UPDATED: The Story behind Gawad Kalinga's Splitsville

Good roundup from Bong Austero on why, how, when GK broke apart.

UPDATE: "Crab Mentality" the reason for GK split? Sabi ni Rina Jimenez David:

I don’t think it was an accident that rumors of differences among the CfC leadership broke out in the open shortly after Gawad Kalinga (GK) was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award for social development last year and Tony Meloto, executive director of GK, was named “Filipino of the Year” by the Inquirer. Indeed, in November last year, the Board of Elders of Couples for Christ was compelled to issue a document addressing the “contradictions” that had arisen between the “mother” organization and the project. Gawad Kalinga, it said, was just one of the “seven pillars” of CfC, and that “a pillar cannot be bigger than the organization.”

GK without the support of CfC, the document added, “would be just one other nice, successful social development work. And ultimately, without the base and blessing of faith, it will not renew the face of the earth according to God’s design.” And so, they declared, “GK needs CfC as CfC needs GK.”

Couples for Christ is itself a breakaway from the Catholic Charismatic group Ligaya sa Panginoon. If I remember right, it began building its membership base as a support group for married couples who went through marriage enrichment seminars, though it soon reached out to other constituencies with “Singles for Christ” and even “Teens for Christ.”

And the very public split has shed light on the real nature of CfC and GK organizations:

BUT in some way, I’m glad the split among the leadership of the CfC has brought public scrutiny to bear on the real nature of CfC and of Gawad Kalinga itself.

In a previous interview with Meloto, he was at great pains to point out that GK was willing to “work with anyone,” emphasizing how they had helped build communities even in Muslim-dominated areas, and that their “values education” programs were designed to be compatible with community values and to be culturally sensitive.

But the exchange of e-mails and declarations now make it obvious that GK was also in part conceived as a means of “recruiting” members to CfC, and using the “values education” modules as a way of spreading the CfC’s conservative Catholic ideology. As the November 2006 statement stresses: “We must be mindful of the reality that if we eliminate poverty but lose people to non-Christian sects or cults, then we would not have achieved Jesus’ mission.”

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Blogger Sir Martin noted some of the issues with GK long before they became public.