WHEN FACING hardships in life, things may seem inescapable. However, for Fr. Flavie Villanueva, all it takes to get by is a little help and lots of love. In his Talakayang Alay sa Bayan (TALAB) talk “Program Paghilom: Theater as Response to Extra-Judicial Killings” on October 8 at the Rizal Mini Theater, Villanueva delved into the Arnold Janssen (AJ) Kalinga Center’s Program Paghilom initiative and how they are able to provide holistic care for family members of extrajudicial killings victims. 

“Homelessness is never a choice”

From a young age, Villanueva always felt like he never belonged, whether it was at home or in school. He explained that this was the reason why he took drugs for the first time. Villanueva shared that once he got hooked on drugs and alcohol it wasn’t long until he was out on the streets⁠.

“Homelessness is never a choice,” Villanueva said in his opening remarks. According to him, the idea of a home is both a physical state and a sense of being welcome. He asserts that no one wants to be homeless. 

Citing family feuds, poor life decisions, and a lack of resources as the biggest causes of homelessness, Villanueva mentioned that it was upon the realization that many others were like him did he decide that he, along with other people, deserved a second chance.

AJ Kalinga gives this second chance by providing the homeless with services such as bathing, clothing, and feeding, as well as the gradual recreation of their self-images. At the talk, Villanueva presented pictures of people before and after they were groomed. 

Villanueva shared part of the process of groomed: These people are affirmed by being placed right in front of a mirror where they’re made to say a mission statement which ends with the words, “Maaring magbago ang buhay ko (My life can change.)”

Making sense of experiences through theater

Villanueva looked to theater as a means of recuperation and expression that worked for people that witnessed the brutality of the police. He called up Danica, one of the actors in Program Paghilom, to talk about how her husband was killed by the police in their own home. She talked in hushed tones about a person in special weapons and tactics gear shouting and telling her to stay in a different room, or she might get killed. 

Villanueva mentioned how TALAB was Danica’s first time getting up to a microphone in front of a group of people to tell her story and how she enjoys theater much like the rest of the people in Program Paghilom. Danica was also one of the actresses in Program Paghilom’s “Paghilom… Misyon Natin,” staged in Ateneo over this school year’s intersession.

Since first-hand experiences of police brutality and drug abuse are difficult to talk about outright, Villanueva heralds promoting theater as a means of expression. Beyond healing should be the opportunity to move forward with one’s life—something AJ Kalinga Center offers for all those who are willing to seek help.