Charity (also) begins in show business

(Second of two parts)

The idea for this two-part piece came from the suggestion of Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan, who also writes a column (every Tuesday) for this paper and I want to give her credit for it. The first installment came out last Thursday and below is the concluding portion. And so here are more ways for young celebrities to be able to use their stardom to help and reach out to others and be of service to humanity.

Use your celebrity status to gather donations — Of course, you will plead, beg and ask for favors. However, just bear in mind that whatever you collect will not be for yourself, but for the benefit of the needy. How else do you think Rosa Rosal was able to do what she did for the Philippine National Red Cross the past six decades?

Surely, it wasn’t easy for her. There was this company that gave her weekly donations, but wanted her to collect the amount personally (apparently they only trusted her) and she had to climb all the way to the fourth floor each time. The wear and tear on Ms. Rosal’s knees eventually surfaced years later and she still goes on therapy — the cost of it she shoulders herself because as she once told me, “kahit pambili ng Coke I never charge to the Red Cross.”

Of course, not every celebrity can have the credibility to gather donations on behalf of charity. You need to have a good reputation to begin with — like you’ve never been involved in an embezzlement case. If the public cannot even trust you with their old toothbrush, forget it.

Take up a cause — Aside from helping the needy, there are other ways for celebrities to help improve the lives of others. Be a face for the environment — and everyone is so into it now after those three successive typhoons that hit the country recently. Maybe you can try pushing for another cause — you’ll never run out of causes to fight for in this country. You can fight for animal rights and join PAWS. Or you can join the anti-drug campaign by helping organize sports activities in depressed areas and stress the importance of health.

In my case, I got drawn into the no-smoking campaign one day through this column. When I resumed writing for this paper in 2000, the second article I wrote was about how most establishments didn’t have any respect for the rights of the non-smokers who want clean air when they dine out. I would specify names of restaurants and owners and operators often responded and promised to segregate smokers from those who don’t.

After writing continuously about the rights of the non-smokers, an organization eventually got in touch with me and told me to be one with them (I didn’t even know until then that they had organized into a group). There weren’t too many of us. Among the high profile ones were former Miss International Aurora Pijuan (now better known as the mother of TJ Manotoc) and Maribel Cantada, widow of legendary sports commentator Joe Cantada who died of lung cancer.

We didn’t meet often, but I know for a fact that we did fight individually for this anti-smoking campaign. From my end, every time I would eat out, I would approach the restaurant managers and tell them to put up a smoking section where smokers can kill each other with their smoking. My being on TV sure helped a lot because I never had difficulty summoning the operators of the restaurants and they would listen.

In time, the anti-smoking bill of Senators Juan Flavier and Loren Legarda was enacted and Makati Mayor Jojo Binay took it upon himself to ban smoking in his city. Today, all the malls don’t allow smoking anymore and non-smokers can now heave a sigh of relief (smoke belching is another issue).

Smokers must now hate me for making it inconvenient for them to light up a stick, but I hope you understand that those behind the anti-smoking campaign were only after the best interest of everyone — yours included.

Donate your time — Times are difficult and not everyone in show business earns well (aside from being heavily-taxed). If you don’t have the resources to help, what you can do is give your time (although in showbiz, that is so precious — which makes it a bigger sacrifice) by sharing what you know. I know of this Pangarap shelter in Pasay City where you can volunteer to teach (basic reading and mathematics) out-of-school children to prepare them prior to their entering (or re-entering) a formal educational institution. You can do that at your own time. Be a role model for the youth — To our young female stars, I wish I could tell you not to get pregnant so early in life and out of wedlock, but that requires moral discussions and I am not an authority on that (with a show like Startalk — we thrive on such issues!).

If you ask me, the best example you can show to your fans is to try and finish your studies despite your hectic showbiz schedule. That will drive the point that show business is so temporary — and it is — and that education is the most solid foundation in life.

Sustain your project — We’ve seen a lot of celebrities who put up their own foundations and even call media for coverage, but a lot of these charitable projects were eventually forgotten. It’s really just too bad that in this world, there is only one Rosa Rosal.