Build Saint Bernard, build a nation – Oquiňena

By BONG PEDALINO, PIA Southern Leyte
February 22, 2011

SAINT BERNARD, Southern Leyte  –  A tested advocate in the Filipino concept of “bayanihan” has raised the significance of helping this town recover from a fresh challenge of keeping its inhabitants safe and productive, saying doing so would be like building a nation.

“The biggest challenge is: can we work together?  Can we actually work together?” asked Jose Mari Oquiňena, Assistant Secretary for Special Concerns under the Office of the Executive Secretary, as he spoke in front of various public and private agencies gathered here last week for a pledging session.

The occasion was the fifth commemoration of a tragedy that shook the world, in which more than a thousand unsuspecting people were trapped to their death mid-day of February 17, 2006, as an avalanche of rocks and soil of Mount Kan-abag, loosened by days of incessant rains, resulted in a killer landslide.

The tragedy was repeated last month, albeit in a much smaller scale, when a house in barangay Bolod-bolod was crushed also because of non-stop rains, killing three children.

But January’s rains only compounded settlement problems here and along with it livelihood opportunities, as three more barangays with over a thousand residents needed to be fully evacuated in new locations.

The 2006 disaster had already resettled seven barangays in permanent resettlement sites.

In his message, Oquiňena reiterated a point he stressed in an exclusive interview earlier with PIA, saying that “people power”, a force that can remove Presidents, can also be a potent force to build a new Saint Bernard and to build a nation as well, especially against poverty.

He noted that in the presentation of Mayor Rico Rentuza, no totals were shown in the figures, but totals, he said, should not be that important.

“A person having a big heart is more important that having a big pocket,” Oquiňena said, stressing once again that attaining the vision ahead is not impossible.

He said the plan must be inclusive, not exclusive, for everybody, referring to the 5-year recovery plan of the town in which anyone can contribute anything.

The same mindset can be extended to nation-building, Oquiňena said, adding that those who want to help should do so not for recognition but for love of country.