13th Foundation Day Message from our Chairman, Mr. Virgilio Peña

As delivered.

Today we celebrate the 13th year of Mano Amiga. It was exactly 13 years ago when we started our journey in a 2 storey, four room building used as a model home by Habitat Philippines in Taguig City. If I can recall, it didn’t even have a working toilet and up to the week before we were due to open, we still had no Meralco connection.

The number 13 has always been considered by many as unlucky or ‘malas’ . This is why we are told to avoid doing anything important on Friday the 13th and many buildings have no 13th floor. baka malas itong year na ito para sa atin. The myth of 13 being unlucky originated from the United States. One of the often repeated anecdotes was that during the last supper, Judas was the 13th to arrive for the Passover meal.  

However upon checking with my ever reliable reference- Wikipedia, I discovered that in other parts of the world, like France and Italy, the number 13 is actually considered a lucky number and is sought after when buying lotto tickets or betting on a football game.

I also learned a little known fact; even for Catholics, the number also has some significance. Did you know that the apparitions of the Virgin of Fatima to Sts. Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia, were claimed to have occurred on the 13th day of six consecutive months.  Our new chapel is dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima.  I think that instead of looking at this year as ‘malas’ year, we should welcome it as a year of blessing. 

We are now in our second year of online education with 220 students. We successfully completed the last school year even if at the start,  we had a lot of apprehensions about conducting our classes completely on an internet based system.  We were concerned about the ability of our students to have access to reliable broadband connections as well as equipping themselves with devices which will allow them to attend classes remotely. 

Thanks to our benefactors, we successfully raised enough funds to provide all our students devices as well as reliable internet connections to allow us to conduct classes effectively. We owe a lot of gratitude to our teachers for having been able to adapt and cope with this new way of delivering classes to our students.  

Our 13th year will take us through to the start of the 2022-2023 school year. Through the grace and intercession of our patron- Our Lady of Fatima, we anticipate that restrictions will be eased so as to allow us to start conducting face to face classes again and all of us to return back to our classrooms. Even as early as now, there are already indications that our government will start piloting face to face teaching in selected schools.

As soon as we reopen our class rooms. Even on a limited scale, we will be able to finally consecrate our new chapel and hold regular masses for our students and the mano amiga community.  

The next school year will also mark the opening of Grade 12 and allow us to offer the full curriculum of kindergarten to Grade 12.

Indeed, we have many things to look forward to and be thankful for this coming year. 

Of course, none of these could have happened if not for the confidence that all of you have accorded us; our benefactors, partners, and friends thank you for the continued support that you have given us through the many challenges we faced in all these years. 

When we were asked to move out of the Habitat Community in FTI, we had no idea whether we can continue operating as a school, but through the grace of god and the support of our benefactors, we were able to open our current facility in august 2016 with 171 students from kinder to Grade 7. 

We had a half-completed building with only two operating floors, a roof deck with bars sticking out water leaking into our lower classroom every time there was a heavy downpour.

We now have a building with a fully equipped chapel, third floor classrooms to accommodate our senior high school, a fully stacked library, and even a science lab for robotics.  And most important of all, we finally have a roof over the building.

With more grace from above accompanied by prayers, we hope to have a fully functioning sports facility on the fourth floor by the time we open our doors next school year.

We pray to Our Lady of Fatima that through her intercession, Mano Amiga will be blessed on its 13th year in the same manner that she blessed the world through her apparitions in Fatima.  

Thank you and good morning.