Saturday, July 11, 2015

AXA ka pa? Samboy Lim and the irreverence of an AXA agent

Many of my close friends were enraged when they read a Facebook post by an AXA Philippines agent about Samboy Lim's condition. Lim, a PBA legend, lies in coma at the Medical City after suffering a cardiac arrest. Some of his friends volunteered to do a fund-raiser to support his medical needs. It was this fund-raiser that this AXA agent used in pitching her insurance firm before thousands of Facebook users.

Lim's ex-wife, Atty. Darlene Berberabe, who still stands as counsel of Samboy (she has an 18-year old daughter with the famous cager), decided not to file a legal case against AXA. She just asked a public apology, and AXA to allocate 1 million pesos to train their AXA agents in ethics and another 1 million to promote CPR training nationwide.

AXA Philippines issued a public apology but on the last two conditions, the insurance firm just kept silent. Why? Is it bad for an insurance firm to do something for the country? I mean, what's so hard with asking the Philippine National Red Cross to train an army of willing Filipinos of CPR?

By the way, for those asking why the Lim's family decided on asking AXA Philippines to just initiate a campaign of CPR training, the reason was that Lim's family believed that the cager would have not suffered a coma had someone near him in that basketball game knew CPR. Lim lost about 20 minutes worth of oxygen. That explains why when he was wheeled in, doctors found it difficult to revive Lim's heart. Fortunately, they eventually did. Yet the lack of oxygen really affected Lim.

Samboy Lim is not just a PBA superstar--he is a hero. He served the country as a national player in several basketball teams that brought honor to the Philippines. He is well-loved by my generation. He brought several exciting memorable moments to us at the heyday of the PBA two decades or so back.

Maybe this AXA agent does not know him. Maybe she was too young to know the contributions of Samboy "The Skywalker" Lim not just to basketball but to the history of this country. But that is not a reason enough for her and her insurance firm to malign his illustrious name.

It is this insensitivity that convinces dads like me not to trust insurance firms like this. I mean, would you entrust your money to an insurance firm that does not care about their fellowmen? AXA ka pa.

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