LIBMANAN, Camarines Sur -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has pledged to support the programs of the Catholic Church’s social action center of the Libmanan Prelature in this town where her son Congressman Dato Arroyo established residence since 2005 to become the representative of the first district of Camarines Sur in the 14th Congress.

        Upon her request, Ms. Arroyo met the clergies here last June 29 wherein the social action center presented the pressing needs of the prelature including the problem of destroyed churches and capability building needs of Catholic communities, according to Fr. Granwell N. Pitapit, executive director of the social action center Prelature of Libmanan Development Foundation, Inc. (PLDFI).

        Pitapit, 33, revealed yesterday they were not expecting a meeting with the president, so they scrambled to prepare the parish to receive the highest official of the land by doing a makeover of the conference room of the parish less than 12 hours before arrival, aside from brainstorming until 2 a.m. on what to present to the president.

        He narrated they have to rush to Naga City the night before the meeting to buy air conditioning unit, glass panes and other construction materials for the makeover of their conference room, at the nick of time as department stores were already closing.

        “We are deeply honored that for the first time in this town the president of the Philippines requested to have a special meeting with us priests. We want to show our Bicol hospitality,” the young priest enthused.

        He said Undersecretary Fatima A. S. Valdes of the religious affairs of Malacañang, called up at six o’clock in the evening, a day before Congressman-elect Arroyo took oath in an exclusive affair at the parish here.

        Pitapit explained that the background of the events before the meeting with the president started during the campaign period at the time an undersecretary talked to him to court the support of the priests for Congressman Arroyo’s bid.

        But he said he frankly told the Malacañang exec they cannot do that and explained that the priests here are personally close to Sabas Mabulo, the contender of the presidential son in the congressional race. He further explained that they had known each other for so long because Mabulo was once a staff of the social action center.

        Pitapit said the undersecretary went on to tell him that the Malacañang’s intention to coordinate with them was beyond politics because the Church and the State have almost the same constituency.

        He said the meeting then with the president was the formal presentation of the “counter paper” or proposal that involved the social action initiatives of the Catholic Church aimed at alleviating the poverty situation in the 11 towns under the Libmanan Prelature.

        Pitapit enthused that the president was even responsive to the problem of destroyed and damaged churches but emphasized the principles of the separation of Church and State in which she promised to refer them to donors and sources of non-government funds.

        He said Ms. Arroyo commented that it’s not simply decent altars that the Church needed here but the structure of the place of worship.

        Pitapit told the president that the cause of the backlog of rehabilitation of churches in the 27 parishes covering 345 villages was the incapacity of the parishioners to support the church program because of widespread poverty.

        He shared the poverty alleviation initiatives of the PLDFI in organizing the communities into “small Christian communities” wherein they channel resources to communities in terms of capability building, provision of livelihood projects, environmental programs and spiritual development.