Palace hopes CNN hero will accept PCUP post

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang is hopeful that CNN Hero of the Year  Efren Peñaflorida will accept President Duterte’s offer for him to join the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP), calling him “a good choice.” 

Duterte is looking for a new PCUP chair after firing Terry Ridon over alleged unnecessary travels last week. He also axed the four commissioners of the urban poor body for supposedly failing to meet as a collegial body. Ridon has denied any wrongdoing and maintained that his foreign trips were sanctioned by Malacañang.

Last Friday, the President said he was considering appointing Peñaflorida and schoolteacher and Ramon Magsaysay awardee Randy Halasan to the PCUP. 

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said he was not aware if Peñaflorida has accepted Duterte’s offer. 

“I do not know if he already said ‘yes.’ But Efren Peñaflorida is a symbol of a poor person who has risen from his status of being poor. When he became prosperous, he helped the poor and he did not stop so he became a CNN awardee,” Andanar told radio station dzMM yesterday.

“So I think he is really a good choice and we hope that he accepts the offer of the President,” he added. 

Andanar also said Peñaflorida can be an inspiration as he proved that poverty is not a hindrance to progress.

Peñaflorida and his friends Rezcel Fajardo and Jefferson Bernal founded the Dynamic Teen Co. in 1997 to help children who lack access to education and basic hygiene.

The group taught out-of-school youth reading and writing lessons through its kariton (pushcart) classrooms to keep them away from vices. 

The outreach program earned Peñaflorida the CNN Hero of the Year award in 2009.  

Halasan, who was also offered a post in PCUP, won the Ramon Magsaysay award in 2014 for providing quality education to students from the indigenous Matigsalug tribe in Davao City.