Moses came in a batya

MANILA, Philippines - “Batya” is the common man’s washing machine, but in the recent floods that devastated Metro Manila and claimed many casualties, it became the lifesaver of infants reminiscent of the reed basket that carried a baby to safety on the Nile who grew up to liberate his people from Egypt. Are these babies destined to be like him – the saviors of our people from a different kind of enslavement?

Moving photos of babies in big plastic or tin basins became a common sight on TV coverage and Facebook as cell phones documented various modes of survival; mothers placed endangered offspring on anything that floated as floodwaters rose, ready to lose everything and risk anything to save loved ones.

One person fascinated by this ordinary lifesaver approached me with an interesting proposition – to start our cleanup and rehab process in our “Operation Walang Iwanan” by giving away thousands of batya gathered from affluent friends. It appears she has many of them, as she was able to gather 3,000 in one day. Vivienne Tan, founder of the Entrepreneur School of Asia and daughter of taipan Lucio Tan, did not mind when I jokingly tagged her “Batya Queen” of the “bakya” crowd in her drive to give them a simple all-purpose lifeline – to wash dirtied clothes, to clean up muddied homes and save their babies when it floods again.

“A batya is important to the ordinary housewife as it is her everyday companion to make life more bearable for the people she loves,” she said in earnest to stress to me the value of her initiative.

I was with her and Joy Belmonte, our partner for slum rehabilitation in Quezon City, on Oct. 12 when she gave away the initial 300 basins at the Gawad Kalinga site in Brookside, Bagong Silangan. There was a line of mothers re-enacting their dramatic escape by placing their babies on the plastic basins for the customary photo-ops with their benefactor. 

“Kailangan hawakan mabuti ang batya dahil nagwawala sa loob ang bata,” her little boy starting to cry as one of the mothers narrated how she held firmly to the floating basin as her child was getting unwieldy as they fled Ondoy’s fury.

I knew many of the mothers in this village of 1,500 residents we built with the Franciscan Sisters of Charity who bought the land so former garbage scavengers would have decent homes and a clean and peaceful neighborhood. It had a cheerful air before this disaster with rainbow colored homes, a chapel, a library, a clinic, a cooperative store, a livelihood training building, a day care center, an elementary school and a high school. Yes, it takes a village to raise a child as it also takes a nation to build viable communities for its poorest citizens. This place came to life with valuable contributions from various stakeholders: Couples for Christ, Quezon City government, Rotary, Lion’s, Yahweh’s Love, Meralco, DBP, Stella Maris, Ateneo, UP, Miriam and the residents themselves. Many of them gave up scavenging and got more respectable jobs; crime dramatically dropped as male behavior changed in a more dignified environment. This was the interesting findings of a UP study of the place three years ago on the impact of GK on community behavior.

Now they were victims again, though most of them did not behave like victims. Their place was in terrible disarray and many were still traumatized by the recent experience but Aling Nena, the GK Kapitbahayan president, confidently said, “Tatayo uli kami bago mag-Pasko; maraming tumutulong at hindi kami pababayaan ng Diyos.” Those who have received great kindness from God through real people and have learned to help themselves and one another before know that they will rise again. Christmas will come soon. The Savior the villagers believe in whose coming flooded the world with love and hope started life in a borrowed crib in a lowly stable.

Another person who arrived in the village and was saddened by the pathetic sight was society columnist Mayenne Carmona, who came with friends Fortune Ledesma and Agnes Huibonhoa. “Please let us know how we can restore this place to what it was before. I have great affection for this village as it was the first GK site that I saw and it captured my heart.”

They, together with Johnny Litton, are celebrating their birthdays jointly at Blueleaf on Oct. 26 to raise funds for the KLM/Air France village in Bagong Silang and for the rehab of Brookside and other affected GK communities and surrounding areas. A bright side to this disaster is a clear change in behavior not only in the poor but with the privileged class as well. The rich are crossing their borders of safety and comfort to build a kinder and safer society, and redefining what it is to have the ability to create wealth and find the most creative ways to spread it.

For Vivienne’s group, this was their last stop in a whole day of distribution, but the beginning of a new crusade. They started in heavily devastated Marikina and proceeded to the still-flooded Pinagbuhatan area of Pasig on board a military truck courtesy of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which gave full support to our rehab effort mounted with the Concepcion families and employees of RFM, Selecta and Condurra.

Joined by Tony Olaes, the leading provider of pop art apparel in America and head of the GK1WORLD movement there, they mixed with the crowd to hear their harrowing tales. “After wading in floodwaters and seeing so much suffering today, I realized there is no turning back for me,” Vivienne courageously committed herself to a task that not too many are willing to take.

Founding a school for the rich to become social entrepreneurs is daring, but dreaming for the poor to be higher in worth and dignity beyond almsgiving is foolish in the eyes of many. If she takes the plunge and seriously commits herself to invest in making the poorest Filipinos un-poor or less poor – and her friends follow – it will help grow a patriotic revolution in our country similar to South Korea and Singapore where prosperity is achieved without bloodshed, but with a lot of sacrifice and simplification of lifestyle out of love for country and people. Koreans gave up jewelries and luxuries to fund nation-building; Singapore had visionary leadership with strong political will and heroic and disciplined citizenship.

Perhaps our people, including the wealthiest Filipino-Chinese families, are ready for meaningful and peaceful change following the same patriotic path.

Vivienne’s attitude maybe shows that there is a growing tug in the heart of those with means to sweat or to get wet for the squatters to have homes where it is safe and for the hungry to feed themselves. Maybe due to the widening poverty it is necessary for those who control wealth to see for themselves that it is in their best interest to invest more of it in the common good.

I felt this mood when I was at the RFM gym for one week at the height of our relief operations after Ondoy and the threat of Pepeng looming over us. What impressed me was not just the mix of rich and poor, young and old in the repacking operation but in the outpouring of generosity bordering on the heroic from everyone.

I saw for one week that we were one people, Filipinos in solidarity with each other’s pain.

The Concepcions poured out a lot of resources for this effort but what touched me were the women in their family, starting with the matriarch Marivic and daughter Marie, who were there every day seeing to everyone’s needs, including food for the volunteers. Joey’s wife Marissa mobilized homes in Forbes and the plush neighborhood to open their kitchens for the urgently needed cooked meals, while John’s wife Peachy joined him to distribute food and document the sad plight of victims in Camacho, Marikina and Napindan, Taguig.

Friend from way back and owner of Andoks, Sandy Javier came with a donation of 90,000 hardboiled eggs, which fed not only the victims but also the soldiers and volunteers who delivered them in the hard-to-reach areas. Seeing the GK work up close, he decided to build his own version for the poor in Padre Garcia and Rosario, Batangas where he owns vast tracts of land. People like Sandy are at that stage of giving back to life that has been good to them. Greatness can come to those who use their success for the good of others.

Maybe we do not have to wait for the babies in the batya to grow up for them to save this country. The metaphor is too obvious for me to ignore. It will happen sooner if those of us who have neglected or abandoned them in the past can now invest in raising them with dignity as if they were our own children. I hope more Filipinos will make GK’s Operation Walang Iwanan a lifetime commitment, always seeing the good in people, not judging the rich as Pharaoh or Pharisee and the poor as “hampaslupa” or “patay-gutom.”

It is only a matter of time that a new nation will rise from the floodwaters if we never forget the babies in the batya, in the reed basket, and most of all, the One in the borrowed crib.