THE funding for the Archdiocese of Manila’s anti-poverty movement Pondo ng Pinoy (PnP) has now reached P450 million, a ranking Catholic Church official reported on Sunday.
Manila Apostolic Administrator Bishop Broderick Pabillo said in his homily they have been using the donated amounts to provide feeding programs, provide scholarships, and medicine and aid to the poor since 2004.
“This year the Pondo ng Pinoy is now on its 17th year. Through the donation of 25 centavos daily from the young and street people, it was able to gather P450 million,” Pabillo said.
This was about P22 million higher than the P427.29 million PnP funding last year.
“It has been silently gathering the amount for these programs, which have brought hope to many people,” Pabillo said.
The phenomenal response to PnP in just its first three years had drawn the admiration of the Vatican. In an earlier editorial, BusinessMirror said the fund campaign, with help from the communities in Catholic schools, had been richly rewarded because of the trust people reposed in the “collectors” [schoolchildren, parents, volunteers] adding that if government men could only consistently prove they are trustworthy, then perhaps the task of collecting taxes would not be so hard.
Pabillo made the statement to stress how the acts of God could start from “small and humble beginnings.”
He noted this was how the community pantries started, from just a single community three months ago, but is now replicated in 6,000 communities nationwide.
“How many have been fed in these few months by the community? They [organizer] do not make much noise, like the seed slowly grows. God is working,” Pabillo said, citing the parable of the mustard seed.
Pabillo also reminded Filipinos on how they could start great social changes from small gestures such as voting the right candidates come the 2022 National and Local polls.
“Let us start from small things. We may have no money, technology, highly qualified people and highly paid people, but the acts of God start from small efforts especially if we leave it to God,” Pabillo said.