Not the end of Kilosbayan concert

The benefit concert sponsored by Kilosbayan last week was a success, with the audience made up of mostly the cultured, civic-minded, and lovers of music. The concert, titled Sa Mahal Kong Bayan, honored the "new heroes" – Ediborah Yap, and Martin and Gracia Burnham, who had been held captive by the Abu Sayyaf for months, with only Gracia coming out of the ordeal alive, and Marilyn Bien-Gongiad, "model public servant of the year," – consisted of the superb performance of Andion Fernandez, coloratura soprano, Nolyn Cabahug, tenor, Nomer Son, baritone, and pianist Lourdes Gregorio. Exquisite numbers were rendered by the Athenaeum String Quartet of the UP College of Music, too.

The concert was held also to raise P5-million pesos to keep the worthwhile project of Bantay Katarungan (BK), a sister organization of Kilosbayan, going. This project seeks to help improve the system of justice in the Philippines. But Ford Foundation, which has been the major donor of Bantay Katarungan, contributing $100,000 a year to the project, is closing down its operations next year. Thus, BK needs to raise funds ahead to support the services of selected law students from the leading law schools – UP, Ateneo, San Beda, FEU, and Lyceum – who have been the BK watchdogs over important cases in the courts.

However, the benefit concert only raised P2.5 million, and needs another P2.5 million to meet the budgetary requirements of the project. Kilosbayan and Bantay Katarungan president Jovy Salonga says fund-raising activities will continue. To start with, on August 17, Channel 7 will be broadcasting the benefit concert and KB and Kilosbayan documentary footages, in the hope that people will be touched to help the justice-improvement program going. So, watch and listen to the Channel 7 broadcast. Time of airing will be announced.

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Many people have now read stories about the Burnhams and Ediborah Yap. But who is the fourth person being honored as a modern-day hero – Marilyn Bien-Gongiad? She is a 31-year-old schoolteacher from the Harubay Elementary School in Calabanga, Camarines Sur. Her monthly salary is only P10,000, and her take-home pay, after deductions, is around P6,600 a month. Her husband, a technician in the Naga Cable, earns P5,000. The joint income supports the family with three children.

Recently, Marilyn discovered that P6-million had been deposited by the Department of Education Head Office in her ATM account. She felt uncomfortable when she learned about it. What she did was to immediately travel to Manila and tell Secretary Raul Roco the truth; there was a big mistake and she cannot accept the amount that has been credited to her. Jovy Salonga says Marilyn is a model public servant of the year "because of her honesty, integrity and trustworthiness, in the act of what might have been an irresistible temptation considering her family’s meager resources."

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By the way, Gracia Burnham has agreed to write about what she and Martin and Ediborah had gone through. "I want to tell the real story of our captivity – about our ordeal, about how it affected our relationship with each other and with God, and about our wonderful friends and family who worked so hard and prayed so faithfully about our release." The book project was announced by Tyndale House Publishers, which succeeded in signing up Gracia through Doug Walton, Tyndale’s director of human resources and administrative services. Walton was Martin Burnham’s best friend. The book will be released in spring next year.