A BUSINESSMAN in Bacolod City is hoping that St. John’s Institute (SJI), also known as Hua Ming, and the Diocese of Bacolod will reconsider their decision to go on separate ways by the end of the month.
In a message to SunStar Bacolod Tuesday, May 23, businessman Ed Alunan said he asking Bishop Patricio Buzon and the SJI Board of Trustees to “re-negotiate in seeking the middle ground that would prevent separating God and His sacraments from the flock.”
There’s an ongoing controversy over the ownership on the property that was donated by the Montelibano family on which the Queen of Peace Parish stands, which is inside the premises of Hua Ming.
After a series of negotiations to resolve the feud, the Diocese and Hua Ming have agreed to pursue a peaceful disengagement of relationship that will end on May 31.
With the departure of the church from the school, Buzon stripped the Catholic status of SJI.
Alunan said that “time is running out and I write this out of desperation to help prevent the closure of a House of God.”
“I have learned the arguments as published on the news as well as hearsay, but nothing has convinced me that justifies the closure of a church so much loved by God and His flock known as the Queen of Peace Parish,” he added.
He said the situation “may have been dominated by the frailties of man causing the protagonists to forget God’s supreme interests.”
“We are all children of God. Do all the reasons and arguments presented justify the eviction of our very own Father from this sanctified edifice? We seem to have forgotten Him in the midst of the melee...we are in effect evicting Him from His own sanctified home,” he added.
Earlier, lot donors’ spokesperson Roberto Montelibano said his family has no intention of taking the property back although he expressed disappointment that the school will be stripped of its Catholic status. (MPE)