A New Year's Message
Fellow GK Workers and Advocates,
I know in my heart that GK777, even as the first stage of a journey to national recovery, can already help many poor CFC members whom we should not discriminate against when given the chance to choose beneficiaries. It is just important that we do not do GK with the intent of putting poor CFC members ahead of eveybody because we do not use just CFC funds to help us do the work.
The Kalinga Luzon target is 40,000 houses in two years. I believe that there is money for half of that already in government's hands and GK, by rallying the private sector, will try to raise the other half. We have help from Phil. National Red Cross who said it will give 3,500 houses, and Manuel V. Pangilinan of PLDT/SMART will lead a drive for corporations to provide the balance. He is also the chairman of PBSP (Philippine Business for Social Progress) which is an umbrella group for the top 500 corporations when it comes to social responsibility projects. Unfortunately, PBSP's funds have been dwindling because many of its member corporations have initiated their own moves to help charitable organizations or corporate responsibility programs.
Kalinga Luzon's targets do not exempt our non-typhoon affected areas from their targets for the 2nd year of GK777, but Kalinga Luzon definitely will be a powerful booster in many ways, and not only numerically. Kalinga Luzon is a confirmation that GK works, and that GK is the ONLY mechabism for community reconstruction after a disaster situation. That confirmation has many subliminal messages, not the least of which is the fact that GK is credible, reputable, proficient in its role, acceptable to government and the private sector, and inspiring enough for corporations and big businessmen to support and advocate it. The presence of Ateneo and the impending participation of other universities, the partcipation of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC), the participation of more Catholic bishops and parish priests, and the strong trend of mayors and governors asking for GK all point to the fact that GK's success is not just the fruit of the labor of its workers but because it has an Unseen Helping Hand.
The numerical targets of GK777 are not anymore being discussed. Those who work for GK have already accepted that and plan only to do their part. And because the big guns of Philippine society are beginning to see and accept the claim of GK as a nation-building mechanism, they will lemd their resources to make GK work. Personalities like Cito Lorenzo and Manny Pangilinan are not fazed when they are asked to raise billions, so why should we be when we do GK777? After all, each one has a role, and no single person has the whole responsibility.
As I write, leaders of different sugar planters assosiations are meeting with Cito Lorenzo, and among them is Congressman Iggy Arroyo who said he was Jose Pidal. Cito has asked them to raise the quality of life of poor sugar workers, and has made that a condition before he will personally help them (they are asking him to raise 12 billion for set up a sugar trading firm to be managed by sugar producers themselves). They have made a commitment to provide a minimum of1,600 houses for Negros Occ. annually, but he is telling them that the figure is too low. The Unseen Helping Hand is using many people to build up His chosen work for the poor in the Philippines, and He will not be denied.
In the front cover of The Wall Street Journal is GK's Dylan Wilk. The world will not be kept ignorant about GK, even and especially when it is time for reconstruction in tsunami-hit areas. The GK formula has worked, is working, and will be used as a guide, here and abroad. I have seen it happen here, that GK is moving so fast and it has not waited for the reluctant or skeptical ones to first come in before expanding its influence. To a great extent still, GK is dependent on CFC volunteers. I hope CFC will always be the one who will be the nurturer of GK, but if the work is important enough to the Unseen Helping Hand, many others will also be given the task and the joy of fulfilling a divine mandate.
On Wednesday (Jan. 12), I will be in the Union Theological Seminary to give a two-hour lecture/open forum on Gawad Kalinga and its community organizing design in the context of Christianity. The audience will be comprised mostly of seminarians and pastors from the United Church of Chruch (Philippines). One of its leaders was part of a group we toured in Payatas and was so inspired by it that the seminary considers it very important for their students and future pastors to know how to do GK themselves when the time comes.
Much is left to be done. I share with you and others the trendsetting developments of GK - which represent the head and not yet the body of the work. I am confident, though, that the culture of obedience, not only of CFC, but of Filipinos themselves, will be stimulated by a noble and working example that their hearts have been searching for - and ensure that the body follows the lead of the head. GK is here not only for CFC but for all Filipinos here and abroad, not only for the poor but the rich and poweful as well who hold the wealth and authority of a nation, and perhaps not only for one people and nation but the whole world to learn from, to be inspired by.
God bless.
Boy Montelibano