Twin dream projects to rise in Las Piñas City

MANILA, Philippines—First they built residences and memorial homes. Now, they’re building houses for God and a resource center for nation-building.

That’s how Sen. Manny Villar and his wife, former Rep. Cynthia Villar, described their new projects: The Santuario de San Ezekiel Moreno and the Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation and Governance (Sipag) Center inside the Golden Haven Compound on C5-Road Extension in Las Piñas City.

The Santuario is named after San Ezekiel Moreno who was ordained in Manila in 1871 and was assigned to various parishes in the provinces of  Mindoro (Calapan), Palawan (Aborlan), Negros Oriental (Talisay), Batangas (Sto. Tomas), Manila (Sta. Cruz), Cavite (Imus) and Las Piñas.

“San Ezekiel was well-loved everywhere he went. He even learned to speak Tagalog so he could connect with the people. He contracted malaria in Negros but went on with his mission,” said University of the Philippines professor and historian Emmanuel Luis Romanillos.

“After his Las Piñas assignment, the people even marched to Intramuros to plead with church authorities so he could stay,” added Romanillos, who has written three books on the Spanish saint.

San Ezekiel went on to become a bishop in Pasto, Colombia, and other parts of South America. He died in 1906 after a year of  struggling with cancer of the palate.

During his beatification in 1975 and canonization in 1992, it was reported that two women were cured from palate and breast cancers. In time, San Ezekiel gained a special place in the prayers of cancer patients as their patron saint.

Ramon Moreno said  he felt honored that a sanctuary  would be built in honor of San Ezekiel, a first cousin of his great grandfather.

“The Philippines was close to his heart, most especially, the people of Las Piñas,” he said. “May he inspire more people and may he continue to heal people.”

The Santuario de San Ezekiel Moreno is the first of 12 churches the Villar Foundation will build around the country. The architectural design of the church that will seat 700 will carry a Spanish theme.

The Las Piñas church will be followed by the Santuario Madonna del Divino Amore in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. Other churches will also be built at the Crosswinds housing site in Tagaytay City; Camella Provence in Malolos, Bulacan; Maia Alta in Antipolo City, Rizal; Tierra Nevada in General Trias, Cavite; Plantacion Meridienne in Lipa City, Batangas; Azienda in Cebu; Savannah in Iloilo; and at the Gran Europa in Cagayan de Oro City.

“For the last 30 years, I have been a builder of homes. I have built more than 200,000 houses and I have even built homes for the dead. What would be a good thing to do now is to build homes for God,” said Senator Villar.

During the groundbreaking ceremonies last week, Golden Haven president Michael Regino said the church will rise on a 1.2 hectare site beside the Sipag Center that will cover 8,000 square-meters. Construction on the billion-peso project will start next week and is expected to be completed next year.

The Sipag Center, on the other hand, will be a repository of the country’s best practices on poverty reduction implemented by input from local government units. The hub will also hold a reception hall, a theater, an exhibit hall and a hall containing memorabilia on the Villars in politics and business.

“From its name alone (sipag means hardworking), people can tell that we promote industriousness or hard work to beat poverty. We will guide, train, teach and empower womenfolk, the youth and jobless, and even relatives of overseas Filipino workers,” said Cynthia Villar.

An example cited by the former representative was the Las Piñas-Zapote River System Rehabilitation program which won the United Nation’s “Water for Life” Best Practices Award. The program, which focused on reviving a dying river and providing livelihood opportunities to riverbanks residents, bested entries from 38 other countries.

It showed how the city mobilized residents to clean the river, changed their mindsets toward enterprise and taught them how to earn by composting to make fertilizer and crafting wares out of coconut coir, peat and water hyacinth.

Senator Villar, whose term ends in 2013, said he saw the extent of poverty in the country during the 2010 presidential campaign when he ran—but lost to Benigno Aquino III—as standard-bearer of the Nacionalista Party.

“It was right after the elections when we realized that we could not turn our back on the poor Filipinos,” he said.

“Our help doesn’t end there. We should always dream big. We are blessed with managerial and entrepreneurial skills, so why don’t we give back by introducing public and private initiatives,” he said.