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Bacolod City, Philippines Saturday, March 17, 2012
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Negrense returns
to ‘give back’

BY CARLA GOMEZ

A Negrense whose father, a sugar farm worker, died when he was 10, leaving him, his mother and nine other siblings in poverty, has turned his life around and is giving back.

Commander Manuel Biadog Jr., command chaplain of the US Naval Base Kitsap in Washington, said his father Manuel Sr., died in 1967 from a stomach ailment that could have been treated had he been able to avail of medical attention right away.

He said losing his father at such a young age was difficult for him and his family. There were no Christmases for them in those days.

Biadog said he planted vegetables that he sold along with boiled bananas to make a living when he was boy, and during his junior year at the Talisay National High School in 1974 he made a lifetime commitment to follow Jesus Christ.

He studied at the University of Saint La Salle in Bacolod City and at the Baptist Missionary Association of the Philippines Bible College in Silay City and, with the help of Bacolod-based American missionaries Linda and Doyle Moore, he got a scholarship to study in the United States.

In the States, he worked at school libraries and as a maintenance man, cleaning toilets to get further education.

“If you work hard regardless of your condition in life, you can get out of the poverty you are in,” he said.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biblical Studies and Social Science degree and graduated cum laude at William Carey University in Mississippi in May 1983. Later he obtained a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Religious Education degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas and a doctor of ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, in 2001.

As a chaplain in the US Navy he has gone on various humanitarian missions around world from Cuba, Haiti, Japan, Korea to Iraq, but never forgetting the Philippines where, for the past 22 years, he has led medical missions and brought assistance to the poor, most of whom had been children and orphans.

Biadog volunteered to serve in an isolated overseas tour to the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from February 1994 to August 1995. He was one of the major joint-service players who ministered to over 70,000 thousands displaced Haitian and Cuban migrants, 7,000 plus service members, and hundreds of evacuated family members, he said.

He also joined rescuers following the September 11,2001 attack on the World Trade Center twin towers in New York.

During his second tour overseas, he served as Regimental and Assistant Division Chaplain of 12th Marines, Third Marine Division, Okinawa, from where he also facilitated medical/dental missions to the Philippines .

He also served as Deputy Chaplain for the Multi-National Force-Iraq in July 2004–January 2005. He was credited for assisting in the rescue effort of an injured U.S. Army officer during rocket attacks, and played a major role in lifesaving efforts of Iraqi children and families.

He joined the US Navy in rescue work in Ginsaugon, Leyte, that was hit by a deadly mudslide in 2006.

A multi-awarded chaplain of the US Navy, Biadog is married to Kathy Lee of Mississippi and they have two children -- Daniel Biadog, 23, and Cindy Biadog Gore, 21.

But he is also especially proud to have recently been given the Gawad sa Kaunlaran award, the Philippines 7th highest military decoration, for his humanitarian missions to the country.

Biadog is currently in the Philippines, on yet another of his many Operation Help missions to the country along with 20 others from the United States.

This week Biadog’s team is bringing medical and feeding assistance to hundreds of residents in barangays of Talisay, Cadiz and Sagay cities, Don Salvador Benedicto town and the aetas of Isabela in Negros Occidental.

It is important to bring medical missions to the poor, he said, noting that if his father had gotten medical help, perhaps he would still be alive today.

They have also brought gifts, which include blankets, towels, candy, slippers, toys and educational materials to poor children in remote barangays and in orphanages, Biadog said.

“I know what it is like to go without Christmas, so bringing Christmas to the children even if it is March is great,” he said.

“All I want to do is to honor God by making little Negrense children happy during our Christmas in March celebration,” he said.

“This is my way of ‘paying back’ those who were kind to me during my difficult journey from riding a carabao to becoming a commander in the United States Navy. I am forever grateful to God and family and give credit to all my teachers in Talisay, spiritual leaders at the Open Door Church, and mentors during seminary days in Ft Worth, Texas,” Biadog said.

“I am what I am today because of the good Lord and the caring I received from others in my journey through life,” Biadog said.*CPG

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