At the time the SM group started building a mall in Cagayan de Oro City, not a few eyebrows were raised at the company’s choice of location.

Although situated close to the airport, the SM mall in CDO was located on a higher elevation, far from the traditional city center. (“Who’d want to venture so far away from town to shop in SM?” was the often heard question.)

Well, its location turned out to be a blessing when Sendong hit the city last weekend.

Unaffected by the massive flooding, the mall ended up giving shelter to some families (even as commercial operations continued), while the SM group has so far donated some P10 million (an increase of P2 million from Tuesday) to the relief effort, both in the form of cash and goods.

It has also given out more than 10,000 bottles of purified water to various evacuation centers around the city.

Many of the recipients of relief goods and various forms of assistance, in fact, were SM employees themselves, many of whom barely escaped the rampaging flood waters that swept away their homes.—Daxim L. Lucas