Housing units in disaster-stricken area turned over

By BONG PEDALINO (PIA Southern Leyte)
December 24, 2008

BARANGAY PINUT-AN, San Ricardo, Southern Leyte  –  Five years ago, the scene over this place was utter chaos and destruction, as loosened earth spawned by non-stop rains rushed down to the sea, destroying everything along its path.

Last week, December 17, 2008 – two days to the day before the fifth year remembrance of the Pinut-an tragedy in 2003 – the spirit of generosity was in the air.

“God shines in the mountains of Pinut-an,” Dr. Jerome Paler, the Provincial Gawad Kalinga (GK) coordinator told PIA in an email report.

He added, rather poetically:  “On that rugged landscape and verdant vegetations punctuated with steep cliffs that meet the hastening splashes of the deep blue ocean of the pacific, God shines on the generosity of people towards other people.”

In what is now collectively known as GK Rainbow Village, forty (40) new families of the DSWD/Diocese GK Village and thirty (30) new families of the ANCOP Canada – Calgary GK Village got the Christmas wish they had been longing for, a home they can call their own, right after the formal turn-over ceremonies were held.

They joined other families from NASSA GK Village and RAFI GK Village as new residents in the color-studied site.

Bishop Precioso Cantillas of the Diocese of Maasin officiated the Holy Mass during the hand-over rites, together with Rev. Fr. Eufemio Gohetia, the Diocesan Social Action Center (DSAC) Director, and Rev. Fr. Verchel Acain, the Parish Priest of San Ricardo town.

Also joining in the celebration of the Eucharist was Rev. Fr. Joy Catubig, the Parish Priest of San Francisco, a place where a budding GK village of the Mamanwa’s is blossoming, Paler said.

Bishop Cantillas honored the Couples for Christ (CFC) through their work in GK and vowed to go on working in partnership with them through the office of the DSAC and the Parish Social Action Center.

Among the honored guests of the occasion was DSWD Regional Director Letecia Corillo, who extolled the Kapitbahayan organizations to continue pursuing their dream of total human liberation not just on the physical but on the moral and spiritual level as well.

“This GK Village is also the holder of many firsts – First and Longest Bayanihan Line (1.5 km); First Youth Build where youth coming from the different parts of the world converged and built houses from Holy Wednesday up to the Easter Sunday of 2004; First Bishop’s Build where the Bishop celebrated his 46th birthday building houses in Pinut-an together with the Congressman Roger Mercado, then Governor Rosette Lerias, Mayor now incumbent Governor Damian G. Mercado together with 13 other mayors and 10 members of the clergy in July 3, 2004.,” Paler recalled.