Two days after the killer typhoon Sendong hit on December 16, 2011, A Brown sent its bulldozers and buck hoes to clear the tons of debris that have clogged Balulang streets.

Balulang is one of the hardest hit areas in Cagayan de Oro City, with houses inundated up to their roofs with flood water. The day after Sendong hit, cars could be seen heaped on top of each other, on top of trees, and on top of gates. The whole place was covered with ankle-deep mud.

This was the situation Balulang was in when the A Brown heavy equipment came. The buck hoes cleared the gutters and waterways of debris, while the bulldozers scraped up the mud and placed them on waiting A Brown dump trucks.

The Balulang work lasted for over a week, with the bulldozers, buck hoes, graders, and dump trucks given a new assignment: Lumbia.

Xavier University had decided to set aside five hectares of land it owns at Lumbia for usufruct use by Sendong victims, but Xavier University needed someone to clear and prepare the land. Xavier University and A Brown are long-time friends, so it was no surprise at all that A Brown was involved early on in the plans.

Now Robertino Pizarro, president of A Brown, and Atty. Antonio Soriano of the Philippine National Red Cross local chapter are friends, so it's no wonder that the Philippine National Red Cross through its national president Dick Gordon was in, too.

The plan: Xavier University to provide the land, which A Brown will clear, prepare, and master-plan, on which houses provided by the Philippine National Red Cross will be built.

To show how serious it is in making this work, A Brown tapped renowned master-planner Architect Estela Lopez to prepare the master plan. Architect Lopez master-planned Xavier Estates as well as all the other projects of A Brown.

All these are being done far from the glare of cameras, with no fanfare, but with a resolute desire to help.

Typically A Brown.