Faith and hope among the common folk

In the bible-sharing we had right after the earthquake, the mothers connected their reflections to the gospel reading to their earthquake experiences. Most of them narrated their display of not only of maternal instinct—their immediate search for the children or gathering all of them in their arms—but also of faith, calling for God’s protection. Carolina, in spite of calls for her to get out of the building, sought to bring out the children rather than get out on her own. This was difficult since the children were drilled in school to duck under sturdy furniture chose to do this rather than run out.

Two of our buildings the multipurpose building and the training center both in Alumnos, Mambaling suffered damage. Right away Emily called Jack, the building’s architect to help her assess the damage and make plans for the repair. She sought ways by which to get in touch with Sr. Vincent who was in Japan at the time to report on the situation. She also reported to the main Alay Kapwa office in Manila regarding the damages. As a result of this very quick responsible behavior, many came to help or volunteered their services to assist. By God’s grace, Emily has shown in this challenging time that she had become a very dependable leader.

I was relieved that the Alay Kapwa members, in spite of our fears of being inside concrete structures came to watch Alagwa. The film was very informative; it was helpful for those with children, grandchildren and those with young ones in their charge. Since many of them lived near the pier area, it was important that they be informed of an aspect of the shady activities occurring in our ports—trafficking of both children and adults for prostitution and organ-transplants.

Alagwa was a beautiful and moving film. It successfully revealed the horrible experiences to which children can be exposed in the hands of manipulative, exploitative adults. It was fast-paced. Because of the humanity that showed through it, most of us could not help but shed tears with its surprise ending. So we are very grateful to the International Justice Mission, the Cebu City Inter Agency Council Against Trafficking, and the Local Council Against Trafficking of Mandaue City for providing us with the opportunity to be with other anti-trafficking advocates in that very creative awareness-raising experience.

The entire family was involved in the recent barangay elections because two members of the household were very much a part of the process. The father of our home helper and our driver run for the barangay council in a community in the interior of Aloguinsan. Actually, Richard is not only our driver; he is our jack-of-all-trades. He is also runner-messenger-courier, repair person and ice-cream maker! Naturally, we were eager to help him in this political venture. He was given the chance to be in the locality during the campaign period. The nieces helped him prepare simple leaflets. We also believed that he deserved to be elected because we knew that he had always been ready to be of service in his community even when he had no plans to run for a seat in its barangay council. This was actually an extension of his being a responsive member of his family and our household. So we very eagerly awaited the results which did not take long since this was from a small community with few voters. Richard got the kagawad seat, he placed last, the only one from his team to win.

Out there, vote buying also took place, but Richard refused to do this. He was later told that if he had engaged in vote buying he would have had a higher rank in the winners roster. He had been invited to be a part of the stronger more established group, but he remained committed to his group of political neophytes. He refused to engage in name-calling or tit-for-tat behavior. He did not believe that he had to spew vitriolic language against opponents or engage in other negative traditional political behavior. He did not want to give rise to bad feelings within the community just to win.

Before he left to campaign, my sister assured him of help for the community whether he would win or lose. After his election, another sister also expressed her willingness, together with her organization to assist Richard’s community. Knowing this, he readily revealed what he observed to be a very important need of his community: classrooms. Because of limited rooms, grade one and grade two pupils have to take turns using one room. In fact, one pupil walked off when they were released from class, endangering herself; because of this not so child-friendly arrangement. I found such political maturity truly humbling and inspiring.

After the anxieties over the Zamboanga conflict, the continuing apprehensions over the earthquake, the disappointments over displays of political immaturity in the barangay elections, Christmas in October with Libera was such a soothing, heart-warming experience. I readily accepted their invitation to “Have a merry little Christmas; Let your hearts be light.”

The entire concert with the very disciplined, soulful and spirited singing (when they sang “Joy to the World” joy actually leapt from them to the audience) of the young boys, the lights, the setting, the entire production was totally uplifting and enchanting. Coming to a close with Bayan Ko, Sr. Vincent and I became intensely recharged. She said: let us let our bible-sharing group learn this song, preferably with a Cebuano translation. So we are very grateful to the benefactors who helped us to be there as well as the Arts Council Foundation for making that ceiling experience a reality.