By: Tom Louis Herrera
The call of service and sharing is innate to every Bedan especially to San Beda College Alabang – School of Law (SBCA-SOL) community. Thus, the Bedan Balik Bayan (BBB) Program was spearheaded by the School of Law Government (SLG). With the help of the entire SLG together with Dean Ulpiano Sarmiento III, in partnership with the SOL faculty and SBCA Law Student Ministry, the project encouraged law students to embody the true Bedan spirit through involvement in helping the community.
The said program was supposed to be an immersion program for SOL students and was originally launched on March 8, 2021, but due to the implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in the country a few weeks after the said launch, the program was postponed and was relaunched on May 23, 2021.
“When the ECQ was imposed again a week before the immersion program, we had to pause everything and reevaluate how can the students help but still be safe in their own homes. Hence, we decided to partner-up with the school’s Bedan pantry,” SLG External Vice President Patricia Dela Rosa shared in an online interview the challenges in planning and organizing the event.
Dela Rosa further discussed the objective of the said program. “The objective is to inculcate to the School of Law students the true meaning of being an evangelized and evangelizing community. As Dean Ulan and SLG were planning about this, we discussed how wonderful it would be that we would be the first law school that actually prioritized helping people who are in need not only in the form of legal aid, but help them in their everyday struggle of providing for their basic needs such as food. Especially now during unprecedented times where everyone is being laid off from work, it has become more apparent that we are needed by the community we live in.”
During the first Bedan Community Pantry held on May 12, 2021, the SLG’s BBB Program funds was able to buy 6 sacks of rice. The BBB Program provided food supplies and hosted another Bedan Community Pantry on June 9, 2021. The distribution started at 10:00AM and was set up in the open area, level 1 of Our Lady of Monserrat Hall. Dela Rosa, the key organizer of the event, said that the SLG Officers and some volunteers manned and assisted in the setting up of the Bedan Community Pantry which was able to help 173 employees of SBCA. Similar to what is being practiced in several community pantries, the employees lined up to get various food items from the pantry sufficient to sustain their needs at least for a few days.
The donors of the BBB Program came from the SOL faculty and students. A total of Php197,370.00 were raised by the SLG from the donation drive which ended last May 31, 2021. According to Dela Rosa, the SLG was able to raise above and beyond what they expected with the help of generous donors. “To date, we already used up all the donations (funds) we have because we really wanted to provide a lot of food. We believe that the employees deserve this and so much more. This is really a way to thank them for everything that they have done for us over the years,” the student leader added.
“We hope that this would be a yearly activity because it would really mean so much to the people who will be greatly helped. Perhaps during the SLG transition program where we turnover our positions to new SLG members, we can emphasize the importance of continuing to create projects that will really help the students to stay grounded,” Dela Rosa said on behalf of the SLG officers.
“The Bedan Balik Bayan Program in partnership with the SOL faculty and SBCA Law Student Ministry was a huge success, and it wouldn’t be so if it weren’t for all those people who helped and supported us. Thank you to each and everyone of you. I hope that this event inspires all of us to love and care for the people around us and always extend a helping hand whenever we can,” Dela Rosa added.