Tony Meloto is a former businessman, yet he carries no credit cards or cash. Several years ago, at age fifty, when most businessmen have concluded drawing the blueprints of their impending fortune, Tony turned his back on financial reward and laid out a far loftier and more ambitious plan—to eliminate world poverty. To this end, Meloto has been responsible for building thousands of homes for the poor in both his home country of the Philippines and various impoverished regions of Africa.
    We found Tony quietly seated in the front room of his granddaughter’s Orange County, California, home, looking peaceful and relaxed. His slight smile and soft tone drew easy comparisons to the Dali Lama. And while Meloto does speak in terms that the leader of Tibetan Buddhism would applaud, Tony himself is a Christian, doing his best to ensure that the world’s huddled mass of tired and poor find themselves with the basics of life.

Risen Magazine: The entire world is so connected. It’s like being a child in the bathtub with my little brother. If one of us peed in the tub, it affected the entire tub.
Tony Meloto: [Laughs] Yes. There seems to be an emerging presence of Asians in America, and a greater interest in America toward Asia. I’ve visited MIT, Harvard, Boston University, UC Berkeley, UCLA. You see Asians, African Americans, Latin Americans together. It’s a beautiful thing. This environment seems to bring out the best in immigrants from Asia, at least from our perspective. We have more than four million Filipinos in the United States. They left our country to seek better opportunities here, and they brought their dreams, talents, and hard work, to achieve success in this country. What really struck me in the past few years is that I have never seen a Filipino beggar in America. When I visited Seattle to study homelessness in America, there were about 8,300 homeless, and not a single Filipino was there.

RM: Do you think that’s due in part to strong family support?
TM: I believe so. There is a strong family support system, and somehow they came here with American dreams and were willing to work for that dream, because there is opportunity in this country. I think also they came here to heal themselves from the wounds of the past. The Philippines have been ruled by other countries for 350 years. We were deprived of the right to self-determination. We were slaves within our own country and 70 percent of our people never dreamed of having even a small piece of property, where they could build a decent home. They had no security in their own country, no opportunity to study, no dreams or aspirations, and no motivation for hard work. The poor were forced to migrate to urban areas. Those with education decided to build their dreams outside of the country. When they’re in a more developed environment like the United States where they have rights and opportunities, they are proving that they were designed to excel and compete in the most competitive markets in the world. It just shows that it’s not in our DNA to become a beggar. We have what it takes to succeed, if the environment is right.

RM: It seems that prior to so many Asians attending U.S. colleges, fewer people were taking education seriously.
TM: I spent a year in Northern California in Richmond, California, in 1967, and I took a summer course at Berkeley. The flower children were in the streets. When I went back recently, I saw young, clean–cut, hard-working young men and women of different ethnic origins. It was a very vibrant crowd. I sensed that our generation was trying to make sense of what the world had become. Young people now are taking stock in the environment and being global citizens with a global view. We all live in the same bathtub, like you said. We will build a nation for our people, of our people, and by our people. You gained your independence in 1776; we only gained our independence in 1946. We are a young republic. Because of the wounds that were created in the heart and life of our country, we had not addressed the issues of social justice that had been with us for 400 years. To this day we have build over 2,000 communities for the poorest families in the Philippines, affecting the lives of almost a million people and influencing government and business.

RM: Were you a successful businessman?
TM: Right after graduating from a Jesuit university, I spent six years in an American company, Proctor and Gamble, as a buying manager. I became an entrepreneur after that, and at the age of thirty-five I discovered I have no love for money. I realized that happiness has no price tag.

RM: When did you decided to help rebuild your country?
TM: In the U.S. and Australia I saw the motivation for Asians to take on two, sometimes three jobs. Some who came to America would even take 32-hour shifts in the hospitals. That showed me that we were not born to be idol, or beggars. It was simply the lack of opportunity and awareness. It was in my mid forties, traveling in the U.S. and Australia, seeing the determination of our people to make better lives for themselves, that made me go back to our nation. I was a full-time missionary with Couples for Christ. We work to help people build strong families all over the world. Somehow success can have its price tag, which is sometimes the breakup of families. It opened my eyes to the fast-changing world, to see that our people were leaving the country at a rate of 100,000 per month. There are now 12 million Filipinos living overseas.
    We come from a very rich land, a country of great natural abundance. We have the highest rate of biodiversity in the world, and the longest coastline in the world, with some breathtaking beaches. Surfing, diving, and wakeboarding.

RM: I was in Manila in 1973, when martial law had been declared.
TM: Oh, you should go there now! We went through some rough years after the Spanish, the Americans, and the Japanese were gone. We finally got our independence through America in 1946. We went through a phase where we became our own greatest oppressors. It was part of our, I would say, “desert experience.” People can get waylaid along the way to the Promised Land. America became the place where people came to heal who had been wounded. We sent our best doctors and nurses—30,000 doctors and 50,000 nurses—to heal the sick of America. We also sent our soldiers to fight the wars of America. America had been kind by proving opportunities, and I don’t think we have failed America. We are one of the ethic groups least likely to go on welfare. In some other ways, America has not been fair to us. Some of our veterans were never given their rights. The Philippines is the safest place in Asia for an American. In the same way that many Asians can see America as home, Americans can see Asia as home. It’s no