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Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Rosa Rosal: A woman for others

April 4, 2012

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[I would like to share with you this story  I wrote, which remains relevant to this day. Here is one individual who truly deserved the Ramon Magsaysay Award for public service. She is a Filipina ahead of her time and one I truly admire. Ms. Rosal turns 81 this year.]

 

Philippine domestic helper Marivic Parrenas was jailed in Saudi Arabia.

Her family told actress-turned-Red-Cross-volunteer Rosa Rosal that the pregnant Parrenas was raped by a friend of her employer. Rosal tried to get the young woman freed. “I was passed like a ping-pong ball from one [Philippine] government official to another,” she recalls. “Impossible, they all told me.” Until Fidel Ramos, then the country’s president, asked Rosal to come to the presidential palace so he could donate blood, something he has done every year on his birthday since 1953. In the 10 minutes it took to get a pint of his type “A” blood, Rosal had told him the sorry tale. “I bled him on a Tuesday,” she says. “On Thursday, Marivic was on a plane and by Friday she was back in Manila.”

Ramos describes Rosal as “very caring. If she whispers anything to me, it is to request something for someone else.”

So it is fitting that Rosal, 67, is being honored this year (1999) with the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service.

A woman who puts the needs of others before hers

“The board of trustees recognizes her lifetime of unstinting voluntary service, inspiring Filipinos to put the needs of others before their own,” reads her citation. Rosal has not only persuaded generations of Filipinos to donate blood and fund Red Cross centers and laboratories. She has also helped battered women, abandoned children, ill people and poor students get on with their lives.

Born Florence Lansang Danon, Rosal became a movie star at 16. She happened to walk by a film shoot and caught the eye of the producer, who cast her as the vampish other woman in another film because of her sultry looks – Rosal’s father is French-Egyptian while her mother is Filipino. Her screen name is the Filipino word for the rose (Rosa) and gardenia (Rosal). The new star’s cleavage and 22-inch waist caught the public’s imagination. “I became very controversial,” Rosal laughs. In hot weather, she would wear tight sweaters. When everyone else was cold, she would sashay in an off-the-shoulder gown.

Rosal won a local best actress award in 1955. She played a peasant in Poverty’s Child (Anak Dalita) and a tribal princess in Badjao, films that were showered with accolades at the Asian Film Festival in 1956 and 1957. She fought for and won the role of a 60-year-old woman in the Philippine film classic Earth’s Bounty (Biyaya ng Lupa) in 1959. By then, she was getting tired of the movies.

It had destroyed her marriage. Her husband, Walter Gayda, an American pilot she met in Hong Kong, did not know she was a star even as they wrote and phoned each other over three months. “I didn’t think it was important,” says Rosal. “If a person loves you, he loves you for what you are.”

Gayda was unnerved when reporters mobbed him upon his arrival in Manila for the wedding. During their honeymoon in Hawaii, Rosal appeared on TV with Philippine boxer Flash Elorde, who had just won a world championship. He presented her with his gloves. “Walter couldn’t take that,” she says. “We quarreled. The next day, he was not there.”  Gayda died in a car accident a decade later. The brief union produced a daughter, Toni Rose.

A woman transforms her own pain 

“When I realized it was over, I took a deep breath and went on with life,” says Rosal. A different life, as it turned out. She started helping the Red Cross’s blood-donation campaigns in 1948. (Rosal first met soldier Ramos in 1953, when he was a member of the Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea, and she was in Seoul with a Red Cross mission.) When sex movies became popular in the Philippines in the 1960s, she spent more and more time on volunteer work.

Rosal pioneered mass blood-donation campaigns and acquired the country’s first equipment to detect the AIDS virus in blood. She also hosted public-service shows on radio and TV. Rosal says she will use her $50,000 prize money to set up the Rosa Rosal Foundation to fund scholarships. She will still solicit contributions for her other projects. Once, she wanted 25,000 pesos ($657) to buy an air-conditioning unit for the babies of a Manila orphanage. A well-known corporation offered her coffee and told her someone would call. “I didn’t believe them,” says Rosal, “so I came back.” And returned again. They stopped serving her coffee. Rosal persisted “until they finally gave me the money.”

She has been equally firm when asked to run for public office: “The Red Cross has to be neutral.” But she is glad that another celebrity, fellow actor Joseph Estrada, took the plunge and is now the country’s president. Estrada donated 3 million pesos ($78,950) in public money to renovate a blood-testing laboratory. Rosal wants more. Only three Asian countries – Bangladesh, India and the Philippines – do not fund the Red Cross in a big way, she says. “Before I die or his term is up, I hope he will allocate 100 million pesos a year for the blood program, so no Filipino will die for lack of blood.” You heard her, Mr. President. When it comes to public service, Rosa Rosal will not take no for an answer.

Tagged With: Philippine National Red Cross, Ramoln Magsaysay Awards, Rosa Rosal

Comments

  1. parengtony says

    April 5, 2012 at 9:10 AM

    off topic comment :

    Kainggit kayo dyan sa Pinas. 5 Days walang pasok (Holy Thursday through Monday)!

    • AUGUST C FERNANDO says

      April 5, 2012 at 9:50 AM

      Uunga, Tony. Sa New York nung panahon ko, kahit Biyernes Santo ay may pasok! But my employer would let me take the day off when I said working on Good Friday is against my Roman Catholic religion. Thank you, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Reynolds! ;)

    • raissa says

      April 5, 2012 at 9:53 AM

      LOL.

    • arlon says

      April 5, 2012 at 2:10 PM

      Yes parengtony I also used to work in Manhattan and most of the lawyers in our firm were Jewish so come Good Friday I always used my floating holiday. But once one is back in P.I., one always yearns to go back to the Big Apple. So, still, lucky you.

  2. elisa javier says

    April 5, 2012 at 7:49 AM

    Ms. Rosa Rosal is a living proof to the truth that God’s greatest gift to mankind is his/her fellow being. Happy Easter everyone.

  3. arlon says

    April 5, 2012 at 6:20 AM

    Ms. Rosa Rosal personifies “volunteerism.” When it was not yet chic and “political” to be seen with the needy ones, she was already doing her part to help them.

    Her name Florence fits her to a t, like her namesake Florence Nightingale.

    And what I really adrmire in her: she didn’t run for any political office, which she could have won handily. She prefered to work quietly.

  4. Rasec says

    April 5, 2012 at 2:01 AM

    Ah, I remember her during my Med. tech intership way back in late 70’s, yes blood donation drive in Bagiou City was fun, she was very optimistic person and Im sure her blood type is B positive. :) very fine lady now is rarity.

  5. Mark Pere Madrona says

    April 5, 2012 at 1:58 AM

    Mam Raissa, excellent profile article of Ms Rosa Rosal! Truly an inspiring woman. As a Red Cross member during my high school days, I can share to all your readers here that what the volunteers are doing is never an easy task. So next time you ride the MRT and see those volunteers asking for your loose change, please be kind enough. :)

    By the way, I hope you don’t mind Ms Raissa if I have mentioned you in my latest humor post about GMA’s birthday. :)

    http://rightonthemark.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/birthday-greetings-for-gloria-macapagal-arroyo-65/

  6. ella tovara says

    April 5, 2012 at 1:38 AM

    Thank you Raissa for this article! You are right. Napapanahon!

    To Rosa Rosal, Happy Happy birthday! May your tribe increase. You just help without expecting anything in return and the Good Lord looks upon you with more blessings!

    Happy Easter Everyone!

  7. tony alabastro says

    April 5, 2012 at 1:12 AM

    Bulaklak na walang kalantahan si Rosa Rosal, isang bituin na laging nangniningning, walang kupas at laging sariwang basahin, gaya ng mga kuwento ni raissa espinosa robles.

  8. Grace Mary A. Tan says

    April 4, 2012 at 11:40 PM

    I see Rosa Rosal on the Ninoy Aquino International Airport when I went home for vacation together with the Ofw that she help to win the case in Kuwait and that makes me happy for what she did.

    • jorgebernas says

      April 5, 2012 at 12:33 PM

      Congrats madam rosa rosal, sanay gawin kang halimbawa nang mga kababayan nating walang magawa bagkus nagpapayaman sa sarili kahit na sa maling paraan. sanay magsilbi kang inspirasyon sa nakararami at Mabuhay ka….God Bless You & More Power To All who help you on your Mission in PNRC….

  9. mieming says

    April 4, 2012 at 9:55 PM

    Here is a Woman… simple and simple…
    Here is a Woman in Red… so bright and clean…
    Here is a Woman with a Cross… a life marked by the crosses of others…

    Rosa Rosal…. so Red with a Cross
    A true Woman… so Red who carries her cross daily
    Yes, Raissa … a great Lenten piece … to remind us of a bloody red cross…
    To remind us that Lent is a celebration of the Man…of the women … of the men…
    who offered their red roses…red blood cells … for others… so others may live.

    May we meet the early morning of Easter with Hope.

  10. Tomas Gomez III says

    April 4, 2012 at 9:44 PM

    I am a great admirer of Rosa Rosal. I believe she studied at Union High School which became Philippine Christian Colleges, later a University. This was the school for many American and Fil-American Children in the late twenties and the thirties. The American movie star—William Holden’s first wife Barbara Marshall studied there. So did Ester Magalona (Stella Tucker), another movie star. Rosa had a brother who also appeared in the movies. Don Danon, was known as an American mestizo. The French-Egyptian parentage may not exactly be all of it. Florence (Rosa) started getting involved with Red Cross blood donations in 1948, the article states. That was when she was 16 which is the same time when she became an actress. In 1953, she was on a Red Cross mission with the PEFTOK in Korea. She was 21.
    This is Philippine Motion Pictures trivia but if she is turning 80 this year, that means she was born in 1932. Might it be possible that she was born somewhat earlier? I am of course relating it to my age. (oops!) But whatever, she is a fantastic social worker so deserving of a nation’s accolades. I join our many cyberfriends in wishing her well and may she continue enjoying the life of serving society ——“a woman for others.”.

    • raissa says

      April 4, 2012 at 10:25 PM

      Thanks.

      I’ve corrected my calculation.

      She turns 81 this October.

      • AUGUST C FERNANDO says

        April 5, 2012 at 9:53 AM

        Ikokorek sana kita, hehehe. Pero sa haba nang panahon sa mata ng publiko ni MS Rosa Rosal tila kako 100 yrs old na sya! Hehehe. Not a knock on her age, pero talagang ANG TAGAL na nya around us.

      • jorgebernas says

        April 5, 2012 at 12:41 PM

        @ Raissa Robles,

        l would like to ask if Our Philippine National Red Cross is supported by our government? I mean did our government give financial assistances to PNRC?

        re

  11. Marissa says

    April 4, 2012 at 9:30 PM

    May Ms. Rosal be blessed more…

  12. pinay710 says

    April 4, 2012 at 8:58 PM

    in the ’50s there are only 2 versatile kontra bida women in the philippine movies. they are MS ROSA ROSAL AND MS BELLA FLORES. MS ROSAL never talk about her charity works. she just kept it to herself. and a very very good actress in her ways. she doesnt let her fans dissappointed when asked for her authograph. i myself experience her being so fun loving actress.

  13. Lamosto says

    April 4, 2012 at 8:35 PM

    if only… if only… if only…

    oh! Cristina… if you only “put the needs of others before your (and Nato’s) own.

    • Wacky Jabber says

      April 5, 2012 at 12:40 AM

      Now THAT is a good Lenten wish (if there is such a thing).

  14. Chavydada says

    April 4, 2012 at 8:32 PM

    She is charitable, sincere, selfless and patriotic.

  15. kardozoo says

    April 4, 2012 at 7:37 PM

    She has been equally firm when asked to run for public office: “The Red Cross has to be neutral.”

    was she ever consulted re: dick gordon’s appointment?
    guess not…

    • fz says

      April 4, 2012 at 9:16 PM

      red cross was politicized by Dick.

    • parengtony says

      April 4, 2012 at 9:25 PM

      Your question is interesting. I would like to add another one: Did Erap ever grant Rosa Rosal’s request for regular government funding for the Red Cross? GMA? Moreover, considering her closeness to Ramos, did she make the same request to him?

      • elisa javier says

        April 5, 2012 at 7:34 AM

        meet her once, if only half of our women populace will emulates her conviction and values if life, Philippines will be second to none. Always remembered my grandmom’s
        word. love, humility and service aside from motherhood should be the basic essence of a Filipina woman. Mixed blood she is, yet, gave herself selflessly to a cause that is so dear to her heart. Ms Rose, maraming salamat po.

        • netty says

          April 8, 2012 at 8:11 AM

          Not wanting to diminish this article about Ms. Rose’s noble causes in the PH history, I just found this link on a different kind of women…. and I like what they are doing and commending their courage/independence to stand up against Sen. Saintiago (who thinks she is the righteous one} stifling their rights and activities.
          Mixed blood, mixed gender, all of them bid respect for loving the country.

          Hope this link is ok :)

          http://www.yengo.com/en/news/txt/?id=274&da_id=100197

Newer Comments »
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist Then they came fof the Trade Unionists, and I did not out speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me— And there was no one left to speak for me. —Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)

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