It’s a pity that a day after that uplifting, unifying win of Senator Manny Pacquiao in Kuala Lumpur we had more “banats”—tirades and negative vibes—rather than optimistic ones dominating the news. Save for the inside page coverage and intermittent mention over radio and TV of the Iglesia ni Cristo anti-poverty operation Lingap Laban sa Kahirapan, we went through the day somehow downed by the mainstream media’s minding of the state of our affairs. SAYANG.
For if truth be said, there are more positive things happening than the negative rantings of those who should have known better. Take the INC’s Lingap which has metamorphosed from an annual undertaking into a semi-annual, even a quarterly endeavor. Last Sunday’s event at the Rizal Park set a record of sorts with more than 100,000 people from all walks of life and all denominations receiving dental and medical services and, yes, bags of goodies generously provided by the INC and its members. As INC General Auditor Glicerio Santos, Sr. noted, the Lingap Project “is part of the Church’s resolve to do something concrete to combat poverty here and around the world.” This is no small matter and no small gesture.
The project has had take-offs in other countries organized by church members in the United States, Canada, Northern and Southern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asean, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and even key areas in the Middle East. It has attracted a lot of participants that it has not escaped the attention even of the most snooty politicians and leaders in many of these countries. One Church member intimated to me that in Guam, for example, the contenders for political positions have tried to ingratiate themselves to members by donating anonymously to the undertaking. Even in the United States where preparations for the mid-term November elections are in high gear, the interest among political leaders and key corporate sponsors have been quite pronounced. But as I understand it, the INC has politely refused these entreaties and relied on their members to foot the bill for these operations, so to speak.
And, in their own quiet ways, the members’ efforts have been generously rewarded. The church has apparently been growing by leaps and bounds and has kept its membership intact. In the case of the
Lingap Project, the same has been recognized quite emphatically by various award giving institutions. Sometime back, the Lingap with its Worldwide Walk Against Poverty garnered three Guinness World Records, namely, the biggest charity walk in a single location attended by 236,171 INC members at the Roxas Boulevard; the making of the largest picture mosaic by 9,200 members; and the making of the largest human sentence with 23,235 participants.
In addition to Lingap, I am told that the church has been continuously extending assistance not only to its members but to other non-members as well in many communities across the country. Quite apart from the one-day activities such as the latest in Rizal Park, the church has been providing livelihood assistance and assistance during calamities in addition to educational and health services through its schools and medical centers.
Of course, other religious groups have been engaged in such anti-poverty projects all along. The Segunda Mana project of Caritas Manila is one such example. We are advised that each diocese has
similar projects in addition to regular dental and medical missions such as the Lingap. I know of one parish which has been able to get a donated land in Rizal and transformed it into an organic farming
center where out-of-school youth can train and gain not just employment but self-respect. The Salesian Fathers of Don Bosco are doing what they can do best: skills and values training in their own schools and centers. Other denominations have been engaged in sports and cultural endeavors apart from regular feeding programs, dental and medical services.
Why am I recalling all of these undertakings at this time? Because as I noted earlier, we have been so mired in our highly toxic politicking which has polluted the entire body politic including the churches,
business, civic and other sectors that we have forgotten to look at ourselves in a positive light. We have been so consumed by a ‘power-on-earth, dog-eat-dog’ mindset we have failed to recognize the value of uniting for a common goal, a vision of a society we can all have a part in and we can be proud of. It is as if we have condemned ourselves to bringing each other down instead of lifting each other up.
We have been trying, as it were, to fight the battles of the past forgetting to move forward and look up to a common future. As other countries and peoples struggle to move up together as one society full
of hope and compassion for each other, we have tried our level best to damn each other and struggle hard to put one over the other. It is a curse we have to take off our body politic. It is a curse we have to
get out of our system if we ever hope to gain ground and move forward. This folly has got to end and fast. Let’s have more Lingaps than Banats in ourselves and in our system.
