Corruption looms at the Philippine National Red Cross?

Philippine National Red Cross had been at the helm of every emergency and disaster in the country and all that we can say to the volunteers and staff of PNRC is pure goodness and a sense of admiration and salute. But how would you feel if regular staff of the PNRC suffers from delay salaries and a meager P8,000 a month in salary which can be availed after 6 months?

While the regular staff are being subjected to streanous and dangerous works specially during calamities it is revealed to us that they do not even have insurance benefits plus a salary of about P7,575 released to them late and for some after 6 months.

Surely you would say this is above minimum wage specially for PNTC Palawan whose minimum wage is just around P205-P275 a day. But consider the fact that these employees have to wait for months after getting their salary, how would they live month by month without a means to pay their expenses?

Employees themselves have to do all the paper work to get their salaries and in most cases they even have to pay some local officials so that their salaries will be released faster.

This particular incident was reported to us anonymously from someone who worked at PNRC in Palawan and discovered all the red tape that is occuring and is making good volunteers suffer.

How much does Red Cross gets in a month? According to our souce it i enough to give a decent salary.

Before I thought that getting blood from Red Cross is free but it seems it is not. You have to pay a BPF or Blood Processing Fee amounting to P1,500 per bag. Everyday the maximum release of blood is about 20-30, so that brings the income to around P30,000 to P45,000 a day. This is only the income from BFP which operates 24/7.

P673 of the P1,500 goes to the national PNRC while P827 remains in the hands of the chaptrer. Computing that source of income alone, 16,540/day x 30= P496,200. P496,200 is the estimated income per provincial office of the PNRC from blood services alone.

So where does this money go? According to our informant, upon asking one of the previous MedTechs the person said that it goes to charity and to "disaster day." Then what if there is no calamity since of course calamities don't happen every month?

"Sabi ko naman wala naman kalamidad buwan buwan eh. Saan napupunta ung iba? Sabi nya, maalamang sa bulsa." I told them there is no disaster every month so where does the fund goes. The person said it is simply pocketed.

Is this a reality of corruption happening in the Philippine National Red Cross on every province or is it happening only in Palawan? Is this truth to this or is it just plain hearsay and made up story?

We never know but we are publishing this so that people may know and government can take action if indeed there is corruption. People need help in times of disaster and also people who works needs to be compensated properly so that they can do their job.