Mindoro Oriental
Christmas is a spirit and a season. It is the only way that GK can understand Christmas, and we must honor our families who have been asked to sacrifice their traditional expectations in favor of a work that cannot wait.
December 26 found us at BASECO to launch Kalinga Luzon, which then triggered a series of other related events which now define the way we celebrate the Christmas and new Year Season. Last December 28, we left Manila at four in the morning to catch the six am fast craft trip to Mindoro (only 45 minutes under normal sea conditions). We made it to the pier on time, but not early enough to board! That gave us another two hours to 1) doze off while waiting for the boat to return, and 2) wonder about how we keep Filipino time.
But if the start seemed a bit shaky, the rest of the three-day visit brought only blessing after blessing, affirmation after affirmation. Truly, GK is not the work of humans alone.
December 28 & 29 were spent moving from one place to another, two towns on the 28th and several more on the 29th (because we had more time) plus a GK forum and workshop with mayors, congressmen, DSWD, and CFC of the province. Yesterday, the 30th, we had breakfast with the congressman of the 1st district, a site visit to a new GK site in Calapan, and an early lunch in his house where we met several other mayors.
We left for Manila at two pm, visited a CFC couple in Batangas who were celebrating their wedding anniversary, and finally hit home about seven pm.
Mindoro Oriental, specifically the towns of Roxas, Bongabong, Mansalay and Bulalacao in the 2nd district, suffered a major tornado that destroyed more than 6,000 homes of the poor, including villages of native Mangyans. Mindoro Oriental was the first victim of four typhoons that visited the Philippine last November, but attention on its plight was quickly lost when the succeeding typhoons ravaged Quezon, Aurora and Nueva Ecija. Thankfully, Tony Meloto had already decided to intervene in Mindoro even before the next three typhoons and GK was already preparing its teams on the ground.
The CFC community in Mindoro Oriental is not a large one, composed of only about 15 active chapters. The mission of building thousands of homes is a daunting one to a largely inexperienced and undermanned CFC community, but the spirit of those who have committed themselves to the work is inspiring not only visitors from GK National but local government units as well. GK Batangas and GK Metro Manila will be helping GK Mindoro in the initial stages of the work, including caretakers and beneficiaries from GK Baseco.
On January 7, Vice-President Noli de Castro is scheduled to visit two or three of the affected towns and GK is taking advantage of the occasion to groundbreak and start to build the first houses in those towns. VP de Castro is from Mindoro Oriental and we are hoping he will throw his strong support in the reconstruction work of GK there. Before Christmas, he asked the employees of HUDCC (the umbrella of shelter agencies of government) and attached agencies to forego their Yuletide celebrations in their offices and instead donate their respective budgets to Kalinga Luzon. The response was unanimous and a check of more than P3 million was turned over to GK.
To prepare for their opening salvo in Mindoro oriental, the new GK teams there will be taking crash courses in GK sites located in the Batangas area. It is the best place where they can learn because Batangas is the most aggressive of all Luzon provinces as far as GK is concerned, with already about 20 GK villages so far. In Batangas, the Mindoro GK teams can see communities which have just been started and others which have been there for more than two years - and witness the transformation, physical, social and moral, that takes place at different stages of GK development.
Also, the veterans (after only ten months) of GK Baseco will be in Mindoro days before the Jan. 7 affair to share their knowledge and experiences. Mindoro is one of a few provinces which were shocked by calamities before being steeped in GK work. Now, they are forced to as local CFCers belong to communities or families which were affected by the typhoons.
January 3, 2005 - GK troops to Infanta and joins the government's launch of Kalinga Luzon with Pres. Arroyo as special guest. Actually, GK is already on the ground in Infanta. relief work is still ongoing, and reconstruction work cannot begin yet, and maybe not in the next two or three months unless the weather becomes very cooperative. A lot of planning (geological, basically) has to be done, new sites chosen according to their safety factor, etc.
January 7, 2005 - GK will begin building in two or three towns in Mindoro Oriental.
January 8, 2005 - GK with Ateneo builds in Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija and in Dingalan, Aurora