Ateneo grad finds joy in building houses for the poor

Three years ago, Issa Cuevas graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in Inter Disciplinary Studies. Several job offers awaited her, but she chose to work for a non-government organization dedicated to building homes for the poor. She gets an allowance for her job, and she gets by… happily.

Why would a talented and beautiful young lady choose a path not normally trod by her peers? For Issa, it was a way of getting over her grief over the murder of her father by communist rebels.

"Instead of hating the rebels, I decided to help those who are so stricken with poverty they might end up in the hills themselves," says Issa.

This is her story:

As soon as I got off the boat, I saw the sign. WELCOME TO ISABELA, BASILAN. I began to regret reading a book a few weeks prior to my trip. It was a book by Jose Torres, Into the Mountains, and the first story was about the ambush on Valentine’s Day of 1999 in Sitio Guiong, Tumahobong where five people died. They were parish workers on their way to the next town when they were attacked by the Abu Sayyaf. Of the party of six, only one small girl lived to tell the tale.

We were a little behind schedule and the team immediately brought us to the place where we were supposed to hold the meeting. What greeted me at the site immediately brought shivers down my spine. It was the actual jeep that carried those ill-fated missionaries. It was a marker for peace and it carried the caption, "That their death may not be in vain."

I was in Isabela to do the work of Gawad Kalinga (GK). GK has brought my partner, Luis Oquinena and I, to many a daunting trip. Five years ago, Couples for Christ set up a social ministry for work with the poor and community development called ANCOP Foundation (A Network of Communities of the Poor). The pilot project in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City eventually evolved into the Gawad Kalinga Project. Since then, Luis and I have been tasked to be national coordinators of GK, overseeing project implementation and program development of the now 80 project sites throughout the country. On top of that, his main area of responsibility is the Visayas region, while I handle Northern Mindanao areas.

In areas like Zamboanga and Basilan, the height of the Abu Sayyaf problem, local GK teams decided that it was time to cease running, stop blaming and just start building. They realized that the real peace process begins when Filipinos reach out to each other with genuine respect and work together towards a common vision.

Luis and I, together with our directors Lachie Agana, Frank Padilla and Tony Meloto were also given the opportunity to explore a partnership with the Muslim Upliftment Association to start a Gawad Kalinga Project in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi. It was a fantastic five days of learning and sometimes, un-learning many wrong perceptions that have kept us apart as a people.

Ten years ago, my father was murdered at the gate of our family home in Daet, Camarines Norte. We were together in a motorcycle when it happened, and although most of the details remain hazy to this day, the only thing I can clearly remember is how it made me feel. It seemed there wasn’t one word that could sufficiently describe the inner emotions that rocked me.

The years following became an ardent quest for justice, a deep desire to meet the killer of my father. And yet when I probed my own reasons for wanting to, I knew it was only because I wanted to ask one question. Why?

Driven by anger, my search for answers led me everywhere, but often left me frustrated. Eventually it led me to Gawad Kalinga, bringing me into contact with war refugees and families like me who became innocent victims of the ravages of war and conflict. But the fast growing work in poor communities also led us to the opposite end of the spectrum of poverty, to areas like Escalante which is now home to rebel returnees. It was in these project areas that I began to have a relationship with people I was initially unsympathetic to. Listening to the accounts of their lives made me understand the reasons why they turned to a life in the hills, and oftentimes difficult decisions they had to make.

For the first time in many years, I began to see a side of the story I had never seen before–that the perceived victims and victimizers were, in truth, all victims of the same root problem–poverty.

This single realization had made all the difference in my life, and remains a foundation of my zeal for this work.

I will be married to an engineer soon, and I see a day when we will have our own home but will also be able to build countless houses and model communities where the poor live dignified lives and have access to all their basic needs.

Dreams mean a lot of work, and if we are to be part of the building team for this country, there is no other time to do it but now.