PamagCUSA Blog

REFLECTIONS ON GK FROM A KALINGA PRIEST IN BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY

Can anything good come out of the Philippines? This is what comes to my mind while on the process of organizing the lecture of Mr. Antonio Meloto at Brandeis University last February 26, 2009. This reminded me of the scene in the Gospel of John when Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, “we have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” This feeling comes to me especially when I hear people making comments such as “a Filipino to lecture?” or observed their reaction after announcing it. I understand their comments and reactions because they haven’t heard any Filipino give a lecture in the university. But this did not stop me in advertising it, announcing during class, and posting it in the group email of the class. In order to make it more marketable and appealing, together with Mr. Angelito Santos who is currently working in the University, we made a very attractive flyer which helped a lot in the advertisement of the lecture.
The lecture of Mr. Tony Meloto is the first by a Filipino in Brandeis University on the topic about coexistence and development. The theme of the lecture was “Gawad Kalinga: A Creative strategy to achieve peaceful coexistence through development and community building.” The presentation was endorsed by Prof. Mari Fitzduff the director of the program “Masters on Coexistence and Conflict Resolution.” The program focuses on the conflicts happening around the world, how to positively transform it and to possibly solve it. It also looks at solving conflicts created by development and aids. The presentation was attended by the staffs of Coexistence International and Coexistence and Conflict Resolution and the graduate students from the Sustainable International Development program and Coexistence and Conflict resolution program that came from different parts of the world such as Brazil, The United States, UK, Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Nepal, Tajikistan, Vietnam and the Philippines.
During the lecture Mr. Meloto showed a video about the work of Gawad Kalinga in bringing peace in the conflict ridden areas in the Philippines especially in Mindanao. Through Gawad Kalinga Muslims and Christians in Mindanao were helping each other to build houses for their homeless brothers and sisters. This is real coexistence, Muslims helping Christians and Christians helping Muslims. This is a testament that GK is willing to help people regardless of who they are, what form of religion they belong, and ideology they believed in.
Many of those who attended the lecture were impressed on the way Gawad Kalinga is doing development work. Many appreciated the strategies and principles employed by GK. Daniel Enarson an American and a student of the Sustainable International Development (SID) who attended the lecture said that “I found the work that GK does very interesting. It was a great privilege to sit and listen to someone so experienced and accomplished in the field of community development and coexistence! Their model of "development with a soul" sounds like something I'm looking for.” This shows that the GK is not a development for development alone but it also gives attention to the values formation of the community they are building which is the vehicle to achieving peace and coexistence among the members of the community. A Jewish student by the name of Orlee of SID and Coexistence and conflict resolution programs has this to say “I saw in an hour what I’ve been learning for the whole year.” Nya Troung from Vietnam and student from SID said “this is the best lecture that I have heard.” Clarice Mauro a graduate students from the Cultural Production program said “it’s an excellent presentation.” And because of the learning that she got Elizabeth Ayot a lawyer by profession and a student from Coexistence and conflict resolution program invited Mr. Meloto to give a lecture to her University in Ghana. All this comments are testimonies of how affective and the successful Gawad Kalinga. Paul Ogalo a graduate student of Coexistence and Conflict resolution who is from Kenya has this to say: “Dear Mr. Meloto, I appreciate your contribution of peace building in the Philippines. I appreciate also sharing your knowledge and experience with us. As I listened to your presentation of what your organization Gawad Kalinga does, I realized that the context of your work is much more the same as that of Kenya or other African countries. But what interested me more was the approach you have used to contribute to the peace and development in the Philippines. Instead of just preaching peace and making it more abstract you have brought it down to actions people can experience and connect with. What is also very interesting and perhaps contribute to your success is how you have muscled a political army on your side. You have used an approach which has created an environment where the politicians can believe that you are not a competitor and therefore find it beneficial to contribute to your work. I immediately desired to do an internship with Gawad Kalinga to learn their tact and approach and see if it could be used in Kenya.”
All this comments are testimonies of how affective and successful Gawad Kalinga is. This also shows that a model of development from a lowly country like the Philippines can be effective and can be more efficient than some models designed in the first world countries or the developed countries. In fact some international organizations are trying to model their development work from the Gawad Kalinga model.
Listening to the lecture of Mr. Meloto and Sec. Cito Lorenzo made me reflect about the background of my own province and people. I am a Catholic Priest and I dream to have a peaceful place. This is the very reason why I took up a different path from other priests who are studying the ecclesiastical courses such as canon law, moral theology, philosophy, sacred scriptures, liturgy, etc. because I believed that the people are over preached as Mr. Meloto emphasized in his lecture; what we need is praxis. People now a day’s do not need many theologians anymore; what they need are witnesses, and if ever they listen to theologians it is because these theologians are practicing what they are preaching. I wanted to work for peaceful coexistence among my people in my beloved province that is why I take up Coexistence and Conflict Resolution as my specialization.
The Philippine government as well as the international community had always focused in the armed struggle and in the insurgency in Mindanao. As all sectors scramble for peace at the southern part of the Philippines, the more subtle, and yet as deadly, conflict in the Cordillera, specifically in Kalinga remains in obscurity. The conflict in this area has cost thousands of lives and while the government and the international community continue to ignore it the conflict will continue to wreak havoc to the people of the place. The name Kalinga was given to the province out of a very negative reaction that other indigenous groups had experienced with the forefathers of Kalinga. “Kalinga” is an itawes and ibanag word which means headhunter or enemy, in other words cutting the heads of the enemies. And this was given to the people of Kalinga because of their practice before of attacking villages and cutting heads of their victims and bringing them home and because of this action they were honored and tattooed as warrior heroes. I believed, because of the meaning attached to the name of the province, it tends to imprint into the psyches of the people that they are supposed to be brave and fierce but this bravery would always result to conflict. This makes the image of the province so bad. In order to change the image of the Kalinga as headhunter why not attached the tagalog term “kalinga” which means to care, hence, caring for our enemies. I believe that the majority people of Kalinga are peace loving and caring people as manifested by the way they host people in their villages and families, thus, the tagalong meaning of “kalinga” is more appropriate for them, besides headhunting is not anymore practiced in the province today. The Gawad Kalinga’s spirit of care can be an inspiration for the people of Kalinga to shift of meaning from “cutting enemies’ heads” to “caring for the enemies.”
The work of Gawad Kalinga is a model that should be emulated because it does not only address the material needs of the people; it also gives to the people their dignity as human persons through the values formation that they are giving to the community that they built. Their role in the community does not end when the houses are completely finished because they followed it up by giving some values formation programs. This is the real spirit of development that is, not just giving relief of food to the poor and after that left them alone in their poverty. Dole out is not what this people needed, what they need is something which makes them proud as a person, as Filipino, and as Christians. Development is giving care to the poor, helping them get out of their poverty and helping them gain their dignity as human persons.
To Mr. Antonio Meloto it a blessing to know you and to listen to you and to the members of the GK throughout the world you are a gift to our people both to the poor and to those who are helping the organizations build the dream of our less privilege brothers and sisters. May your tribe increase.

Roman “Bong” Macaiba, Jr.
MA Coexistence and Conflict Resolution
Brandeis University
415 South Street, Waltham,
MA, USA 02454