March 29, 2024

TINGLAYAN, Kalinga – Two widows finally have a house they can call their own, thanks to the Adopt an Indigent Family project of the 2nd Kalinga Provincial Mobile Force Company (PMFC)  under the command of Lt. Col. Igan Ballangan.
Elvira Balusan and her daughter Debora are both widowed, and together with Deborah’s three children, they had been living in a makeshift shelter at Riverside, Bangad in this town for years. They were living in a hand-to-mouth existence and building a house was not a priority.
Ballangan said to make the celebration of the Police-Community Relations Month more significant amid the Covid-19 pandemic, they looked for an indigent family to assist and eventually chose the Balusan family.
Personnel of the 2nd Kalinga PMFC started raising money, collecting donations among themselves, and buying construction materials to build a house. They started work on July 3.
“Our men did the job as carpenters and laborers – they designed, made the layout, hauled materials and aggregates, and did all the labor for the construction of the house,” Ballangan said.
The house made of GI sheets, wood, and cement was completed, blessed and turned over to the family on July 21 in the presence of Kalinga Provincial Police Office officials and the punong barangay of Bangad.
Happiness could be seen and felt on the faces of the Balusan family as they accepted the key to the house from the Good Samaritans.
“Dakkel unay a panagyaman mi ta natulungan yo dakami. Sapay kuma ta ni Apo Dios ti mangsubad ti kinaimbag yo,” Debora said as she expressed her family’s gratitude since they can now sleep well and safe at night and during calamities.
Reaching out to poor families is one of the best practices of the police. All PNP units in Kalinga have adopted indigent families with some extending food, materials, and cash assistance to a whole barangay even during the Covid-19 pandemic. –Peter A. Balocnit