UBAS in Cebu: Changing Street Children’s Lives

More than a year since it was re-launched,  Ugnayan ng mga Barangay at Simbahan (UBAS), the collaboration between church and barangays, is making huge strides in addressing problems at the grassroots levels, thereby changing people’s lives.


Reporting on an UBAS project to help street children in Cebu, Fr. Melo Diola worked with other advocates on a very simple project. The children were initially invited to the parish on a Saturday morning. There, they were allowed to bathe, have a haricut, a hot meal, and newly-washed clothes.
As they became comfortable in the parish, they were given tutorials and values formation.
About 500 children from catholic families are being prepared for their first holy communion, in time for the upcoming 51st Eucharistic Congress in Cebu.


Their approach is ecumenical and inter-faith, since they also have Muslim beneficiaries and participants. To make things easier for the street children, the UBAS team came up with an acronym, ‘TLIG,’ or ‘True Love Inspired by God.’ TLIG also broadly stands for T = come on Time, L = fall in Line, I = follow Instructions, and G = manage your garbage.

The children are also given pastoral companions who are ates and kuyas (big sisters or brothers) who also come from mission areas. Promising street children are also given scholarships while their families are also provided community and livelihood training.


Already,  35 street children have gone  back to school; they were provided with meals and transport allowances to keep them  in school. Two of these 35 street children even made it to the top of their class. Due to this encouraging result, two more community-based outreaches were launched, bringing 100 more street children back to school. Thanks to UBAS, most of the street children now have a sense of time and responsibility. They are now happy and excited for their birthdays.


“The most important fruit of the UBAS street children project is the gradual restoration and reintegration of the children into society. It has been a faith-filled journey marked by community-based efforts of committed and competent partners and companions,” Fr. Diola said.

As a result of this "best practice", other barangays are now poised to partner with four more parishes in the Archdiocese of Cebu, with the help of the police, barangay officials and priests, who would have distinct but inter-related roles.


Fr. Diola cited Barangay Usman Dako, headed by its chairman, Ernie Manatag, as one of the earliest adopters of the street children project. In the past, the barangay saw the street children as ‘nuisances'. Now, Chairman Manatag sees the 32 street children beneficiaries every Sunday morning and looks after them as if they were his own children.


If your barangay or parish in interested in working together for the common good, we will be happy to help. You can email me at vickypg@gmail.com.

The original article was written by Tessa Mangahas which I have edited to fit my blog.

Davao Archbishop Valles on Mar Roxas

DAVAO ARCHBISHOP: ROXAS HONEST, VERY GOOD MAN

“It was a meeting of good, old friends.”

 

This was how Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles described the visit of Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Mar Roxas at the prelate’s local residence in Davao City last August 14.

 

Valles’ statement came after Roxas paid a courtesy call at the bishop’s residence when the secretary flew to Davao City as the guest speaker for the Mindanao cluster conference of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines.

 

“A good friend—very honest and hardworking—has just visited me and we are happy that he [Roxas] is here in Davao,” Valles said.

 

The bishop clarified that there was no politics involved during their meeting saying it was more personal than political.

 

“I just want to let you know that the archbishop of Davao knows Mar Roxas, personally, back in the days when he was still at DTI [Department of Trade and Industry] and I was archbishop of Kidapawan,” Valles explained to reporters.

 

Valles said he first met Roxas when there was an inauguration and blessing of a huge public market in downtown Kidapawan several years ago when Roxas was still secretary of DTI and he was the archbishop of the province.

 

“His persona was very friendly, very warm when he walked through the door and greeted me. He even noticed the basket full of fruits at my table and ate a banana. He is very down to earth and honest in expressing his feelings. He shows his real self. Isa lang ito sa mga naaalala ko noong una kaming magkita,” Valles said.

 

The bishop said he sees Roxas as a man of integrity and action, as seen in the secretary’s performance at cabinet official of Daang Matuwid.

 

“I pray that the good Lord bless Mar Roxas—a very good and honest man. Bless him for keeping all our hopes alive,” Valles said of Roxas.

 

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The BBL and Me

The BBL and Me

“You’ve got to be taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made and people whose skin is a different shade”…

These are the words of a haunting song from the blockbuster musical South Pacific.

Today, the country is seriously divided on the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law. But if you ask those who are against it if they have read the law, most of them will say “No”, or “I don’t have to.” Their opinion has most probably been formed on the basis of what they hear on tv or radio or what they read in the papers.

I carefully read the draft over the Holy Week, considering it something of a “penance” as it does take a lot of patience and concentration to plod through the document. And frankly, I couldn’t see much that was alarming or that would merit throwing it out of the window. Maybe there are improvements that can be made by those who live and breathe the law and the economy and politics. But I can’t find anything that would make me reject it.

Taking advantage of the calm quiet of our weekend home in Malarayat, I decided to make the draft the focus of my Lenten reflection. After all, the suffering and crucifixion of Christ can be seen as His offering of Himself in order to save humanity.

His words rang in my mind – “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

This from a man who could command the wind and the sea; who could heal the sick and make the lame walk; who could rise from the dead; who could call a group of fishermen to establish an institution that has survived two thousand years and attracted the best and the brightest into its folds.

This from a ManGod who willingly suffered the humiliation of being found guilty of heresy, of being stripped of his clothes, of being scourged at the pillar, of having been crowned with thorns, of carrying his  cross and being crucified.

If He could forgive all that, can we not find it in our hearts to reach out and help our brothers and sisters in Mindanao? To open our hearts and our minds to their plight as among the Filipinos who have the lowest human development indices in the country? To help them find the peace that will stop their children from crying in the night, or suffering injuries as the collateral damage of continuous war? To help the families in Mindanao – Muslims, Christians, indigenous peoples -  to live in harmony and enjoy the opportunities of education, of housing, of health care, of sustainable jobs, that can only come as the dividends of peace?

I believe that all of us have biases and prejudices. When we were young, we were taught or may have overheard our elders say that Moros cannot be trusted, that they are lazy, that they don’t pay debts. But we also heard them call the Chinese  pejorative words such as “Instik Beho”, or heard them talk of hatred against the Japanese who tortured and killed our relatives, or of to be wary of Negroes when you go the US.  The list of no-nos against people who are not like us goes on and on.

As the song says, we are taught to hate or to avoid  those whose eyes are oddly made or whose skin is of a different shade. Or who speak a different language. Or who are not as educated. Or who are poor.

I believe in my heart that most of the anger and distrust that is now being directed at the BBL is due to deep seated biases and prejudices we may not even be aware we hold in our hearts. It is unfortunate that Mamasapano happened when it did.  Quite independently of the circumstances surrounding it, it resurfaced our deep-seated prejudices against the Muslims. And it overflowed into the discussions on the BBL, when one had really nothing to do with the other.

But if we think about it, we have negotiated with the Hukbalahaps when they were wreaking havoc in Central Luzon. We have negotiated with the NPAs and communists to lay down their arms and to participate instead in our democratic processes and in our economy. We have negotiated with indigenous peoples who have blocked important infrastructures in their communities.

We have slowly welcomed the Japanese into our country and buy their products and have forgiven them the atrocities that we suffered at their hands. We have come to respect the Chinaman who started as a taho vendor or a stevedore at the shipyards and have risen to head conglomerates through sheer hard work, native intelligence, and entrepreneurial spirit.

Maybe, just maybe, we can do the same with the Muslims in Mindanao.

Let us think of Christ as He hung on the cross. Let us forgive all those who may have hurt us and offer our hand in friendship. Let us offer them the gift of peace and development so that they, too, can enjoy the fruits of their labors and help the country continue to move forward as a Rising Tiger of Asia. We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to our children and grandchildren. We owe it to our God or Allah or whatever deity we believe in.

Let us pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law. May the creator of the universe bring peace into our hearts so that we can rise with Christ into a new dawn.