This update is written in diary form, for obvious reasons....

December 21. We will launch Kalinga Luzon, a massive multi-sectoral rehabilitation effort for affected towns and provinces in Luzon. The event will be televised live in BASECO where a fire gutted 2,500 homes only 11 months ago. BASECO today hosts 500 new colorful homes in decent communities through an ongoing reconstruction effort of Gawad Kalinga and several of its major partners. The Kalinga Luzon launch will facilitate direct appeals from mayors of Quezon, Nueva Ecija, Aurora and Mindoro Oriental.

The main purpose of the Kalinga Luzon launch, however, is to present the program for reconstruction and to invite Filipinos to join a heroic effort to rebuild lives and communities. The key message is one of hope from the midst of despair - inside BASECO where desolation is being converted to transformation. BASECO is a promised land that is becoming a reality day by day, home by home, community by community in one continuous bayanihan effort

December 26. Kalinga Luzon was launched this morning in "historic" Baseco which is the most powerful expression of the massive physical transformation that GK can be capable of. In ten months, GK is has turned over, and in the final stages of finishing, 540 houses to residents who are tasting life inside decent homes for the first time in their lives! A huge fire gutted 2,500 shanties last January 2004 and GK, after being asked by national government to help, began building houses a month later, on February 25, 2004. Funds for 200 more houses are on standby, waiting for the City of Manila to turn over more areas to GK.

Mayors and other representatives of typhoon-affected towns in Luzon attended the launch of Kalinga Luzon which will give priority to 12 towns initially. But more than to be able to air appeals for help through major media outlets which covered the affair, the mayors were able to see for themselves the kind of communities that can rise in their respective damaged areas. Baseco is a a particularly suitable place for the Kalinga Luzon launch because scenes of temporary shelter still litter the surroundings as the reconstruction of the area is just approaching 30%. Following this will be pictures of these temporary shelter and the contrasting GK houses that have been, and still being, built.

Sec. Dinky Soliman of DSWD gave the latest count of destroyed homes - 43,000! It had been increasing steadily, from 25,000 3 weeks ago to 37,000 last week to 43,000 as of today. Of course, the numbers do not daunt GK as 700,000 homes are an original goal of GK777. The disasters have helped GK establish priority areas, although there will be no let-up on the expansion GK work all over the country.

DSWD remains the biggest partner of GK in Kalinga Luzon (P300 million minimum), followed by the Philippine Red Cross (3,500 houses) and ABS-CBN (P80 million in cash and kind) which has been receiving donations for Kalinga Luzon. Smart Communications (200 houses) and Ateneo University (127 houses) have adopted Gen. Nakar (Aurora Province) and Gabaldon (Nueva Ecija) respectively, which means they will lead the Kalinga Luzon reconstruction effort in those towns. Philippine Red Cross, under the new leadership of Dick Gordon, is giving priority to Mindoro Oriental, while ABS-CBN has pinpointed Infanta as their target area.

McDonalds had come in earlier, donating since two weeks ago P250,000 for Gabaldon and has placed on all McDo counters a collection box for Kalinga Luzon. Union Bank responded quickly as well and gave P5 million to Gawad Kalinga for Kalinga Luzon. The first to have shown generosity, however, was Cito Lorenzo of the Lapanday & Del Monte groups who gave P5 million from his personal funds to jump start private sector contributions. Cito Lorenzo, chairman of Land Bank and Quedancor, is a national adviser of GK.

The program was emceed by GK advocates Amado Bagatsing and Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski. Special visitors included Tony and Annette del Rosario (ASEAN GK) who flew in from Indonesia to spend Christmas with their clans here in Metro Manila, and Aurora Pijuan who came complete with her family (including a baby grandson).



December 29. Strategic Gawad Kalinga teams will meet in Roxas, Oriental Mindoro, and neighboring towns which sustained massive damage caused by a powerful tornado. These towns, simultaneously with their counterparts in Nueva Ecija, will host the initial reconstruction efforts of Kalinga Luzon because relocation sites are already being made available by their respective LGUs and generous land donors. A program of work for several areas will be decided during the working meeting.

2005 will begin with different GK teams being fielded to their respective areas of responsibility. Immediately after New Year, Kalinga Luzon will go on high gear - continuous relief in some areas which remain substantially isolated or unable to fend for themselves and initial reconstruction work for those areas where community rebuilding is already possible. We anticipate that President Arroyo will personally launch on January 3 the government initiative for Kalinga Luzon in one of the affected towns in Quezon.

Different, but Christmas still. It is a rare privilege to be given an opportunity to bring the Christmas spirit to those who need it the most. Last year, it was in Southern Leyte and then BASECO in January of 2004 that tragedy disturbed the festivities of the Christmas season. Gawad Kalinga was there to respond to the plight of poor communities who sustained death and destruction from the landslides and the fire. Today, Gawad Kalinga responds with the same fervor to different afflicted communities in Luzon.

It is Christmas, differently celebrated but the same spirit still.

Merry Christmas!

January 7, 2005 A series of meetings had been conducted with concerned LGUs in Mindoro Oriental which prepared them for Kalinga Luzon engagement. The town mayors of Roxas, Mansalay, Bongabong, and Bulalacao plus Congressman Umali of the 2nd District and the town mayors of najuan and Calapan plus Congressman Valencia of the 1st District have been very cooperative, making the work of Gawad Kalinga much easier for its Mindoro Oriental caretaker teams.

Kalinga Luzon was formally launched today, January 7, 2005, with Vice-President Noli de Castro and DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman leading a host of VIPs from government. Noli brought all the heads of shelter agencies reporting to him. GK and ABS-CBN represented the private sector component of Kalinga Luzon. Also present was the head of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC), an organization that has pledged 250 houses with a commitment to raise more along the way.

The launch was held in the town of Roxas because it absorbed the most damage in terms of lives and property. Also, Roxas is a critical leg in the Nautical Highway that connects the whole Philippines by car and RORO boats (Roll On, Roll Off). From Manila, one can go to Batangas, load his car in a RORO, and then land in Calapan, Mindoro Oriental. From Calapan, he can drive his care to Roxas (about 2 ½ hours away), then take another RORO towards Boracay.

Kalinga Luzon is targeting not less than 6,000 houses in Mindoro Oriental, and the first ones will be finished by end March 2005. The possibility of success in Mindoro Oriental is quite high due to the strong support of LGUs, the generosity of landowners who have donated enough land for relocation sites, and the passion of CFC members to volunteer for Gawad Kalinga service.

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