Pwede Pala Pinoy!

Unlikely Collaboration: The Kamuning Experience

 

 

Who would have thought that a government agency that had become a symbol of corruption can become an agency for moral and spiritual transformation?

 

The story begins with an unlikely collaboration.

 

At 70, you can hardly believe that a woman can still be as active in church and community work as Angie Diaz, or Ate Angie as she is fondly called.

 

A retired bank officer and a 2-term chairman of Barangay Laging Handa in Kamuning, Quezon City, Ate Angie is the president of a consultative body organized by the local police, the Council of Community Elders.

 

On the other end of this unlikely partnership is a battle-tested soldier. A PMA-er and veteran of a peace-keeping mission in Cambodia, in Mindanao, as well as in opposing various coup de etats.

 

He is also the co-founder of the Christian Officers Reform the Police Service or the C.O.R.P.S., a movement that advocates change in the armed services through the practice of faith.  His name is PSSupt Cesar Binag. 

 

Ate Angie and Col. Binag are two-of-a- kind.  Both fervent in prayer, firm in resolve and swift in action. Their collaboration led to the spiritual and moral transformation of the residents and the police.

 

The community now joins in the monthly Eucharistic celebrations and prayer meetings held in the barangay.

 

Different members of community regularly dialogue, bringing the police and citizens closer while solving social issues.

 

Community support in the form of donations of various kinds are promptly given to the police to augment their meager resources.

 

These efforts helped rid barangay Laging Handa of 8 big-time drug pushers and hidden drug laboratories, big-time robbery holdup gangs and noted carnappers. 

 and over 300 prostituted women were caught and rehabilitated.

 

On top of these, Laging Handa has been consistently declared the cleanest, greenest and safest barangay in the country.

 

The Kamuning experience is just one of the many stories that bear witness to the good that can be achieved when a community starts blessing—instead of cursing the cops.