in their case, it was deliberately not followed and justified that the act was right. Most people again would enforce that the important thing is the What, Where, When and Why were all satisfied and for them it’s enough. If that is your stand then I’m not in line with you my friend. The means does not justify the end. The office was constructed spending 267% of what has been agreed even without consulting the members thru a special meeting, without a board resolution, without bidding and other documentary requirements. More projects were realized with the same set-up and he just wants all the members to take it all in like little children. Projects like improvement of the entrance, streets and honorariums (even though honorariums are only for officers who are not a member of the board).

I begin to wonder why and I could not fathom it because I don’t know the person and do not bother knowing him. Then I heard two of his officers mentioned what he was like. They praised him except for him being impulsive and “gastador” (extravagant). With these two words, a light bulb shines. Impulsive and extravagant is the right combination to create chaos in the area where finance is concentrated.

Since these problems blows up near the annual meeting which is also the time for election, nobody did made a formal complaint and just wait for the election to take place. The manner of election is again contrary to our By-laws which should only elect 7 BOD. There were also some requirements and qualifications that were not met for the election to pushed thru. Some of the examples are: masterlist of voters has not been verified if they are all qualified to vote, many of the members who ran failed to pay three months or more of their monthly dues and members who are lessee failed to submit lease contracts proving that they are a long term lessee to be able to become a valid member. We elected the complete set and to our surprise he won with flying colors. What happens is really a mirror of the kind of election our country has. I’m not saying this because I also ran certain position and lost but because it’s really what is happening. That it’s a popularity contest, it’s not what you know but whom you know and intelligent voters are just a minority in this country. I would also like to mention that I’m so ashamed of myself for being a privy to the election which is irregular as it contradicts our By-laws.

Only the election takes place on that day even if the schedule is supposed to be also our annual meeting per our By-laws. We waited for them to inform us when the annual meeting will be scheduled but in vain. Finally it was tentatively scheduled last August 31 but did not pushed thru. There was no explanation why. But the set-up (“how” question) continues and since the majority of the board doesn't have a voice of their own, board resolutions are sprouting to favor his additional projects and still neglect to present it to the members. He has the tendency to wash his hands and blame the occurrences to the Board. You will always hear him quoting “That’s approved by the Board” when in fact we all know that he command majority of the Board.

The schedule of the annual meeting is simply slipping and going down the drain as one month already passed. However I was surprised to see that few members has the initiative to route a petition requesting the President to call for a meeting. They even took the liberty of going to HLURB to submit a copy of the petition. Wow, here I am keeping all of these to myself and there are some people who cannot contain it anymore and exercise their right. That’s a very honorable thing to do. Maybe because it took time to route and get signatures required they only submitted the petition to the President a day before the scheduled meeting. The petition was immediately denied by the Board as our By-laws require five (5) days’ notice to inform the members of the said meeting and further mentioned that the annual meeting will be scheduled 2 weeks later. It took them a week to gather 115 signatures; I personally think it’s enough information dissemination for those interested members to attend the meeting.

Even with the letter denying the request, members including myself went to the meeting area. We waited for an hour and a half for the Board and the Officers to show up, but to no avail except for the minority board and in behalf of those who did not show up, she reiterated what was in the letter. We stayed for a little while agreeing the best course of action. After which, we all went home and hope for the best. ]]> r3roble https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2227-Episode-1-THE-UNANSWERED-CALL