When 500 balikbayans and guests sit down for dinner in the courtyard of the Ayala Terraces tonight, it will be familiar homecoming.
Native dishes will be served. A live band will serenade them. The beat of drums will accompany Sinulog dancers to give all a glimpse of Sunday’s big parade. Sometimes it lingers for dancing.
Something’s different this year.
The giant tent shielding the party from monsoon showers will have another purpose for gathering Sinulog visitors under its canvass. Under its shade, an ambitious shelter program will be launched for typhoon Yolanda survivors far away in the Camotes islands in northeast Cebu, a place so remote that relief programs have barely reached its residents who cope with houses still damaged or destroyed by a superstorm that wiped out 80 percent to 90 percent of structures in the islet town of Pilar.
BalikBalay is a project of the Balik Cebu Committee, an ad hoc group of volunteers who come together every year to mount a heartfelt welcome for balikbayans returning to Cebu for the Sinulog festival.
After Yolanda wrecked havoc in northern Cebu and the Visayas, some US balikbayans who come for the Sinulog every year sent cash donations for relief aid. After using it to bring relief goods to north Cebu communities, a light bulb went on. Why not channel this goodwill for long-term impact and help rebuild homes?
With that, the idea of a shelter program for storm victims quickly took shape. While many civic groups and private citizens rushed to bring GI sheets, nails, food and water to Bantayan Island and north Cebu towns, Balik Cebu paused to think about what other need had to be filled.
“We looked at our rich cultural traditions and found this — the “bahay kubo” nipa hut, or “balay nga payag” for Visayans,” said Tetta Baad, committee chair.
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