Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto is calling on families in Negros Occidental to help build GK communities in honor of their loved ones to create a lasting legacy as they help the poor.

In Talisay City, the family of sugar planter, real estate broker and editor-publisher Alberto Balcells, a man who cared deeply for the poor, has taken the lead with the building of the GK Alberto Balcells Legacy Village in Barangay Cabatangan, Talisay City, and several other Negrense families have already committed to do the same, Meloto said.

Hotel corporate consultant Anna Balcells, daughter of Alberto, said in 2006 she was watching a TV program where Meloto and his son-in-law Dylan Wilkes were being interviewed about Gawad Kalinga. 

She was immediately struck by the vision of GK of building communities, not just houses, for the poor, Balcells said.

“As I was watching intently, I clearly heard the voice of my father whisper to me ‘Anna, this is what I want to do',” she said.

She said her father Alberto Balcells, who passed away in 2000, was born in 1918 in Barcelona , Spain . He met her mother Carmita Lacson Claparols in Barcelona , and in 1953 they moved to the Philippines and made Talisay their home. 

“Papa always said that Talisay and the island of Negros was his paradise and that he would rather live here than anywhere else in the world.  Every time he would visit his family in Barcelona he would tell them how happy and thankful he was to be living here,” she said.

But her father would always tell her how it broke his heart to see so much poverty in the country, especially the homeless and how he wished he had the money to help build everyone a house, she said.

“The Philippines was my father's personal paradise. I now clearly see that papa would like us all to help make the Philippines a paradise for every single Filipino, especially for the poorest of the poor,” she said.

Balcells said she knows her father's message to her was to encourage all families in Negros to establish GK communities in honor of a loved-one. “If all families do this, we can eradicate homelessness,” she said.

She said the building of the GK-Alberto Balcells Legacy Village is her family's way of thanking Talisay – and Negros Occidental – for making her father one of their very own and taking such good care of him.

She said her father's brother, Santi Balcells, and his children, and her aunt Rosa Balcells, in Barcelona , Spain , sent the money for the building of the 12 GK houses turned over on Feb. 4.

Even her uncle's secretary Ramon gave 500 Euros and wrote a beautiful letter saying that every centavo was sent with love for the Filipino people, she said.

Balcells said her uncle's eight children have told her that their father was so happy to be part of such a beautiful dream and had made them promise, before he passed away last year, that they would always continue to help in building more houses.

She said her niece Mercedes Balcells, a research scientist and professor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston , has pledged to build a school on the GK site in Cabatangan, Talisay.

Other relatives and friends have also contributed the funds for 10 more houses: five from Daryll Lacson-Wilson from Vancouver, Canada, two from Joe and Tina Guingona, two from George and Nena Ortoll and one from Patricia and Tom Merando from Boston, she said. 

This brings us to 22 houses, almost halfway to our goal and commitment of 50 houses for the GK-Alberto Balcells Legacy Village , Balcells said.

The Women in Travel donated 100 jackfruit trees for the village, which will help feed everyone living in it, she said.

The Women in Travel are committed to planting jackfruit trees in every single GK village in Negros , which they already started doing last year, she added.

After the completion of the GK-Alberto Balcells Legacy Village, Balcells said she is committed to establish another Gawad Kalinga village in honor of the Lacson family and many more in cooperation with the Kalipay Negrense Foundation.

Balcells and John Gayoso are founders of the Kalipay Negrense Foundation, which was created to help abandoned, molested, battered, malnourished, homeless children in Negros , and GK is one of their beneficiaries.

She noted that Luci Lizares has also been inspired with the help of some of her relatives to put up another village in honor of the Lizares clan.

“Just as my father found paradise in this country let us all help make it a paradise for every single Filipino, especially the poorest of the poor,” she said.*CPG

back to top