FILE PHOTO
By Victoria Matakim
February 12, 2020
KOTA KINABALU – The Sacred Heart Cathedral Filipino Community celebrated Valentine’s Day at a leading hotel here Feb 9.
Valentine’s Day also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the feast of St Valentine, is celebrated worldwide annually on Feb 14. It is the day when people show their affection and friendship for one another.
For the Filipino Community, it was an occasion for the celebration of love, particularly the divine love of God. “God is love and therefore, we also should love one another.”
It also served to remind them of the greatest commandment of God, that is, “to love Him with all our heart, mind and soul and to love one another the way He loves us”.
Bernadette Generalao, coordinator of the Sacred Heart Cathedral Filipino Community said in her welcoming remarks “It has been the tradition of the Community to spread love within its community as a simple act of evangelization of the love of God.”
In the past, the Community has been celebrating the auspicious event at the Sacred Heart Parish Center and friends would be invited to join the members as a way of opening its door to others. It has always been the community’s goal to grow in numbers. This year, the community was inspired to celebrate the occasion at a hotel.
The highlight of the event was the crowning of Mrs Valentine’s Queen 2020, Theresa Lopez Voo who was crowned by Mrs Valentine’s Queen 2018, also the event organizer, of Valentine’s Day 2020, Thelma Ranolo Andam.
At the same event, a plaque of appreciation from the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in Kuala Lumpur, was presented by Marilou Chin, the founder of the Stairway to Hope Learning Center for stateless children in Kota Kinabalu to Bernadette Generalao together with the Community’s vice president Jorge Trumata, secretary Victoria Matakim, treasurer Wilma Cortes, and Adviser Erma Fernandez in grateful appreciation of its invaluable support, selfless and sustained involvement in the implementation of various programs, services and initiatives for the protection and promotion of the welfare of the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Malaysia. Also at the event were spiritual adviser Sister Rose Santos Hiu and adviser Naty Doughty.
