Sitios Hinugasan and Ulasan in Brgy. Harrison, Paluan, Occidental Mindoro hold a special place in our collective memory. It was here — in these quiet hills, among the Mangyan families who welcomed us with gentleness and trust — that the first seeds of Lift PH Up Organization, Inc. were planted.
Today, May 2, 2026, we returned to the community that shaped our beginnings. We came not as visitors, but as partners walking alongside the katutubo of Paluan — a people who seldom complain, who endure hardship with quiet strength, and whose only plea is often the simplest one: that hunger does not visit their homes again.
Together with Rise Against Hunger Philippines, JP Morgan Chase, the former mayor of Paluan, Abelardo S. Pangilinan, volunteers and friends of Lift PH Up, we brought ready-to-eat nutritious meals, food packs, brand new garments (courtesy of Hermie, Boyet, Smile Taytay and Taytay Garments Association), hygiene supplies, and essential goods — enough to sustain every household for a week. But more than the supplies and meal packs, what we carried with us was a renewed commitment to stand with this community, to listen, and to build with them in ways that honor their dignity and aspirations.
For Lift PH Up, this return is more than an outreach.
It is a homecoming.
It is a reminder of why we began.
And it is a promise that we will continue to lift one another up, one community at a time.