A decade ago, KMBI was faced with an unprecedented challenge of its history. The so-called corporate dispute of 2014 has shaken the confidence of all Kabalikats, posing uncertainties to the future of our organization and its vision and mission. It has been a protracted spiritual, financial, emotional and legal battle. So much has been estranged from us—our dear friends, resources, clients, time, and more. The risk of reputational integrity was hanging like a Damocles sword to all of us! But there is one thing that had never been taken away from us, it is our faith in the Almighty!!!
Indeed, God is never late in His promise of reward to the faithful. A decade later, we have emerged triumphant in this long-winding legal battle. The court has affirmed our legitimacy as an organization, finally putting an end to the decade-long corporate dispute. As tempting as it may be to say that victory is ours, we should be reminded that all these victories are from the Almighty God!
We can now leave behind a decade of struggle as we pick up the lessons we’ve learned along the way. We have been put through a test of fire and came out humbler, more resilient, more unified, and even more faithful to God. True to our battle cry, “ARISE KMBI!”, we rose up from this very fateful incident which we can now look back on—not as a bitter experience, but as a testament of God’s faithfulness to us.
We are immensely grateful to everyone who has stayed around and fought this formidable battle alongside us. We are grateful to our network organizations (APPEND and MCPI), our colleagues in the microfinance community, our trustees who brave the risk of court cases, and of course to our staff and management and the branch people who stayed with the Head Office. We are assured that God has witnessed the sacrifices that each of us made to savor this sweet victory.
We enjoin everyone in prayers for a smooth process in the complete recovery of KMBI’s assets, as well as the healing of many whose hearts have been scarred and continue to suffer from the scars inflicted by the events that had transpired a decade ago. With the subsequent transfer and conversion of our previous PCO offices to what is now a supposedly legal LMI, we will be relentless as we pursue the final completion of what the court has decided, i.e., all branches that sided with the break away group will have to do an inventory of what was taken and how it was used and then return those assets to the legal KMBI or be charged with contempt and other legal suits. We move forward as ONE KMBI!
Tunay na Masaya Dito Sa KMBI because God is with us!
Eduardo C. Jimenez
President, KMBI
