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Fr. Florentino S. Concepcion, “Father Boyet”
Since 1983, Fr. Florentino S. Concepcion, known as Father Boyet, has championed Filipino society’s vulnerable citizens. Forgoing the comfort of his home parish in Bustos, Bulacan, he became chaplain in the local jail, making regular visits to patients of the provincial hospital. After two years, the bishop granted his request to become a missionary, a quest fueled by an inspirational meeting he had with Mother Teresa. “Not an easy life,” she cautioned him, “full of trials and difficulties.”
Father Boyet has shrunk from none of them, immersing himself in the desperate conditions that put the lives of the weakest members of Filipino society at serious risk. He helped establish the philanthropic organization, the Angelo King Charities and Social Research Foundation, which has funded homes for abandoned elderly people and disadvantaged, troubled youths. Father Boyet has also inspired countless people to contribute what they can to those in need—everything from seed money and building materials to governmental resources and food. These contributions have helped make a number of volunteer-run missions in Bulacan a reality, including the Emmaus House, a home for the ailing elderly; the Galilee Rehabilitation Center for drug dependents, runaways, and emotionally disturbed youths; the Ephesus Home for abandoned abused children; and the Bethlehem House of Bread, a temporary refuge for squatter families where more than 800 children attend school and learn the life skills required to escape the cycle of poverty.
About the Bahay at Yaman ni San Martin de Porres, Inc. (St. Martin de Porres)
Father Boyet’s latest project is St. Martin de Porres, Bonga Menor, Bustos, Bulacan, now home to 56 children. Consisting of a small one-story house and a bus outfitted with sleeping quarters, St. Martin sits on 7,000 square meters of donated land 60 kilometers outside Manila. Despite the home’s modest accommodations, it has already made a world of difference to its young residents, many of whom made their way to St. Martin via the St. Martin de Porres Soup Kitchen and Feeding Center that Father Boyet and his coworkers opened in downtown Manila in June 2002. Evolving from a drop-in center to a quasi-residential facility for children with nowhere else to go, St. Martin moved to its present location in spring 2004, taking its physically and emotionally battered residents away from their destructive urban environment.
At St. Martin today the children are thriving. For the first time in their lives, they are free to play, study at the school of St. Martin’s sister mission Bethlehem, and take care of one another, learning to form healthy bonds in a safe environment. Having access to a spiritual program—consisting of prayer, confession, and mass—and formal education speeds their healing and development of skills that will ensure their ultimate self-sufficiency. In St. Martin’s first year of operation, 14 of its 29 elementary students made the top 10 of their class, with 11 winning leadership awards and many discovering their talents in the performing arts.
As the residents of St. Martin grow stronger, they are given the opportunity to give back to the community by taking part in a feeding program. An important method for outreach, the initiative gives the children the chance to help prepare hot meals that, under the supervision of adult guardians, they distribute to children still trapped in the life on the streets that they escaped.
View of Current Dining Area, Kitchen and Laundry
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“As the children grow up, eventually they will leave this home and live their life in the real world. There, they will help other people just as they were helped and complete their healing.”
- FR. BOYET
St. Martin's current infrastructure includes a defunct Baliwag bus retrofitted with bunks to provide sleeping quarters for the older boys.
Interior view of the bus.
Greenhouse.
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