Sunday, December 16, 2007 Miracle of light By Mayette Q. Tabada
WHETHER scented or plain, delicately hued or murky as candle drippings, a candle’s apex has always been the fluttering tongues of orange and blue that have mesmerized centuries of pilgrims and seekers of sanctuary from the dark.
This perception changes once a visitor steps inside a nondescript shop located along Gorordo Avenue.
To a harried and distracted shopper, the PSP Kandila showroom looks and smells no different from many mall-based vendors selling scented and decorative candles.
But those inquisitive enough to ask Father Victor Labao the story behind the store’s acronym may perhaps never behold any of the store kandila in the same way again.
In the painstaking care of drawing out a miniature vigil or floating candle to emerge, whole and detailed, from its mold, in the delicacy of furling waxy rose petals that blush like any long-stemmed beauty bejeweling a garden—these paraffin perfections, one learns, were made by hands that once crushed, destroyed, spilled blood.
For transmuting shadow into light, a candle becomes not just wax and wick but a miracle of renewal.
Named for Pag-asa sa Paglaya, the PSP Kandila store carries the handiworks of the PSP Multipurpose Cooperative, a Sirao-based collective that includes 11 former convicts and seven minors in conflict with the law.
As Father Vic recalls, his posting in Cebu after nine years of service as the chaplain of the New Bilibid Prisons made him yearn to spin off livelihood opportunities to ease former offenders’ return to life outside bars.
The chairperson of the board of directors of the PSP Center for Restorative Justice Advocacy says that in 2001, they launched the factory outlet of a candle-making venture. Gaining confidence from the realization of this dream, Father Vic dared to dream aloud again, wishing that the non-government organization could find a small lot to expand operations.
A day after Sun.Star Cebu reported the factory’s launch and the PSP dream, a Cebuana called the former Jesuit, now diocesan, priest to donate a 10,500-square meter farm in the mountain barangay of Sirao.
Today, the PSP Multipurpose Coop has turned the Sirao farm into a communal example of a fresh start, raising organic vegetables and cutflowers, and molding and making by hand the PSP Kandila.
Shy and softspoken, Benjie Choche, 34, is surprised to note that two years have passed since he first sold the candles to churches and individuals. He says his real gain is the confidence to face strangers.
Three years ago, Vincent Balogbog, 25, was an out-of-school youth in Balamban before Fr. Vic invited him. Today, the PSP coop member handles sales, delivery and other errands at the Gorordo Ave. store. On his third year in commerce studies, Vincent wants to sell more candles. “I found my future here,” he says in the dialect.
A candle can just be wax and wick. Or be so much more.
