Home for a Hundred Children

When Tereret Tambunting Liboro and her husband, Andy, planned a trip to Spain last year, it was only because of her interest in Spanish dancing. For several years, Tereret had been taking lessons in Spanish flamenco and had become so adept that she was constantly being asked to give exhibition performances at various society balls.

Last year, while planning a trip to Europe to celebrate their wedding anniversary, Tereret thought it would be nice to combine a tour of religious sites with a few weeks in Spain to polish her Spanish dancing technique.

Everything went as planned. They visited Jerusalem, Rome and The Vatican, Lourdes and ended up in Madrid where she and a couple of like-minded friends enrolled in flamenco classes. Tereret and her friends took dan-cing classes during the week and on weekends they all would rent a station wagon and ride out of the city on sightseeing trips to nearby towns.

It was on one of those sightseeing tours that something happened that changed their lives. Tereret says, "God works in mysterious ways. Often He works through something you like to do. We had gone to Spain because of my love for Spanish dancing, but there I found something far more important."

On that memorable weekend they had chosen to drive northward from Madrid and, after going through several picturesque towns, they came upon Alba de Tormes in Salamanca, where they were told that the place to visit was the tomb of Santa Teresa de Jesus.

Tereret recounts: "The mystic Saint had died in a Carmelite convent in the town. Andy and I thought it was a nice coinci-dence because Santa Teresa was my patron saint, but it was just one of many coincidences. While we were going through that ancient convent we were shown the cell that Santa Teresa used to occupy. Hanging on the wall we saw a painting of her kneeling in prayer before what was apparently a vision of another saint. The guide told us, ‘That is San Andres Apostol. She had a special devotion to him and was known to have had visions of him on several occasions.’ Andy and I looked at each other–Santa Teresa and San Andres–my patron saint and his!"

But we are getting ahead of the story. Sometime before they left Manila Tereret and Andy had been contacted by a friend, Architect Manuel Gonzalez, who two years before built a church in a squatter’s relocation area in Caloocan. He was specially commissioned by Doña Nena Tambunting, Tereret’s mother, because it was her dream to build a church for the poor.

As Tereret recounts, "Manny Gonzalez told me that my brother Ramon who had just passed away had discussed a plan with him to build a pavilion for the handicapped children of the Gaches Village in Alabang and he was urging me to take over the project. It was the farthest from my mind. I was already getting ready to leave for our European trip so I told him I would think about it and let him know when I came back home. I had forgotten about it until that moment when Andy and I stood before that painting in Santa Teresa’s cell. Somehow we were touched by the coincidence of her special devotion to San Andres Apostol. The thought hit us both simultaneously–there must be some message there! And Andy turned to me and said, ‘I think the message is we two were really meant to be together and because we have no children of our own, we must take care of children who have no parents to help them.’"

And that was the sudden inspiration that finally resulted in the two pavilions that were recently inaugurated at the Elsie Gaches Village for handicapped children. As soon as they got back home, Tereret contacted Architect Gonzalez to draw up the plans for the two pavilions. It took them a whole year to finish the buildings and Tereret participated actively every step of the way, working with Manny who had donated his services, checking the plans, purchasing the construction materials, inspecting the construction site.

Now that the pavilions have been inaugurated (by no less than President Macapagal-Arroyo who remembered that the first pavilion in Gaches Village was commissioned by her mother Eva Macapagal when she was First Lady) and blessed (by Cardinal Sin), the children have moved in. Inspired by her example, Tereret’s friends have adopted her project as their own.

"They all are contributing," says Tereret with a glowing smile. "Some pay for the salaries of the yayas for the children. One yaya takes care of two children and is paid P2,500. So when you pay for a yaya you not only help two babies but you give employment to one yaya. Others have contributed clothing and other supplies while others go regularly to visit the children and personally bathe and feed them, to make them feel the tender loving care that they never had before."

Depressed and discouraged by so many daily stories about graft and corruption in high places, sex scandals and heinous crimes, we were happy to hear about good people who were spiritually inspired to share with the needy family money earned by generations of honest endeavor. It was good to hear how a childless couple found a hundred children to love and how one good deed led to many others. We specially like the fact that it all started to happen long before it became popular and politically advantageous to talk about "helping the poor".

The helpless babies of Gaches Village cannot vote but they have given Tereret and Andy Liboro the special kind of happiness that comes from charity for pure charity’s sake and from giving from the heart.