Just over a week ago, super typhoon Odette (with an international name “Rai”) made its landfall in the Philippines. Escorted by howling winds, coastal floods and tidal surges, it mostly struck the Visayas and Mindanao Islands, leaving thousands of families homeless, hungry and very much stripped of hope. These devastating conditions have even seemed to have challenged both the social and economic progressive works made since recovering from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic which is being suffered by every citizens of the world.

Heedful of the situation, the management and employees of the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), spearheaded by OIC Paul Y. Chua, voluntarily contributed what little they could to help out these less fortunate fellow Filipinos. Several boxes of bottled water, rice, canned goods, convenience foods like instant noodles, toiletries and basic hygiene products, towels and other pre-loved items such as clothes were collected. These were then delivered and turned over by the members of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team to the Department of Transportation (DoTr) Clark Office and were received by Undersecretary for Administrative Service Artemio U. Tuazon Jr. on December 23, 2021.   

Interestingly, this was accomplished by hurtling the Christmas traffic rush and intermittent rain showers, proving once more that Filipinos are resilient, always seeing a silver lining in every situations and indifferent to any circumstances just so to lend out a helping hand.

Together, let us all heat up the spirit of Christmas by supporting and looking out for each other, and by being there in times of need and adversity. And together, let us all hope to bring cheerful smiles again to the faces of those who had it hard.