By Dhel Nazario
In this time where residents are clamoring to get any form of assistance, a tricycle driver in Pasay City refused a cash aid worth P8,000, after he learned that his wife in the province has already received one.
(Photo via Dhel Nazario / MANILA BULLETIN)
Danilo Rojas, known to his friends as Danny, 44, is a member of Topas Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association (TODA) plying the area of Pasay’s Topas Street and its vicinity.
He is also part of the Pasay Volunteer Fire Brigade, and was listed as a beneficiary of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) Cash Assistance after losing his job due to the suspension of public transport.
On the day he and several other listed as SAP beneficiaries were to receive the funds, Rojas refused to accept the aid offered to him by the Pasay Social Welfare and Development Department (PSWDD) when he learned that his wife Anna, who lives in the town of General Tinio in Nueva Ecija province together with their two children, had already received on April 26 a SAP cash aid amounting to P6,500, based on the monthly wage rate there.
Danny even showed to PSWDD some photos from the SAP aid distribution in his town.
“Marami pa sa mga kababayan natin ang mas nangangailangan kaya kusa kong ibinalik agad. Isang maliit na pamamaraan para makatulong na rin ako sa iba,” he said.
(Many others are in greater need of this aid than I am. This is my modest way to help them.)
Danny thanked the President and Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano for their efforts to provide financial assistance to people who have been displaced from their jobs because of the crisis.
“This noble deed of Mr. Danny Rojas is indeed an inspiration, an uplifting account about a simple man with a pure heart who, despite being affected by the crisis himself, still thought of the situation of other people who are much affected than he is. Mr. Danny Rojas is indeed a gem of a Pasayeno," the mayor said.