The advanced movie screening at the Center Square Cinemas in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City also served as a venue where the PDP Laban Cares gave recognition to some of the veterans of the five-month battle by personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for Marawi against elements of the Islamic State-linked Maute Group and the Abu Sayyaf.
PDP Laban Cares is the party’s humanitatian arm, a brainchild of Senate President and party stalwart Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. Pimentel had visualized an organization that would provide “preparedness, resiliency and response” to natural disasters and calamities both man-made and natural in this country that sits on the world’s Typhoon Belt and on the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Pimentel had assigned Ma. Anna Kathryna G. Yu as the chairperson of PDP Cares on Aug. 1, during the PDP Laban oath-taking in Lubao, Pampanga. The organization was launched on Aug. 14 at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City. The officers and members of PDP Laban Cares manifested their full commitment and dedication to providing humanitarian aid to Filipinos in need before Pimentel and to House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. Yu is assisted by PDP Laban Cares vice chair and secretary general Ryan Culima and Jennifer Maliwanag, respectively.
To date, PDP Laban Cares has conducted a total of five relief operations in Cebu, Leyte island (in the cities of Ormoc and Tacloban and in the municipality of Kananga), and in Marawi. The organization’s members, officers and volunteers distributed early Christmas relief packages in barangays Ermita, Suba and Duljo Fatima in Cebu. The relief operations in Leyte revolved around providing aid for those displaced and otherwise affected by the recent earthquake. There were also three relief missions for the displaced residents of Marawi, even while battle raged in the country’s only Muslim city.
PDP Laban Cares affirmed its commitment to “continuously serve” the Filipino people with the advanced movie screening of “Coco,” which is the organization’s biggest project to date, with Asia Brewery, Philippine Airlines and the media companies of the ALC Group of Companies among their sponsors.
This latest fund-raiser seeks to enable PDP Laban Cares to distribute “December goodwill packages” to the families displaced by the battle in Marawi.
Edgard Cabangon, chairman of the Aliw Media Group, also received a plaque of appreciation from Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian for supporting the block screening of the Disney-Pixar animated feature film “Coco” at several movie theaters last week.
Proceeds of the ticket sales will go to providing noche buena packages for the displaced families of Marawi City.
