Oscar Arellano and OB
History
Partnership with NGOs and LGUs
Partnership with the Armed Services
OBMC is rooted in the humanitarianism that is the heart and spirit of Operation Brotherhood (OB), founded and chaired by Oscar J. Arellano in 1954. Its more recognized foundation, core concepts of Dr. Maria Montessori’s educational method, came later. With both these roots—care for humanity and belief in a child’s capability—OBMC maintains its legacy of service that education must not be an end in itself, but the beginning of changing society and the nation for the better.
“Whatever we did was guided by the experiences of my generation of Filipinos: a story of the faith that we thought we could give to another country in Asia because we too have been given faith by many countries in our past.”
Oscar J. Arellano will always be remembered in history as the founder of Operation Brotherhood (OB). He was a Filipino architect and president of the Manila Chapter of the Junior Chamber of Commerce or Jaycees in the early 1950s when he organized Operation Brotherhood, a humanitarian project that will address the medical needs of Indochinese refugees.
Filipino volunteers joined the team of doctors and nurses who rendered medical services and community development assistance to the refugees.
In October 1954, aboard a Philippine Red Cross plane, seven (7) Filipino doctors and three (3) nurses flew to Saigon as part of the pioneering team of OB.
After ending their work in Vietnam in 1956 and helping 730,000 people, Operation Brotherhood went to Laos. By 1975 they treated close to a million Laotians and deployed a total of 450 Filipino volunteers. It was in this country during a visit in 1964 when Oscar Arellano described OB: “Not very many people understand OB because they think it is a medical effort. They think it is an agricultural effort. They think it is a social effort. What they do not realize is that OB is a training for leadership. What they do not seem to realize is that someday, from the ranks of all of you and the Lao who are as much a part of OB, leadership will arise. OB is an experience by which each and everyone of us will realize how important everyone of us is, how all of us are useless unless we share what we know, and learn from others what there is so much to learn.”
Operation Brotherhood became an inspiration to the rest of the world with its work and advocacy antedating the American and Japanese Peace Corps programs by several years.
When Operation Brotherhood started its work in the Philippines in 1963, village projects became its priority including schools for the poor. OB was responsible for the relocation of 3,000 families from Intramuros, Manila to Sapang Palay, Bulacan.
It was during this time that Oscar Arellano invited a young teacher, Preciosa Soliven, to organize a nursery school for the children in the community to keep them busy while their parents were at work.
Operation Brotherhood became the mother organization of Operation Brotherhood Montessori Center (OBMC) when the school was established in 1966.
ARELLANO, OSCAR J. “How Operation Brotherhood Got to Viet Nam.” Philippine Studies 14, no. 3 (1966): 396–409. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42720119.
Project Kaibigan started in 1985 as a yearly donation drive of the OBMC community to share blessings with disadvantaged groups. Since then, it continues to reach out to numerous vulnerable groups that include our Pagsasarili preschools, orphanages, homes for the aged, indigenous groups, and our community helpers. These include packed food, school supplies, grooming kits, first aid kits, and used clothes. The program has also dedicated itself to providing physical aid to victims of natural calamities such as the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption, the 2013 Super Typhoon Yolanda, and the 2020 Taal Volcano eruption. It has also reached out to the families of our “Gallant SAF 44” and the victims of the Marawi Siege.
The annual Sitio Palan Christmas and Easter missions to the indigenous Aeta communities in San Marcelino, Zambales, are ongoing initiatives to provide assistance in health and/or education, and to share gifts to the less privileged.
The Pagsasarili Preschools began in 1983, as a joint project between the OBMCCF and the National Housing Authority (NHA), to provide affordable Montessori-based education in the slum-improved areas of Metro Manila. The program became accessible in provinces through tie ups with LGUs, NGOs, and funding agencies. In the years following, the program expanded to provide scholarships to poor but deserving students to continue their access to basic education, thereby gaining the skills to become productive citizens
To date, over 200 Pagsasarili sites have been established in the Philippines over the years, so underprivileged children can have access to Montessori education.
The O.B. Pagsasarili Preschools feature a modified Montessori preschool program and an economic package of classroom materials. The teachers are selected from within the community. They are trained to teach their underprivileged students to help themselves by acquiring important life skills that will sustain them for a lifetime. Learning is not done by rote or memorization. Instead, it results in behavioral changes, leading to the child’s independence and self-sufficiency. These two words, independence and self-sufficiency, define the Filipino word, “pagsasarili.”
Pagsasarili Preschools can be found in the following areas:
– UNESCO Heritage Sites of Ifugao
– Tarlac
– Pampanga
– Zambales
– Batangas
– Laboratory schools of teacher training institutes in Visayas and Mindanao
– Local government initiatives in Cagayan and Negros Oriental
COVID-19 Announcement: While these operations have prioritized the safety of the children in light of the current health crisis, Pagsasarili programs for early childhood will continue once the situation normalizes.
The Mothercraft Literacy Course for Village Mothers is the adult counterpart of the Pagsasarili Preschool Program. In 1993, these twin programs won the UNESCO International Literacy Award in New Delhi, India.
The Mothercraft Training and Literacy Program is a 1-week practical course for parents, guardians, and caregivers that covers lessons on personal grooming and hygiene, good housekeeping, child care, cooking and nutrition, and functional literacy using the Pagsasarili materials. It is meant to empower the adults to become confident in caring for themselves, their children, and their home. By understanding the true nature of the child (from ages 0–6), they are able to help condition their own children to become independent in caring for themselves and their environment.
This training can also open livelihood opportunities to help augment the family income.
This training course was incorporated in the DepEd Bureau of Non-Formal Education when the O.B. Montessori Child and Community Foundation became a Service Provider for their bureau’s program for out-of-school youth and adult learners programs (later to become the Alternative Learning System).
The school’s Operation Brotherhood has been a consistent first responder in providing humanitarian assistance and disaster response during natural and man-made disasters. It has provided tons of relief items to victims of the Bohol, Davao, and Batanes earthquakes, typhoon devastation in Northern Luzon and Bicol regions, sending relief assistance and de-stressing activities to the victims of the Taal eruption, to as far as the Calayan Group of Islands at the northernmost tip of the Philippines.
Even in the advent of online learning, our O.B. Montessori cadets were not deterred in continuing the legacy of Oscar Arellano’s Operation Brotherhood.
Within the safety of their homes, classes were planning, organizing, purchasing, and sending out care packages to their fellow Filipinos who were either caught in the COVID war or devastated by the wrath of nature. These packages were delivered through the efficient logistics and operational systems employed by the Philippine Coast Guard and its Auxiliary force.
OBMC offers a unique cadet program for its Junior High School with Leadership Training for Grades 7 to 9 and culminating in the Citizenship Advancement Training for Grade 10. It focuses on the development of the adolescent into a well-disciplined Filipino patriot anchored on the values of honor, duty, and service to the country.
A testimony to the marked degree of discipline acquired through this unique leadership program is the annual OBMC Corps of Cadets Parade and Review in honor of its Founder Dr. Preciosa Soliven. It also takes this opportunity to honor the men and women of the Armed Services, our living Filipino heroes. The school has been staging testimonial parades for over a quarter of a century now and the exponential growth over the years of the Cadet Corps is evident.
In recent years, under the able leadership and direction of Commodore Sara Soliven-De Guzman PCGA, the OBMC CAT Corps of Cadets has furthered the partnership of the institution with the Armed Forces of the Philippines by continuing to expose the Montessori students to the different units of the AFP.
Its Camping or Bivouac activity has been facilitated by instructors from the Philippine Army’s elite First Scout Ranger Regiment Training School since 2001.
Cadets have also experienced orientation to the new multi-role response vessels of the Philippine Coast Guard to increase awareness of the core functions and skills of its personnel and the appreciation of the latest assets of the PCG.
While the Testimonial Parade is the hallmark of the assimilation of discipline and leadership of the cadets, in today’s digital world, his patriotism and appreciation for his fellow Filipinos can be discerned through their artwork, prose, and poetry.
While the Parade and Review may be the culminating activity of the cadets’ life, its foundation is anchored on the development of the young adult into a responsible citizen.
Faced with the uncertainty of the pandemic, the Leadership Training program has been re-engineered to suit digital modalities with the safety of its students and the OBMC community in mind.
The program puts a premium on Disaster Preparedness and Risk Reduction, hence, it has embarked on an Environmental Awareness Program since 2015 in partnership with the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary. It has committed its students to the monthly coastal clean-ups and mangrove planting.
It has also embarked on an ambitious Trash-to-Trees Program where recycled materials collected are monetized and used to purchase tree saplings or to send support in the maintenance of geo-reserves.
Operation Brotherhood, through its partnership with the Philippine Coast Guard and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, also extends help to the nation’s soldiers and their families. It has adopted the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the AFP Medical Center in V. Luna, Quezon City, and has sent the OBMC cadets for visits to the Heroes Ward and the Dependents’ Cancer Ward to share pleasantries and stories with the patients and their families. The OBMC cadets attend immersion programs at the Philippine Military Academy and countless symposia with officers and men of the AFP.
Operation Brotherhood Montessori opens the first O.B. Montessori Pagsasarili Preschool at San Martin de Porres, Cubao, Quezon City, in coordination with the National Housing Authority and GM Gaudencio Tobias. Six (6) more sites would open in other NHA-developed areas of Metro Manila: West Crame, San Juan (1985); Tramo, Pasay City (1985); Bagong Silang, Caloocan (1986); Bagong Barrio, Caloocan (1986); Civil Aeronautics Area (CAA), Las Piñas (1986); and Karangalan, Pasig (1989).
Project Kaibigan is launched as a yearly donation drive of the OBMC community for the less privileged communities affected by calamities.
Fourteen (14) Mothercraft Literacy school houses are established in Cadiz and Sagay, Negros Occidental, for sugar farmers and their families. These projects are the precursor of the Mothercraft Training and Literacy Program for village mothers.
The O.B. Montessori Grassroots Leadership Foundation is launched to grant poor but gifted Pagsasarili students full scholarships in OBMC.
The Mothercraft program expands into the Familycraft program to include fathers and other family members for the literacy training of Aeta communities affected by the Mt. Pinatubo eruption.
On December 2, the O.B. Montessori Child & Community Foundation (OBMCCF) is formally registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The O.B. Montessori Pagsasarili Twin Projects receives the UNESCO International Literacy Award from UNESCO-Paris in New Delhi, India.
The case study of Dr. Eligio Barsaga, Chairman of the Research Department of SEAMEO-Innotech, reveals how the decade-long Pagsasarili project has given middle- to low-income families in Metro Manila increased access to quality education.
Mothercraft Training Centers open in various municipalities of Bulacan.
OBMCCF becomes a provider for the Bureau of Alternative Learning System, paving the way for hundreds of adult learners to get certification as high school graduates.
A pilot project at the Angeles Elementary School in Pampanga adapts the Pagsasarili program in preschool to Grade 6, as a response to the UNESCO EFA-Dakar Framework of Action for Quality Education to enhance the training of public school teachers and provide an alternative system of education.
The Canadian Embassy provides funding to convert eight (8) DSWD day-care centers into Pagsasarili Preschools at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ifugao.
Mayor Vilma Santos-Recto supports the conversion of DSWD day-care centers in Lipa City into Pagsasarili Preschools. This project will continue until her third term as governor of Batangas in 2016.
OBMC is designated as the National Laboratory of the Southeast Asia Center for Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development, a UNESCO Category 2 center.
Teachers from the Department of Education (Regions 1 to 4B) receive training in the Pagsasarili Preschool Program and the Agriculture and TLE subjects. This spreads the implementation of the Pagsasarili Preschool Program to 25 public schools in Luzon.
The Pagsasarili Preschool Program is integrated in the laboratory schools of teacher training universities in the Visayas, as well as the inclusion of a Montessori-based course in their Early Childhood Education curriculum, under the auspices of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
The first Pagsasarili project begins in Mindanao, as the Davao Oriental State College of Science and Technology in Mati adapts the Pagsasarili Preschool Program in its laboratory preschool. This is through the effort of Congresswoman Corazon Malanyaon.
Operation Brotherhood launches the “Kalinga ng Ina Soup Kitchen,” a monthly feeding program at the Our Lady of the Abandoned Parish, with the assistance of Junior High School students and teachers of OBMC–Sta. Ana Campus. This feeding program continues the practice of Bro. Calixto “Tito” Silverio of giving food to the homeless within the vicinity of the Jesuit House in Sta. Ana, Manila.
OB partners with the St. Arnold Jannsen Kalinga Center spearheaded by Fr. Flaviano Villanueva, SVD, to serve the street people of Tayuman, Manila, by providing food for their bodies, as well as their minds using the Pagsasarili materials.
Six (6) additional DSWD day-care centers in San Pascual, Batangas, are converted into Pagsasarili Preschools under the sponsorship of Chevron Philippines.
OBMC students through Operation Brotherhood start working with the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Army on environmental awareness and protection advocacies such as the coastal clean-up and tree-planting programs
Mayor Lloyd Antiporda of Buguey, Cagayan, and Mayor Pryde Henry Teves of Bayawan, Negros Oriental, seek out OBMCCF to enhance their day-care centers with the Pagsasarili Preschool Program.
Operation Brotherhood provides training and educational materials to the staff of two mission houses in Bulacan: Bethlehem House of Bread in Baliwag and Bahay at Yaman ni San Martin in Bustos. Under the care and supervision of Fr. Boyet Concepcion, these homes cater to abandoned and abused children.
Clark Development Corporation seeks the assistance of OB and OBMC to set up a pilot school for Aeta children and adults from Bamban, Tarlac, and Mabalacat, Pampanga, inside the Clark Freeport Zone. This will soon be replicated in five (5) other Aeta communities of these municipalities.
Operation Brotherhood joins the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and its Auxiliary force in their Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response program to provide relief items and de-stressing activities to families and communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and by the Taal Volcano eruption. The operation reaches as far as Calayan Island at the northernmost tip of Luzon.
On June 30, OBMCCF had its name changed to Operation Brotherhood Community Foundation, Inc. (OBCFI), following the expansion of its objectives of providing Montessori scholarships and humanitarian assistance.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Operation Brotherhood mark a historic milestone with the inauguration of the first-ever radio repeater in Luzon on October 26 at the Preziosa Botanic Resort in Alfonso, Cavite
Twenty-seven PCG personnel from the Civil Relations Service group begin the initial phase of orientation on the Montessori concepts and principles for the Community Center in Taguig.
