IIREF founder receives noble Datu Bago award

DAVAO CITY – The founder and the Executive Director of the Ignatian Institute of Religious Education Foundation (IIREF) Rev. Fr. William “Bill” Malley, SJ, STD, is among the recipients of this year’s Datu Bago Awards, a highlight to the annual Araw ng Dabaw celebrating its 79 years of cityhood this year.

A foreign national who renounced his American citizenship to embrace the Filipino nationality in 1979, Malley through the Ignatian Institute of Religious Education Foundation, Inc. (IRREF) has become an epitome of a noble inspiration – touching many lives with his utmost desire of bringing in social transformation in the light of academic formation and training.

IRREF is a community of Christic Stewards and Peace bringers providing comprehensive and integrated understanding of the Christian Faith experience, with personal communion and commitment in the Crucified/Glorified Jesus, in the church and in the world.

Born in America with a European descent, Malley acquired his Certificate of Naturalization #016612, File No. of Resolution 016941 on October 1, 1979 in the city of Manila, and has never ceased being and having the heart of a true-blue Filipino and a Davaoeno through his mission.

IIREF has been responding to the signs of the time by empowering individuals from the urbanized sector to the rural countryside. Its presence in Davao City has contributed much to the improvement of the political, economic, and religious landscapes of the city through formation and training of localities who among them are educators of various academic institutions, lay leaders from different GKK’s and BEC’s, and barangay and purok levels.

Malley has a vast experience of collegiality and a solidarity in the local church, of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue to bring out his best of being a man for others.

He has been maintaining his composure in order to continue IIREF’s thrust to sustain its noble operations and continue to grant scholarships to its recipients, as blessings for the foundation ceaselessly come in from generous hearts.

IIREF is currently based in Holy Cross of Davao College where both share the same vision and mission of evangelization.

The Datu Bago Award, is the most prestigious recognition given to a Davaoeño who has immensely contributed to the development of the city and its people. The 2016 Datu Bago awardees were formally recognized through the Datu Bago Awarding Ceremony on March 12 at the Royal Mandaya Hotel. (Aimee Grace Gito and Evangeline Adalid, with reports from Nino Cuestas)