Operation Build-Up (OBU) 50th Anniversary: Living the Faith

The Operation Build-Up (OBU) 50th Anniversary was held last August 10 after 18 arduous months of meetings, fund-raising and member-tracking. A Steering Committee composed of focal persons and assistants of working units (publicity, ways & means, membership, program & awards, etc.) was assembled to set the 2019 anniversary year plan into motion. The theme: ‘Thanking the past, celebrating the present and moving forward with hope and joy’, was adopted with the help of its Spiritual Director, Fr. Pete Lamata and Moderator, Fr. Jhun Acedo.

From this trajectory OBU leaders and members worked together to accomplish the year’s key events: a summer work-camp that graduated 36 youth, boosted resources to support both the summer camp and all major activities leading to the culmination – a motorcade, a thanksgiving mass with main celebrant Archbishop Emeritus Fernando R. Capalla, DD., DCD., accompanied by 10 priests from the diocese and one from a religious congregation – were held in the morning. An agape lunch was followed by an inter-generational workshop dubbed ‘OBU Café’ in the afternoon. The Gala Night featured the posthumous awarding of plaques of appreciation to Fr. Paul DC. Cunanan, DCD received by Mrs. Victoria Cunanan, the matriarch of the Cunanan family, and to Archbishop Antonio Ll. Mabutas, D.D., received by the Teresian Daughters of Mary. A Cultural Presentation and socials added color and sparked the nostalgic mood as graduates from 1969 to the present met their own batch mates as well as those of other years. Several were pleasantly surprised at how much some have grown and equally impressed by those who haven’t changed one bit.

To talk of OBU is to go back to 1969. That year was when the late Fr. Paul DC. Cunanan, DCD, as Social Action Director of the diocese (now archdiocese) of Davao launched the first summer work camp to train the youth in Christian leadership and Filipino citizenship. The initial crop of 22 OBU graduates has now grown into a flock of more than a thousand as of 2019, bound in the pursuit of love of God, country and family. OBU believes that all action must be ‘grounded on truth, motivated by love and committed to justice and freedom for lasting peace’.

From 1969 until his untimely demise in 2008, Fr. Paul worked hard to keep OBU going, tapping on the goodwill and generosity of family, colleagues, friends and OBU allies. More importantly, he stayed on course by promoting his dream of the ideal Christian society through the ‘Diamond Approach’ – an outlook upholding the essential role of the youth as future leaders, accepting the reality of the one, true God, and leading and acting responsibly as parents and citizens of our country. He lived, inspiring the youth to ‘bloom where you are planted’. Indeed, a good number of OBU graduates have excelled in their respective careers, raised happy families, reaped awards for community service and served in the Lord’s vineyard. One OBU graduate proudly declared: ‘to be an OBU graduate is a badge of honor’.

Truly there is much to celebrate for. We witnessed how the OBU experience changed the lives of countless youth. By remembering August 10, we remember Fr. Paul, the founder, who, through OBU paved the way to bring God’s spirit in our midst and into our lives. OBU’s motto is: KEEP the FAITH. While we keep it, we need to LIVE the FAITH so that faith becomes fruitful. That’s the OBU way. [rg]