Photo: rmaf.org.ph

Rosa Rosal born Florence Danon on October 16,1931, is a FAMAS award-winning Filipino Film actress and believed to be the "original femme fatale of Philippine cinema". Her screen name Rosa Rosal was taken from the Tagalog words for rose and gardenia. She made countless contributions to the film industry but her most notable work is with the Philippine National red Cross (PNRC).

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, Rosa worked as a newsreader in a Japanese-run radio station. When the war ended she worked part-time at the San Lazaro Hospital where she was exposed to the painful realities of life. It was also during this time when she was spotted by a film producer and was offered a film contract. Rosa showed her exceptional talent as an actress in the film Kamagong and soon the offers kept pouring in.

In 1949, at the peak of her career as the Philippine movie queen, she visited the Philippine General Hospital's emergency room. She saw a comatose child who was profusely bleeding internally from a fall. She got in touch with a neurosurgeon and facilitated the procurement of blood from the PNRC. She stayed during the transfusion, holding the child's hand. Before the transfusion was completed the child woke up, calling out "Inay! (Mother)". Rosal said she knew right there that she was hooked.

In July 1950, working as a volunteer, she organized a blood letting at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa. Countless blood drives subsequently followed involving the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Citizens Military Training cadets, the Youth Civic Action Program and the American military personnel at Clark Field, Pampanga (“Operations Blood Brother” lasted 14 years) to name a few.

Rosa Rosal raised millions of pesos for the Red Cross through her collaboration with key political figures and brought home thousands of dollars from her speaking engagements abroad. She used these funds to buy Red Cross equipments and for livelihood and scholarship programs.

IN 1999, she received $50,000 as the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation Awardee for Public Service. She placed the money in a trust fund for poor students at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. The scholarship fund in her name has sent about 100 kids to school.

        Photo : workspresso.com

Education is something that Rosa values. At the height of her career at 16, she was able to manage to go to night classes at the Cosmopolitan College and eventually graduated with a Degree in Commerce. In April 2007 at the PICC along with the graduating students and faculty of Far Eastern University, she was conferred the degree of Doctor of Humanities honoris causa.

Rosa Rosal is known to be a very effective fund raiser. In one of her interviews she said, “I’m a persistent person. It is easy for me to beg because my name carries integrity with it. Whatever is given does not go to my pocket but to where it belongs. God gives me a vision, and I make it into a mission. I do not stop regardless of the cost.”

Rosa Rosal has been a volunteer at the National Red Cross for over 50 years. She is currently the Blood Program Committee chair and governor of the PNRC and still travels on out-of-town missions with doctors, nurses and volunteers.

Rosal has also hosted two public-service television programs, Damayan and Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko, which solicit financial and medical aid for indigent medical patients.

In 2006, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo bestowed on Rosal the Order of the Golden Heart with the rank of Grand Cross for a lifetime in public service and for her work with the Red Cross.

“Being on good terms with all the Presidents of the country is an achievement in itself. The Lord can take me home anytime. I am fulfilled as an actress and a social worker. I have been able to contribute to the welfare of our people despite the poverty, graft and corruption.” (Rosa Rosal)

References:

http://www.newsflash.org/2004/02/sb/sb003602.htm

http://www.workspresso.com/20070601%20edition/archives/mar16-31/current/features_current/feature3.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Rosal

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