HOME-GROWN nation building movement Gawad Kalinga (GK), which builds homes and communities for the poor, sees the end of poverty in the country by 2024.
The country is off to a good start, with President Noynoy Aquino forming his Truth Commission.
Just remember, “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.”
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GK founder Tony Meloto said his foundation has built 50,000 homes across the country, with the help of various agencies and private parties.
One of those who helped Gawad Kalinga put up a site in Dumanjug, Cebu is the J. P. Garcia Foundation.
Meloto said 400 mayors and governors worked with his foundation and none has been corrupt in dealing with GK.
Now it can be said, GK also helps stamp out corruption.
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Meloto said GK also goes beyond building homes by helping the poor attain food security and restore their dignity.
“When you restore human dignity, you also bring peace and order,” he said.
But there must be no problem with food security because the National Food Authority said “we’re swimming in rice.”
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“My parents were so poor,” the comedian Bob Hope once said, “they got married for the rice.”
Well, the poor are no longer called poor now. Bureaucrats changed the term from needy to underprivileged to disadvantaged.
They’re still poor but their vocabulary has improved.
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Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama presented his first 100 days agenda in a Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi) forum where private sector representatives urged him to be different from the administration of past leaders in the city.
He must have started to be different from past mayors because he shot down a proposal to buy three Vietnam War-era planes.
Or as Rep. Tomas Osmeña said, “It seems he really can’t understand this.”