"We believe this will send a strong signal to the private sector that will snowball into more actualized corporate participation in the fund," Metrobank Group chairman George Ty said in a letter to President Arroyo, copies of which Malacañang distributed to reporters yesterday.
Metrobank will also place donation boxes in its branches nationwide and its different departments and offices to enable individuals to pitch in, Ty added.
"We have great hope that these initiative and immediate response of the men and women of the Metrobank Group will jumpstart the growth of the Bayanihan fund and subsequently maintain a unifying drive that your government has created to address the crisis," he said.
"We are confident that with your leadership, our people will prove once again the will to win," Ty said in his letter to the President.
Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. initiated the fund to help the country avoid a looming fiscal crisis as the cash-strapped Arroyo administration struggles to ease the budget deficit.
Vowing to raise P5 billion, De Venecia started off with a personal donation of P1 million.
The money could build 20,000 classrooms and provide 20,000 computers for public schools, he said.
Other lawmakers followed suit, chipping in their own money on top of a month’s salary.
Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, joining the bandwagon, has asked employees of the Department of Tourism and other attached agencies to donate P1 each for the Bayanihan Fund.
"The amount may not be that big, but it’s a start. We are trying to build here the spirit of bayanihan that is one of the best known traits among Filipinos," he said.
He designated Undersecretary Evelyn Pantig to chair the committee that will oversee the fund-raising campaign.
Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay, chief of the Philippine National Police, has asked police officers to donate a day’s base pay. It could amount to P25 million in all.
The 26-member opposition bloc in the House of Representatives also got into the act with its own fund-raising campaign but said the proceeds will go directly to beneficiaries, not the National Treasury.
House Minority Leader Francis Escudero of Sorsogon said each opposition congressman will put up P10,000 every month to fill up a special fund to finance the construction of classrooms.
The minority bloc can raise at least P260,000 a month, enough to build a classroom, he said. The money will be donated to a private foundation or a civic group that will handle the project.
"These contributions will go a long way if donated directly to a foundation or charity organization," Escudero said. "There are foundations doing education-related work and the money can be earmarked for building classrooms." — Marichu Villanueva