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STAFF

Our daily operations are managed by competent people who are motivated by love and joy to help transform our land and peoples towards justice and peace.


SILFRED ABELITADO
freddie@peacebuilderscommunity.org

He is called Kuya Freddie. He fixes everything at the PeaceBuilders Community Centre. He makes sure that our workplace is a peace and reconciliation workers’ haven characterized by peace, beauty, order, and cleanliness. He’s also our in-house roaster who maintains that our office is flowing with 100% Arabica coffee from 9AM to 5PM. Kuya Freddie has been serving with us since 2007.

Freddie serves in our CentreCare Team – Maintenance

Asked what makes him so enthusiastic about his work at PBCI: “This is my second family. I enjoy being appreciated as I make sure that peacebuilding workers experience being at home when they come back from the field. I also enjoy our daily lunch together as a family.


FRANI D. CATUA
frani@peacebuilderscommunity.org

Frani is a proud Ata Manobo and grew up with PBCI. She started serving with the Pantojas in January 2006 when she was still a teen-ager. When PBCI opened a centre in 2007, she was one of the first full-time employees. She was sent to study hotel and restaurant management at the Philippine Women’s College of Davao. She’s married to Joe Tugado and they have now two teenaged daughters.

Frani serves with our CentreCare Team – Food Services 

Asked what working with PBCI means to her: “Love. Patience. That’s what I have been experiencing as a spiritual daughter growing up in this community. It’s not just working. It’s being raised up spiritually while serving other people.


ARAFAT “TOTO” ANUAL BALONO
toto@peacebuilderscommunity.org

Arafat “Toto” Anual Balono is a highly skilled professional with basic educational background in Business Administration and Electrical Engineering, blending managerial and technical expertise. His academic qualifications have equipped him with a versatile skill set, enabling him to excel in diverse roles. Toto is a dedicated family man, married to Zajada “Dak” Catao Balono, and together they have raised four adult children, reflecting his ability to balance professional and personal responsibilities. Toto’s professional expertise includes professional and security driving, where he demonstrates exceptional situational awareness and safety-focused decision-making. He is also adept at route planning and logistics, optimizing travel efficiency and ensuring timely, risk-minimized transportation.

Toto serves as Technical, Security, & Transportation Specialist, PBCI-CFP

Asked what key strength he’s bringing to PBCI: First is my desire to serve Allah with my whole being; then serve him and the people through my skills. My God-given skills include proficiency in vehicle repairs; diagnose and fix various technical issues; ensuring the reliability and safety of vehicles under my care; while also saving time and costs for PBCI.


PAULA ANDREA J. GANCERO
pau@peacebuilderscommunity.org

Pau is our in-house artist, finance and administrative person in the office. She is quiet and passionate young lady whose dream is “to become a successful entrepreneur that could help introverted people like me to have a safe place to work and enjoy what they like.” In 2020, Pau earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Business from the College of Development Management at the University of Southern Philippines, Davao City. What impressed us most about Pau is her high standard of personal integrity. “Learning and understanding morality for me,” she asserts, “is necessary to live a life aligned to any culture because having good morals could make a better change for yourself and for others.”

Pau serves as Administrative Officer, PBCI-CFP Inclusive Development Team.

Asked what part of her life-journey that prompted her to be a part of an inclusive development team: “My college education gave me the idea of having a business that can promote our local farmers’ businesses, and it has given me the idea of enhancing our farmers’ knowledge by guiding and teaching them through a simple partnership program with the help from an organization.


MARIA LIGAYA JOSEFINA MOYA ROJO
june@peacebuilderscommunity.org

We call her June for short. She has been serving as a local church pastor for more than 10 years. We got to know her when she served as a volunteer with PBCI for a year. We noticed June’s effective and efficient field leadership. Her community organizing skills have been remarkable. So, the PBCI Management Team agreed to invite her to become one of our field staff members, coordinating our Eastern Mindanao Peace and Reconciliation (PAR) operations.

June serves as PAR Partnership Facilitator, Eastern Mindanao

Asked how she’s adjusting from pastoral ministry to peacebuilding ministry: “Peacebuilding ministry puts into action what I have been preaching for years about getting involved in holistic ministry and about being a church outside the walls of the church building.”


JOSEPH ASTROPHEL ‘KA BOYET’ ONGKIKO
boyet@peacebuilderscommunity.org

Joseph is known among pastors and Christian leaders in the Philippines as an effective leadership development teacher. He’s ‘Ka Boyet’ to his family and friends. He completed his bachelors degree in Development Communications and masters degree in Development Management  from the University of the Philippines. He was the former Director for Transformational Development at the Asian School of Development and Cross-Cultural Studies (ASDECS).

Ka Boyet serves as Executive Vice President – Organizational & Program Development

Asked about his perspective of our relationship and harmony as human beings, he said: Wherever we are and regardless of what we are into, we share the same heart – created in God’s image – with inherent value and dignity as human beings. Our lives are joined together and we share each other’s joy as well as each other’s pain.


JOJI PANTOJA
aka LAKAMBINI MAPAYAPA
joji@peacebuilderscommunity.org

Joji manages the finances of PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. She runs the business aspects of PBCI both as a living organism and as a set of connected organizational parts forming a complex whole. She turns a vision from an abstract concept into a concrete, efficiently operating structure. She represents PBCI to our global family and partners. Joji is relational, like a mother; but she is very professional, like a competency-based executive. In October of 2017, Lakambini completed her Master of Entrepreneurship in Social Enterprise Development, Ateneo de Manila University – Graduate School of Business. Joji is the lead global connector in this movement. In 2020, she was chosen as one of the three Honourees of the prestigious Oslo-based Business for Peace Awards.

Joji serves as our Executive Vice President – Business and Finance

Asked what her objective is in running PBCI: “God willing, I’ll grow PBCI as a sustainable peace and reconciliation consulting firm. Growth is my passion. That’s the story of my life — that is, growing holistically in my personal life; growing in marriage with the man I love; growing three little children into responsible entrepreneurial adults; growing in my profession and career; and, growing this community of peacebuilders.


LAKAN SUMULONG
aka REV. LUIS DANIEL “DANN” PANTOJA
lakan@peacebuilderscommunity.org

The “Rev.” before Dann’s name refers more to his being a “revolutionary” than being a “reverend.” Dann Pantoja is beginning to use his Tagalog indigenous name — Lakan Sumulong. This is a statement that our indigenous identities can be a redeeming factor in healing our ‘being’ (that is — who we are as a people); help symbolize our determination to contribute what we ought to be ‘doing’ as a nation (that is — active, non-violent, radical transformation); and, determine how we will prioritize what we will be ‘having’ (that is — inclusive growth and national development based on justice and peace). As the visionary and founder of this organization, Lakan is our lead dreamweaver and lead learning facilitator in this movement.

Lakan is our Founding President and Chief Executive Officer 

Asked how he looks at his current journey as a peacebuilding missionary: “My current spiritual journey has led me to commit my energies to help in the transformational development of the people of the Philippines based on a Peace Theology.  Submitting to the Creator’s sovereignty and motivated by the love of Jesus, I envision to contribute to the salaam-shalom between various people groups representing different cultures and ideologies in this beautiful land.”

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OUR GLOBAL PEACE COMMUNITY

We are sent by Mennonite Church Canada Witness in partnership with our international community.