Disrespect to faith

The controversy surrounding the planned construction of a flyover along Gorordo Avenue continues to rage and even if Cebu City north district Rep. Rachel “Cutie” del Mar is saying that it’s all systems go for the multi-million-peso project, various groups are unrelenting in their opposition. At the end of the dialog last week at the Asilo dela Milagrosa, a top official of the Department of Public Works and Highways announced that construction of the flyover will have to be postponed until February next year to accommodate Cutie’s request to revise the design, her way of reassuring the nuns that the project will “not touch even a centimeter” of the Asilo property.

In the original design, the barrier of the chapel from the main street will be pushed close to the entrance of the chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, something that made the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, owners of the property, quite apprehensive. It’s not just a chapel they worried about, but the historical institution that Cebuanos built before Word War II and reestablished 1954 after it was destroyed in the Japanese invasion.

The beginnings of the Asilo date back to 1934 when a group of Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion Cebu City alumna banded to form an association and establish an institution that would serve the poor, beginning with paralytics and blind persons. The Conferencias de San Vicente de Paul, as it was called during the pre-war period, was able to construct a building in San Jose de la Montaña through the help of the late Archbishop Gabriel Reyes who donated the lot.

The nuns and their wards were left homeless after the Japanese invasion in 1943 but benefactors helped them build a new house after peace was restored. The Asilo compound and the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal was built 11 years later.

Cebuanos still remember that the Asilo used to run a school and tutored more than 40,000 young people from 1946 up to 1989.  Today the educational institution has been removed from its authority but it continues to shelter abandoned children, provide home care, educational, health and nutrition, vocational skills as well as spiritual enhancement, values formation and other psycho-social development assistance to many families and communities in Cebu.  Presently, close to 70 orphans and abandoned children and young adults live under the guidance of the Daughters of Charity.

The mission for the poor is so entwined with the devotion to our Lady of the Miraculous Medal that when one mentions the Asilo, the Virgin’s image inside the beautiful chapel comes to mind. How interesting that the chapel stands in the intersection of two avenues named after bishops who served Cebu, Juan Gorordo and Gabriel Reyes.

If I may digress a bit, Station dyAB deserves commendation for mobilizing all sectors of the community to help flood-stricken victims of Bulacan and parts of Central Luzon. The broadcast-led bayanihan was able to collect cash and relief goods amounting to more than P2.5 million at the close of their two-day drive last week but figures keep increasing because more donations continue to arrive.

The Cebuanos’ solidarity with the poor and needy harks back to the story of those who also came to succour the sick and disadvantaged under the institutional structure of the Asilo before and after the war. This is the DNA of the Cebuanos, a tradition that is so matted to the Catholic faith. Many well respected architects oppose the flyover project on aesthetic grounds, but placing it in a way that blocks the view of this sacred institution amounts to disrespect to faith and tradition.

Heritage may be intangible, meaning we can’t hold it but when there are structures that remind us of the past, they should not only be preserved and protected but also enhanced to inspire future generations.

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By the way, Cutie and her father, former congressman Raul del Mar went to visit the nuns in the Asilo last Thursday to assure them that the chapel and surrounding areas in the religious property will not be touched.  Sr. Leticia Derilo, D.C. told this corner that when Cutie asked her if construction could start after feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal this Nov. 27, the nun told the lawmaker there’s another important feast coming up, the dawn Masses leading to Christmas Day. Cutie, who hears Misa de Gallo or dawn Masses leading to Christmas in the chapel, asked Sr. Letty if construction could begin after the holidays. “Hindi, moratorium muna tayo (No, let’s have a moratorium),” the nun replied.

With construction moved to February, flyover opponents have a four-month window to engage the public on the controversial project even as they continue to look for other avenues to hold back if not altogether stop the project. The Del Mars should look closely at the snowballing opposition because it could just backfire and hurt them in the next elections.