Email from Khing Vano (Monday, November 24, 2008):
TO HELP OR NOT TO HELP? A BACKGROUNDER
PRIESTLY BROTHERHOOD
PBUSA is first and foremost an organization of priests with one vision in mind: “to strengthen our priestly bond of brotherhood as Paring Bol-anons.” To accomplish this vision, we held annual reunions in different cities since 1986. We had been very successful in this regard and continue doing so. PBUSA members now span five generations of Boholano priests.
IHMS I LOVE YOU
Our reunions usually ended with a Formal Dinner & Musical Extravaganza to give the local residents of the host city a chance to meet the PBs, socializing, singing, dancing and dining. This is in addition to meeting the PBs during the Masses we held in different churches and homes of the host city. These formal dinners and musical extravaganzas were able to generate funds because local residents pay dinner tickets ranging from $75 to $100 per head. Every year, funds raised ranged from $4,000-$5,000. The money raised was all given to Immaculate Heart Of Mary Seminary in Bohol for “scholarships to poor but deserving seminarians. ” This was in line with the practice of the original fathers of PBUSA in the early 1980s who sold tapes, held concerts, and sent their proceeds to IHMS. They were Frs. Ben Manding, Eliseo Echavia, Floro Arcamo, and Cirilo Darunday, Jr. (MEAD). After them came the Singing Priests Of San Francisco. MEAD has still several thousand pesos invested in the Bohol Diocesan Coop for IHMS.
A KAKHA-TUKA EXISTENCE
In 1993 (Toronto Reunion), some PBs realized that sending all proceeds to IHMS every time we had funds was a “kakha-tuka existence”. Every reunion, we paid $50 for registration fee and sent them together with the funds raised from the formal dinners to IHMS. Nothing was left in our coffers. A motion was on the table to send only 1/2 of the funds raised at yearly reunions and keep or invest the other half here in the US, with the intention to send the interest and capital gains to IHMS. It was soundly defeated in the voting. Majority of the PBs still favored the “send all proceeds” for the reason that “Lami paminawon nang mohatag ta sa nanginahanglan” (Nice to know that we give to the needy.) Paternalism (godfather doling out money) was still a big thing among PBs. Our coffers were still empty. The idea came up again in Tampa (1994) and Miami/Bahamas Cruise (1995) Reunions. It was again defeated in the voting. It was not until the Los Angeles Reunion (1996) that the idea won in the voting and accepted as the standard operating procedure for all PBUSA fund raisers. Our funds began to grow and before we knew it, we now have some $30,000 in the bank.
IT’S HARD TO BE RICH
Then our problems began. Seeing that PBUSA has money now, requests for help and aid started to pour in. We stopped giving registration fees at reunions. We never had a reunion since 1996 without the President reading a letter of solicitation for one thing or another. From fencing the retirement home for priests to fixing the cathedral roof, from buying school chairs in Cortes Catholic high school to helping Leyte flood victims, from beefing up the cost of living allowance/retirement pension plan for priests to maintenance medicine for senior clergy. We embarked on $500 death aid to PBs and their parents as a token of brotherhood during difficult times like death in the family. And PBs fought whether it is retroactive or it favored one PB over the other. Reaching out to other priests here and the diocese back home is a very good development for the PBUSA as we did not close our eyes to the needs of our diocese, our brother priests in Bohol, and our own members. At the same time, it posed some problems to the organization as we tried to accommodate all requests for help. “Ikog man kon tabangan ang uban samtang ang uban dili.” (It’s embarrassing to help some and not the others). Then we lost sight of our original intention: IHMS Scholarships to help poor but deserving seminarians. But we held our ground. We still meet every year and our funds are intact and still growing. Thanks to our yearning for priestly brotherhood and camaraderie, we still hold our reunions. Thanks to our final realization that “kakha-tuka existence” promotes paternalism and short-lived self-sufficiency, our funds are intact and continues to grow.
BISHOP MEDROSO’S REQUEST FOR AID
With this as a background, we are faced with a request for aid with no less than the Bishop Of Tagbilaran asking $6K for Elijah Spirituality Center. The usual process we followed before was this:
1) A letter of request to the PBUSA President from the entity/person asking for help;
2) Presentation of the letter to the PBs during the Annual Meeting at the reunion;
3) Discussion of the request for aid;
4) Decision (Vote) to help or not to help;
5) Disbursement of money by Treasurer if request is approved.
With the advent of the internet, this process is now improved as we do the discussions and sharing of ideas through our PBUSA@yahoogroups. com before the reunion comes. Going to no. 4 above while surfing the internet might be premature at this time since it has not been done in the past, internet decision-making is not approved by any PBUSA statutes, and not all PBs are internet savvy.
MY SUGGESTION
Unless this request for aid is a matter of life and death, my suggestion is to wait until the Chicago Reunion 2009 to decide on the $6K request. Elijah Spirituality Center is here to stay and it can wait. If we decide in a hurry now, it will have adverse ramifications. We will be like the Congress hurriedly deciding $700B bailout of Wall St. because the world will end if they did not. As it turned out, it did not stop the economic downturn and they changed course from the original plan. Other interest groups (Big 3 Automakers) wanted a piece of the pie, too. And the end result is that the US national debt will go up another trillion dollars.
Therefore, let us wait for a letter from Bishop Medroso requesting $6K, present it in Chicago next year, and we vote YES or NO. Meanwhile, let us continue discussing it in the internet and keep our funds growing.
PADAYON PARING BOL-ANON!
Monday, November 24, 2008 5:57 PM
by Fr. Khing Vaño
