Who We Are

   Brief History and Profile: DILAAB Movement

Dilaab (“conflagration” or “tongues of fire”) is a volunteer-driven, Church-based movement for a transformed Filipino nation through heroic Christian citizenship. Its basic message - little acts of good citizenship, like obeying traffic rules and segregating garbage, can be acts of loving God and neighbor – empowers ordinary people for change.

The movement traces its roots to February 2000 when a group of friends, ordinary citizens, cleaning up a room in the St. Jerome Bible Center of Cebu, decided to start a newsletter for overseas Filipino workers. This simple act of generosity, unknown to the group, ignited a faith-impelled impulse for social transformation.

Friends of Pedro, as the group became eventually known, developed proactive advocacy outreach for OFWs and families. It also provided the organizational and financial support for the birthing process of  two other advocacy outreaches, one, established in late 2001, seeking a narcopolitics-free Philippines (“Kamatuoran” or “Truth”) and  another, in late 2003, promoting graft and corruption intolerance (“Barug Pilipino” or “Make A Conscience Stand Pilipino”).

All three groups emerged as the response of volunteers facing up to particular societal crisis. Monthly pledges from basically the same people provided funds for operations, in addition to sporadic assistance from Filipinos abroad.  From the start, the movement relied on Divine Providence and prayer was (and is) central to it, from the daily Mass and Blessed Sacrament exposition at the office to the request for prayer support made to and by the staff (one, now 8). “Dilaabers” (as volunteers from certain parts of the Philippines are called) are no activists. Rather they partner with the Holy Spirit in the work of social transformation. It is the latter who takes the lead.

By 2004 these three erstwhile separate organizations were showing signs of strain in the face of very limited resources and the glaring need to consolidate. The make-do, “bahala na,” and “barkada” spirit characterizing the emergence of the movement needed to be complemented by professionalism, strategic planning and systems integration, and stakeholders approach, respectively. 

The movement provides three basic services: articulating a spirituality of social transformation (e.g. homily guides, newspaper articles, etc); developing, adapting, and channeling “technologies” enabling volunteers and partners to do something concrete (e.g. initiatives and projects of Dilaab); and connecting volunteers and partners with one another.

Since the movement moves only as fast as volunteers, whose involvement is a call, make themselves and their resources available,  consolidation work reached a turning point only on 6 February 2007 with the SEC approval amending the Friends of Pedro Foundation, Inc. (FPFI) as Dilaab Foundation Inc. (DFI). With DFI, it is now three in one: three advocacies in one movement. Financial and managerial consolidation continues with the establishment of systems.

The said date untintentionally coincided with the birthday of Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal of Cebu who has journeyed with the movement since its inception and who symbolizes the movement’s connectivity with the Church. The movement, however, actively collaborates with other denominations and sectors. Dilaab actively partners with other faith-impelled impulses for social transformation, like the Center for Values and Leadership Foundation, Inc., the Potter’s Leadership  Academy,  the Communication Foundation for Asia, and individuals in public and private sectors engaged in similar endeavors. The movement stands behind people in government or private sectors who want to be honest or who have made a public and authentic stand for good governance. Such a growing social scaffolding for good governance if needed if the efforts of such champions are to be sustained.

The movement, in particular, has provided a spark connecting inspired individuals - leaders – and their initiatives with one another, with Church networks, and with different sectors. One of them, a lawyer, had considered leaving the Philippines with his family unless the country progresses in 20 years. He and his wife have decided to remain and he has written a book: “12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country.” Another is a Wharton school graduate who rediscovered God during a spiritual desert experience resulting from a financial crisis. She now goes around the country sharing a seminar on God-centerd leadership. Still another one is a police officer who took on the cudgels of training police scalawags.  This has metamorphosized into a model of volunteer work and collaboration between government and faith-based organizations, and participants are no longer mainly scalawags. Other examples of convergence abound: a beleaguered public official of unsullied integrity facing an unjust impeachment case and finding support from a network eventually becoming Barug Pilipino; a courageous COA auditor inspiring support for those in government who desire to be honest; etc. More stories are being added on a daily basis. Heroic Christian citizens and leaders are rising up to the challenge.

The convergence of such efforts igniting spaces of hope is no coincidence. A faith-inspired conflagration is occuring.

Dilaab, together with other movements, helps the Church, the awakened giant in social transformation to its feet. This is needed if the observation in the Catechism for Filipino Catholics sec. 1193 is to be addressed: “Since we Filipino Catholics constitute the great majority of our nation, we hold the primary responsibility for building a just Philippine society.”

We Filipinos stand at the threshold of a transformed nation. God indeed hears the cry of the poor.