Glory News

MANILA, Philippines -- Being Filipino has become "fashionable" once more, thanks to Tony Meloto and Gawad Kalinga.

After stepping down as GK’s executive director, Meloto, bearing the unofficial title of global ambassador, has been visiting different countries every month to develop partnerships with institutions and governments.

"It's fashionable to be Filipinos again…'Legacy' villages now redefine what it is to be elite. Hindi na uso ang 10K but GK (10K is not in anymore but GK is)," said the Inquirer's Filipino of the Year during a dinner hosted in his honor.

GK is a non-government organization initiated by the Couples for Christ movement to help build housing for the poor through donations from companies, civic and religious groups as well as individuals. Its name means "Give Care." It is now managed by a group headed by its new executive director, Luis Oquiñena.

In accepting the belated reception (he was out of the country when the award was given in January), Meloto said he felt "very much embarrassed" by the accolade.

"I'm just a storyteller like all of us here. Nevertheless, I have to deal with this embarrassment with all this recognition because I'm simply receiving it for a lot of people who deeply love this country.

"Gawad Kalinga is becoming the global brand for corporate social responsibility…The time has come in our country that good news sells. If it's good news, it spreads hope in a massive scale," said Meloto, who also pointed out Inquirer's efforts to promote "radical optimism" with daily positive stories.

A former corporate marketing executive, Meloto has wholeheartedly sold to Filipinos here and abroad the concept of "reconnecting" with their poor fellow citizens.

The result, he said, was just amazing as more and more Filipinos have begun thinking beyond pursuing the American dream by "helping those who have lost the capacity to dream."

"I was amazed that our countrymen who have been away for 40 years are coming back, like Israelites in exile...We're seeing a new stream of patriotic funds. They call it a new brand of philanthropy -- 'patriotic philanthropy’ -- because they're helping the poorest of the poor in their country…people they do not know," he said.

To date, around 1,400 GK communities have been built all over the country, and some have risen as well in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Cambodia.

"It's become the 'Armani development,'" he said, referring to the stamping of one's name on their adopted community.

"But this is only possible if we really connect with our countrymen from whom we have been disconnected," said Meloto as he encouraged Pinoys who "can afford" to look out of their high-rise offices and outside their subdivision gates to know the real score.

Though Meloto noted that the projects were "moving very fast," he emphasized that GK was still a work in progress.

"It's really a journey we are taking. I took this journey, and other people are taking this journey. We just have to think in the collective so we may rise together," he said.

Meloto is currently working with Ateneo De Manila University, one of its partner universities, for the GK Builder's Institute which was designed to train volunteers -- and mayors -- in "township development."

"It's teaching them how to build a town so that it will rise and grow, and also to address the issue of landlessness, providing decent and durable homes in place of the shanties," said Meloto.

In GK’s campaign in the United States and Australia, Meloto tapped into the provincial mentality of Filipinos and asked them to assist people back in the hometowns so dear to them.

"If you're a Bicolano, help the poor in Albay, Sorsogon…If you're from Southern Leyte, help the poor in Maasin. It's by making the brightest and greatest to help the least. Filipinos are a very caring people," said Meloto.

Some people have donated land, added Meloto. Indeed, what is two hectares out of 10 if this would bring 100 families out of squatting on someone else’s property?

To address the problem of "informal settlers," GK is moving its development efforts to the provinces to stop the destitute from facing a worse situation in the cities.

"GK is very focused on 20 percent of the poorest of the poor. The thrust of our work now is 70 percent of the countryside. We can keep the poor from leaving the countryside to squat in Manila," said Meloto of their attempt to reverse migration.

He added: "Poverty really debases us, insults us as a people…Some are forced to live like animals in slums. The Filipinos' potential for excellence never has the chance to develop kasi pinalaki silang malnourished."

The rich and the poor need not be enemies, said Meloto, because both would be "victims if they do not work together." After all, GK is not a work of charity but a work of nation-building, he added.

The trend of bringing back dignity to the poor has also caught on in other countries, most recently the United States, Canada, and Australia, where Meloto attended the world premiere of the movie "Paraiso," a tribute to the work of GK and its army of volunteers.

It was a box-office hit-in the hearts of both Filipinos and foreigners who were moved to tears and laughter by the trilogy. "Paraiso," which was done in the "bayanihan" spirit of GK with artists lending their talent for free, has raised P200M abroad. The movie will open in local theaters on July 4.

GK is continuing to attract the attention of people from different races and ages, including retirees "trying to complete their life cycle" and "crazy" men and women quitting their high-paying jobs to do their bit in the program.

One such person is Jonathan Rickard, who Meloto referred to as the "crazy New Zealander" for leaving his marketing and IT work to help out in GK.

"I went on a vacation on January 2006 upon the invitation of my friends from Couples for Christ," said the 30-year-old Rickard, who found himself tagging along with a group of GK volunteers and students from MIT doing a presentation in Baseco in Tondo, Manila.

"They let me follow them for the day and see them work... then I had a half-hour talk with Mr. Meloto. It was quite a good introduction to GK," he said.

Though it took him quite a while to consider, Rickard returned to the Philippines a year later and decided to stay for a year. He is tasked with the redevelopment of GK's website (gawadkalinga.org), which may soon include online donations, and touching updates on how GK is changing lives.

Rickard is all praises for the locals "who give up their jobs here despite the high rate of unemployment."

Some of these locals happen to be Meloto's children, who have left the corporate jungle and are all out in their support for what their father started. His only son Jay, the regional coordinator of GK, is getting married on July 7 to Ina Canapi, another GK volunteer he met in Bicol with the same brave story. The sweethearts will wed in a GK site in Panganiban, Camarines Norte -- in a chapel they built for the community.

Meloto's strong family values are certainly bearing fruit, but he believes Filipinos, who have the same love for their families and faith in God, are beginning to reach out to their fellowmen now that there is a vehicle to express their concern.

It's what he calls "a new generation of patriots and heroes" in an ambitious goal of bringing the Philippines "out of the Third World within our lifetimes."

"Every Filipino can be a hero for his country. We have to really see that it is not a liability but an asset," he said. "God did not make a mistake that he decides us to be Filipinos. Kahit maraming problema, we remain one of the happiest in the planet because of strong faith and strong family values."

And with the trendsetter Tony Meloto around, surely God wasn't mistaken in making him a Filipino.