Classmate of Pikit blast victim to put up health facility in her memory

COTABATO CITY – A physician-friend of Nurse Felomina
Nacario-Ferolin who died in a grenade attack in a Church in Pikit, North
Cotabato on October 8 is organizing medical mission and is sending medicine for
Pikit and Pagalungan, Maguindanao as tribute to the fallen nurse.

Dr. Anacleto Belleza Millendez, who founded of The Beautiful
Heart Foundation in 2005, was Ferolin’s classmate at Pikit Elementary School in
1973 where he was her folk dance partner.

He also plans to put up The Beautiful Heart Foundation”
Pikit office to serve the poor and the underprivileged through health services.

Born in Hinigaran, Negros Occidental he moved to Mindanao
when his parents migrated to Pikit where he grew up. At the height of the war
in Mindanao in 1974, Millendez had just finished first year at Notre Dame of
Pikit. His family moved to Quezon City Academy for his high school studiesand finished Bachelor of Arts in
Humanities at UP Diliman and medicine at the Manila Central University.

He was devastated after learning his dear
classmate perished in the senseless violence.

I was emotionally-devastated when I learned she was one of
those victims in last week's bombing of the UCCP prayer meeting event inside
their church. What a loss to the community considering her long years of
dedicated public health nursing career in Pagalungan and Pikit,” said Millendez of Ferolin, head nurse of Pagalungan municipal hospital in nearby
Pagalungan, Maguindanao.

Ferolin, 54, sustained multiple shrapnel injuries in
various parts of her body when the rifle grenade fired by one of the two
suspects landed inside the Church and went off near her. She died while being
rushed to Midsayap hospital.

Gina Gabilona, a teacher, also died of shrapnel injuries
and expired at a hospital in Kidapawan City.

Millendez said Ferolin was a very jolly and friendly person
who was willing to work beyond her working hours to help the poor.

As an initialtribute to Ferolin whom he called Mina, Millendez is sending boxes of
medicine to Pikit to be distributed to poor people, including those in
Pagalungan where Ferolin used to serve.

A very active partner of the OMI I-Watch, Millendez had
conducted various medical outreach programs in various places, mostly in
Mindanao and poor communities in Metro Manila and Bulacan.

This is in loving memory of my
classmate and dear friend, a dedicated public health nurse, Felomina Nacario-Ferolin,
a woman with a beautiful heart,” Millendez, now a US naturalized citizen, said.

Her untimely demise would remind us
over and over again, that despite this senseless act of violence and terrorism
that claimed the life of this beautiful woman, God has a purpose beyond human
understanding why tragedies happen like this - that goodness prevails over evil,”
he added.

Also in memory of Ferolin, Millendez is calling for volunteers
with beautiful hearts as he is putting up sand//www.facebook.com/beautifulheartfoundation The Beautiful Heart Foundation ”Chapter in Pikit, Cotabato.

In memory of nurse Ferolin, we will open a training and
healing center there in my parents' ancestral home located in Lapu-lapu Street
beside the old house of Atty. sand//www.facebook.com/roberto.millendez Roberto Millendez , now owned by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate which was
opened in 2008 by the I-Watch Team of Fr. sand//www.facebook.com/evasquezomi Eduardo Vasquez , OMI,” said Millendez who himself was a survivor of violence
when he was ambushed in Pagalungan, Maguindanao, near Tunggol bridge an hour
after New Year of 1990.

He
returned to Pikit in 1993 to serve as municipal health officer for a year. Got
married in 1994 and migrated to the USA.

But
his heart remains for the poor people of Pikit and Pagalungan, thus this
project.

The first project is to put up a private library open to the
public and I have started sending books and magazines there,” he said as he
appealed for honest and dedicated volunteers.

On Tuesday, October 14, Dr. Millendez will spearhead a
medical mission in a squatter area in Quezon City and will offer a special Holy
Mass for my late classmate, Felomina Nacario-Ferolin, RN.” Police in North Cotabato have said one of the two suspects have been identified and is being hunted. (see related story)