Mother Teresa awardee hounded by people asking for donations

One of two destitute Filipino citizens recently bestowed the Mother Teresa award is being hounded daily by neighbors and people from out-of-town asking for donations to pay for their food, clothing, shelter and medicine.

Poverty-stricken Luring Franco, 66, went to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines media office in Intramuros, Manila to ask help in clarifying to the public that the P500,000 check that went with the award was never really given to her.

Franco and her co-awardee, missionary worker Sister Carmen Locsin, were to receive half-a-million peso cash prize each.

"Para naman akong PCSO. Pati pang dialysis hinihingi sa akin (People think I am the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. They even ask money for dialysis treatment from me)," said Franco, who was born July 4, 1936.

"Masaya naman ako na ako ay binigyan ng Mother Teresa Award (I am happy that I was given a Mother Teresa Award). But the P500,000 I received went to ‘charitable institutions’," stressed Franco, more popularly known as Ka Luring.

Franco said Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin already explained that the check would go to charitable institutions named by the sponsor, AY Foundation, and not to her.

"Other than a plaque, I never received any money. Not even a single centavo," said Franco, who said that she does not blame AY Foundation and the Manila Jaycees for misinforming the public about the cash reward.

AY Foundation is headed by its chairman, Ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco.

A press statement was published last Aug. 9 in several newspapers, including The STAR, reportedly coming from AY Foundation and Manila Jaycees organizers of the awarding ceremonies.

The statement read, "the two (awardees) will each receive a cash prize of P500,000 from AY Foundation in ceremonies to be presided by Jaime Cardinal Sin, archbishop of Manila."

The awarding rites were held at the RCBC Plaza in Makati City last Aug. 16, where plaques were handed out but no cash reward.

Franco said she saw the check handed over during the ceremonies but that this was taken back by the organizers afterwards.

The names of the awardees were not written on the checks, but only the words "for charitable institutions."

Franco said organizers did not even indicate what exact charitable institutions would be the beneficiaries.

"It’s just okay with me that I did not receive any money. Almost all my life, for 40 years, I worked as a catechist without asking for a single centavo. But I am still happy since I know that I have been serving God," said Franco.

Everyday for the past two weeks since the stories came out, Franco’s destitute friends, neighbors and out-of-town folk have been coming to her shanty in the poverty-stricken neighborhood of St. Michael’s Parish in Barangay Hagonoy in Taguig.

About 10 to 20 of these needy go to her home daily asking for money.

"The problem is several people go to my house asking for money. Hindi naman ako artista! (But I’m no movie star)," she said.

Before the awarding ceremonies, Franco said she was once even offered by the Mormons, of the Church of Latter Day Saints, if she could join them. The Mormons promised her that she could earn at least $10,000 if she joined them, but she refused.

"I could never sell my belief in God," she told them.

Franco, on the other hand, said she is not angry at the people who come to her for help, and told them she would still be willing to help them if only she had the means to do so.

She also does not harbor any grudge against the organizers, but pleaded with them to clarify the issue on the cash reward by issuing another statement on the matter.

Franco has spent her life teaching catechism to children in public schools, seminarians and lay people in Taguig. She has also been serving as a community worker for the Church of the Poor Foundation of Monsignor Clem Ignacio.

She is also the recipient of the Pro Ecclesia Et Pontifice Award by Pope John Paul II and Missio Canonica ’99 by Cardinal Sin.

The Mother Teresa Awards, a project of AY Foundation Inc. and the Manila Jaycees, is an annual search for outstanding individuals who best exemplify the selfless service to the poor as shown by the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta.