Joy to the world

I’d long wanted to write about Joy Belmonte, but she said a piece in The STAR would be self-serving due to the paper’s being owned by her family. She did agree to my doing something for WeConnect, newsletter of the Quezon City Gender Resource and Development and Coordinating Office (QCGRDCO). With the recent announcement by her father, Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte, that Joy is running for the city vice-mayor’s seat in the 2010 elections, I am writing about her, with my WeConnect article as my source of information.

Joy, bright and driven, of 39 years, is her father’s “open secret,” conceptualizing and implementing social development and artistic programs that enhance the city’s progressive and proactive image. She is an archaeologist, social volunteer, museulogist, editor and writer, champion of women’s rights, and forever seeing visions for the future.

Well-educated and articulate, she chairs the Quezon City Performing Arts Development Foundation, Inc. (QCPADFI), which has currently 400 scholars (mostly out-of-school youths) studying theater arts, dance, voice and music, and performing at social functions and before heads of state and diplomats, and audiences in Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Macau. The kids have won several awards, including the prestigious ALIW Awards, besting Ballet Philippines and Philippine Ballet Theater. In addition, deaf children at Miriam College are taught music and dance as an outreach program.

The foundation’s mandate, says Joy, is to perform for various communities in the city “to elevate the status of the arts in our own city and to inculcate in our people an appreciation of the performing arts.”

The Foundation’s happy moments, she adds, are “when audiences give outstanding ovations after each performance, and when the kids achieve self-confidence, discipline, ambition, love for excellence, and a belief in themselves as a result of their participation in our program.”

Joy’s mother, the late Betty Go-Belmonte having passed away, Joy represents her father in various city activities. She encouraged the Quezon City Ladies Foundation, Inc. (QCLFDI), an organization of spouses of city and local officials, and now including any woman who wants to be a member, to be committed to the highest ideals of community service, and not just prepare snacks and entertainment numbers at social functions.

Another pride and joy (pun intended) is the Quezon City Museum, whose content committee Joy heads by virtue of her academic and professional background in museum studies.

“Our vision is for the museum to be an interactive social history museum for all ages, but particularly for the younger generation. We’d like to celebrate the city’s history from the perspective of its communities, instead of in the traditional sense of honoring only the city’s past leaders and commemorating known events. We’d also want it to be a place where people go to learn but also to have fun. We’d really like it to be a departure from the traditional concept of a museum, that is, as a boring place full of old things.”

Joy knows whereof she speaks. She has taught two master’s degree courses — museum studies and the history of archaeological theater — at the University of the Philippines and was research assistant (on internship) at the Museum of Mankind in London. She is a consultant in archeology and museulogy at the Archeological, Cultural, Environmental, Consultancy, Inc. (ACECI).

She has a masters in archeology from the University College London, and another in museum studies, from the University of Leicester, where she graduated with distinction. At present, she is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, where she is a recipient of an Overseas Research Student Award.

Joy also initiated a gender-fair film judging program with Ruby Palma, QCGRDCO head. Every year, a group of critics from the industry, academe and NGOs pick local film entries in the Metro Manila Film Festival that promote gender fairness.

 She is focused on women’s issues — health, livelihood, skills training and reading literacy. She says, “As an independent and self-reliant woman who was given the opportunity to choose my own husband, pursue my own ambitions, and think and act according to my conscience, I am strongly driven to help all women, especially those from very traditional backgrounds, achieve some form of independence themselves, to value who they are and to believe that they have the ability to do great things with the talents and abilities God gave them”.

Joy had a keen sense of rendering service even as a young girl. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree at the Ateneo de Manila University, she signed up for the Jesuit Volunteers Philippines (JVP) program, and taught world history, values education, PE and music at the San Isidro High School in Kadingilan, Bukidnon. Her students were children of farmers. “The people were very poor yet they always shared what they had with me because I was their children’s teacher.”

Joy learned that one can be content with few or no material possessions. “To this day I can survive on very little. I am not fond of shopping or buying expensive things.” She believes that “to whom much is given, much is expected.” This, she says, is the general rule she lives by.

When Joy was in high school she wanted to be a politician, so she ran and won as the 1st student council president at the Poveda, an exclusive girls’ school. One of her projects was to pave the driveway. The joke was, “High school pa lang, nagpapasemento na si Joy.”

Her greatest influences are her father and late mother, who was “the most selfless person I knew. She just kept on giving, even if she had nothing more to give. When she died she was sitting on the board of more than 50 NGOs. She was the ultimate ‘woman for others.’”

Joy talks about power. “If there’s anything I learned from having worked in social development and the NGO sector for a very long time, it is that one can do so much more when one is in a position of power. Power allows us to allocate resources strategically towards goals that would benefit far more people. The problem lies when power falls into the hands of self-interested people.”

Her advise to politicians: “Value their positions and carry out their mandates to the best of their abilities because to everyone is given the opportunity to serve and the resources that have been given to them. It is a shame when politicians are mediocre. One always thinks, ‘Sana sa iba na lang napunta yung posisyon.’’’

Joy is married to Raymond Alimurung, a medical doctor. “My husband is a male version of me, so he understands completely what I do and why I do it. He is just as busy and as committed to his goal and his dreams as I am.” Of their son, she says, “My goal is to raise a happy child who appreciates how blessed he is and is committed to making the world a better place.”

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