Just like Monday quarterbacking, both the smart and the stupid have some solutions and opinions about the result of the previous day. Come Tuesday, the common human malady sets in. All is almost forgotten.
Like the many ball games lost in the past, the many typhoons and other natural disasters that visited the Philippines had elicited. Some saw Ondoy and Pepeng and read the wrath of God dawning on the sinful Filipinos. Act of God, they say. Some say if God is just, the thousand who perished should have been the greedy oligarchs and their allies, the thieving politicians.
Fatalism and forgetfulness are a toxic mix for the Philippines. The folk Christianity that Filipinos embraced and the refusal to learn from the past threatens the Philippines to the dung heap of history. Thankfully, we have reasons to believe that there is hope for the Filipinos. For that there is a genuine reason to be grateful in the seemingly ironic season of thanksgiving.
CNN Hero
One reason, is Efren Penaflorida—the young teacher who went out of his way in his “mobile schoolhouse” to reach out to the marginalized young scavengers who eke out a living in the dumpsites of Metro Manila. Education gives knowledge but its true power comes from life lessons which teach us wisdom. Love the poor and you embrace the goodness of God.
Efren who is a nominee for the “CNN Hero of the Year” has given us an education that taught us not to give up on the Filipinos. Aside from the honor he brought to our people, a cash prize awaits the winner of this CNN annual event and this hero has already some noble ideas on how it can be shared to those who do not have much in life. Make it a reality and cast your vote for this young Pinoy. (See related page 9)
CfC-Gawad Kalinga
When darkness sets in like when Ondoy blew into Luzon on Sept. 26, do you curse it amidst the death and destruction it brought especially to the vulnerable inhabitants of shanties along the clogged esteros and under the bridges of Manila? If you did amidst the scenes of these tragic events, it is understandable.
But many did not bother to curse the slowness and confusion of the officials they elected to lead. Instead, they took the lead to save lives. The Gawad Kalinga with its hundred volunteers distributed 50,000 packages of food and clothing in a span of 10 hours right after Ondoy blew out of the affected areas. Hundred thousands more benefitted from members of the Couples for Christ and members of the civil society who had chosen to channel their time, effort and material resources to the GK which has proven it to be trustworthy during these hard times.
Heart-warming stories like poor recipients of homes sharing the relief goods to others because they already receive homes and others who did not should at least get some relief. Even their children had learned how to share. The kids parting away with the dry clothings, donating them back to the children who wound up in evacuation centers.
These are powerful stories that give testimony to the work of countless volunteers who did not only built homes for the poor but stayed with them and imparted Christian values. The beneficiaries shed their predatory instinct and embraced the sense of community—of that living for and with each other.
ANCOP & GK Foundations
The Couples for Christ International Council in Manila had decided early this year to let Gawad Kalinga to reach out to the bigger community—well beyond the confines of the CfC. But the CfC remains its most staunch advocate through its ANCOP (Answering the Poor) Foundation. CfC executive director Dr. Joe Yamamoto took a side trip from his International Convention of Surgeons at McCormick Place to meet with some members of the CfC and GK volunteers last Oct. 13 to clarify that the CfC is not abandoning the “Church of the Poor” by spinning out the work of the GK.
It was made clear in the gathering that CfC will take care of the numerous villages it has built and is committed to build more. But other groups and individuals from the civil and religious society may champion the cause of the poor through their work with GK without being constrained administratively by the CfC council which has its hands full with its other missions. The GK Foundation was created separately to accommodate this additional task. Together with ANCOP, building houses for the poor is made easier. This indeed is a welcome development.
Dr. Yamamoto is one Filipino who devoted his medical practice to helping others. He played a major role in the Gawad Kalusugan which was started by the GK partners from the UST Medical Association of America. Drs. Oni and Zita Yorro of Lake Forest, Dr.and Mrs. Charlie Capati and Dr. and Mrs. Primo Andres of Ohio, like Dr. Yamamoto, are UST alumni who are tasked to help their alma mater to celebrate its 400the year foundation in 2011 by building 400 GK communities.
GK executive director Luis Oquinena and GK advocate Issa Santos were also in town Oct 17 and 18 to thank the donors in the Chicago area who contributed no fewer than $10,000 plus boxes of relief goods to the GK fundraising drive for the flood victims. In the recent flooding, they told donors and volunteers here that while many shanties were washed away by the surging waters, the GK homes remain standing—a living monument to what a caring community do to save lives and reminder to all of us that more houses are needed to be built to bring hope and dignity to people who would in turn will comprise a strong and health community.
Visionary Advocate
Again, just when we are ready to put the paper to bed, a call from a fellow alumnus from the UST College of Architecture tipped me off that internationally renowned architect; Felino Palafox, Jr. is in Chicago from Oct. 20-25 to attend a conference of tall building designers and urban planners at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Retired architect Celso Aurelio was with me when I picked up Jun Palafox and his wife Wilma from their hotel.
Jun Palafox talked about the conference and his international projects all the way to Little Quiapo where he did not stop sharing his struggle with corrupt Philippine officials who cared more about their bribes than getting his vision of well-planned communities implemented back home. Over plate of calamari and kari-kari, he sketched his 1977 plan of Laguna de Bay prepared then for Metro Manila Gov. Imelda R. Marcos to prevent the recurrence of the great floods of the early 1970s.
On our way to O’Hare, Jun also told us about his sharing with Mayor Richard Daley during one of the IIT forums that Daniel Burnham’s plan of Manila predated that of Chicago by five years, and that Chicago adopted Burnham’s concepts but after World War II, the US left the Philippines and Burnham’s vision of a well-planned Manila deteriorated into chaotic miss-mashed of developments. The disasters which are getting worse could very well been averted if only…
“And people back home dismissed these disasters as ‘acts of God’ when the truth it is our lack of will to do the right thing,” said Jun Palafox who is a Divine Word ex-seminarian. Because of space constraints, I will leave the rest of the Palafox interview for our next issue.
We have indeed many things to be thankful for—Pinoys like Jun Palafox, Issa Santos, Luis Oquinena, the UST medical alumni. Joe Yamamoto, Efren Penaflorida and the countless volunteers and donors who opened their hearts and wallets that brought not only the much needed relief but most of all the hope their gifts had brought to them. God is good.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!•
