HAU Receives CBCP-ECPPC Award for Prison Apostolate
University News
November 16, 2022
Holy Angel University was conferred the Gawad Paglilingkod Award by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines – Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care (CBCP-ECPPC) along with 16 other volunteer groups and individuals under the Archdiocese of San Fernando, Pampanga.
The conferment of the award is a gesture of gratitude to members of the community whose genuine love and concern for the members of the prison society was concretely manifested in their exemplary contributions that left a significant impact on the well-being of persons deprived of liberty. The ceremony formed part of the celebration of the 35th Prison Awareness Sunday.
In the Archdiocese of San Fernando, Pampanga, the award was conferred through the Archdiocesan Prison Apostolate Group of the Holy Rosary Parish in Angeles City in a Thanksgiving Mass on November 13, 2022. Ms. Edna Marriza C. Santos, Assistant to the President, and Ms. Norilyn Pineda, Director of the Institute for Christian Formation and Social Integration, received the certificate and medal on behalf of HAU.
The University’s more than two decades of prison apostolate and counting was initiated in the SY 1998-1999 by the Management Society (MANSOC), a student organization under then College of Business and Accountancy (now School of Business and Accountancy) with the supervision of the organization adviser and college professor Dr. Jesus Panlilio (now University Registrar). The jail inmates at the Angeles City Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) were formally named as then CBA’s adopted community in the said year, during which the college was housed in its new home, the St. Therese of Lisieux (STL) Building.
Since then, the apostolate has eventually engaged HAU employee and student volunteers from different units and colleges in the university in a variety of services to the sector, ranging from material assistance, annual Bigay-Puso outreach activities, equipment donation, and livelihood training to the provision of Sacraments and liturgical services, spiritual formation, promotion of health and wellness, and support for the BJMP’s livelihood, and reformation programs for the jail residents. One livelihood skills training project—abaca weaving—led by the Industrial Engineering Department of then College of Engineering became a livelihood augmentation for inmates in support of their families.