| Home Kapatiran
Links
Contact Us
Archive
Issue Number 24, August 2004
|
Kapatiran Issue
No. 24, August 2004
A PHILIPPINE
VISIT
A Time Of Immersion And Learning
- David Tutty
In November 2003 I had
the opportunity of a second visit to the Philippines.
During the three and a half weeks I was there I spent
time with missionaries, social justice workers,
theologians, leprosy patients, indigenous tribal people
and many rural poor. My hope in going was to learn more
about what life was like for the many of the people, to
hear something of the issues that impact upon their lives
and to deepen my analysis, theological reflection and
possible ways of responding. While aware it was such a
short time, this visit and the one a year earlier, have
left me with a strong desire to return and to find ways
of supporting those working for justice.
Tala
My first few days were spent in the town of Tala in
Caloocan City to the north of Metro Manila. Tala grew up
around the establishment of a leprosy hospital and in the
past the hospital and the dormitories outside its gates
housed many thousands of patients at any one time from
all over the country. But today, with the greater
availability of specific medicines and the willingness of
the Government to cover the cost of a basic level of
treatment, the numbers are only in the hundreds.
I stayed with Rosa, a Dominican sister, and was taken to
visit the hospital, many of the dormitories and two Basic
Ecclesial Communities (BECs) by Samuel, a Dominican
brother. I also visited the schools the Dominicans had
established for the children of the patients and talked
with both teachers and senior students. Many talked about
the negative attitudes and exclusion they had experienced
because they or their parents suffered from leprosy. Some
were even surprised and grateful that I was willing to
shake their disfigured hands.
One who was happy to speak with me was David Papa who
teaches English and Philosophy at the tertiary level
college. He is in his mid 50s and a survivor of leprosy.
As he shared his story, his desire to make life better
for the children of the patients and his analysis of
North-South issues, I sensed a deep awareness the vested
interests that were keeping the majority in the
Philippines, and particularly those he cared about, very
poor. His life's passion was to give to his students an
awareness of the wider world and the tools to critically
analyse it. David asked me to spend an hour with his
third year Philosophy class. After a few minutes of me
introducing myself and talking about my own work the
floor was open for questions. They ranged from politics,
corruption, world events, church, priestly celibacy and
the permissiveness of Western young people.
San Carlos
After leaving Tala and staying a night at the University
of Santo Tomas, I travelled up to San Carlos in
Pangasinan province, more than six hours north of Metro
Manila. The Victory Liner bus took me as far as Dagupan
and Nati, a Spanish Dominican sister, met me. The trip to
the convent took two jeepneys and one tricycle (the
universal means of public transport in the Philippines. A
jeepney is a colourfully painted and decorated covered
jeep, which holds maybe a dozen seated passengers in the
back and another couple next to the driver; a tricycle is
a motorbike with a covered sidecar, which can transport
maybe five passengers, on the bike and in the sidecar.
Ed.).
The convent, chapel and catechetical institute is on the
edge of Barangay Talang a semi-rural community a wee way
out of town. The sisters have recently built this large
complex with money and plans from their Spanish Mother
House and Nati struggles with the huge difference in
comfort and lifestyle between the convent and its
immediate neighbours. For a number of years previously,
she and other sisters had lived in a small basic house
and regularly travelled to more outlying settlements and
stayed in peoples' homes.
The sisters continue to be involved with the local
surrounding rural communities. Nati and a Filipina
sister, Joyce, took me out on two trips by tricycle to
meet some of the people with whom they used to stay. We
travelled past rice and cornfields on very basic mud
tracks to small bare hollow block or thatched houses. We
were welcomed very warmly and people were eager to talk
about what their life was like. One place we stayed late
to join the BEC in a Bible study. The peoples'
reflections, while largely traditional, also included
some questioning of what was just and fair. On the second
trip I was introduced to the captain of one of the barangays
(a unit of local government. Ed.) and was
instructed by one of his older companions to tell GMA* to
behave! *Filipinos share Americans' fondness for
referring to their Presidents by the latters' initials.
GMA = Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Ed.
One afternoon we spent two hours travelling to Manaoag, a
town in the foothills north of Dagupan. This town is a
site of pilgrimage and the church contains a very large
statue of Our Lady of Manaoag. The entranceways to the
church were crowded with a large number of street sellers
with candles and souvenirs. Later walking around the town
it was obvious that being a site of pilgrimage was quite
a significant industry for the town.
Another afternoon Nati took me to visit the immediate
neighbours. I met Mercy, her children and some of the
extended family. Again the houses were a mixture of
hollow concrete block ones and traditional thatched ones.
Inside the families had very few possessions, no plumbing
and used pieces of cloth to separate living and sleeping
areas. One of the projects that Nati and the sisters fund
is a small hollow-block fabrication factory, which is
located on convent grounds. A number of local families
are paid to produce these concrete blocks that are used
then to replace their thatched houses. Mercy's sister had
just had her house built and soon it would be Mercy's
turn.
Antipolo City Caritas NASSA Conference
After taking a Five Star bus back to Cubao (Metro
Manila), I stayed another night at the University of
Santo Tomas before meeting up with delegates for the
NASSA conference at the Catholic Bishops' Compound,
within the old walled city of Intramuros. The bus took us
northeast through Quezon City up into the hills to
Antipolo City. After an evening Mass and some
entertainment at the Cathedral we were taken to a retreat
centre and allocated our shared rooms.
NASSA is the Catholic Bishops' National Secretariat for
Social Action that focuses on emergency relief,
development projects and social justice advocacy. The
three-day conference was for directors of the 69 diocesan
Social Action Centres. Its focus was how to support the
advocacy and justice issues of the Basic Ecclesial
Communities (BECs). This was seen as a way to "Renew
the Church and Philippine Society." So, given my
role as the justice and peace worker for the Auckland
Catholic Diocese, it was an ideal opportunity to hear how
they go about this work and what the lessons are that I
can bring to my work. I was the only non-Filipino at the
gathering. The majority were diocesan priests, though
many were sisters with some lay people.
I was pleased to spend time with Bridget, an indigenous
tribal woman from Mountain Province in Northern Luzon.
Her analysis of her peoples' ongoing experience of being
colonised was particularly acute. Also it was good to
spend time with the NASSA staff people who are involved
in the research and advocacy around issues for farm
workers, fisher folk, women and indigenous peoples. I
also met Bishop Gutierrez who is the bishop responsible
for NASSA and social justice advocacy.
General Santos (Gensan)
After another night with the Dominican priests at the
University of Santo Tomas, I flew to General Santos City
in southern Mindanao. The Air Philippine domestic airport
security was very apparent and I was body searched before
being allowed to board the plane. A Filipina sister whom
I had first met in Auckland met me. Noemi Degala belongs
to the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary (SMSM
- the acronym reflects the French name of the order. Ed.),
and had been the novice mistress here in Auckland for a
few years. Noemi took me back to her convent in the
school van and after a meal we met the local parish
priests before taking a jeepney to the Notre Dame School
and College. There we met up with the college chaplain,
Pat Leamy SMSM, the sister of the Assistant Bishop of
Auckland. Pat took us around the College departments that
have a strong outreach to the surrounding towns and
villages. One, the Peace Education Department, ran
courses within the college but also facilitated workshops
for local communities. After this Noemi showed me a
little of the city.
The following day Bien Trinilla, a Dominican priest,
picked me up and took me to Marbel in Koronadal City a
couple of hours north of Gensan. The day was a
celebration of 50 years of the presence of the Dominican
Sisters in Mindanao. We had breakfast with the sisters
and three bishops, a two-hour Mass, three hours of
performances by students from each of the Dominican
Colleges, and then a big late lunch.
Later the afternoon once back at Gensan, Bien took me to
see the fish port, and to the neighbouring province of
Sarangani. That evening we went to dinner at one of his
benefactor's places. They run a very large fishing and
fish exporting company. Bien had talking with them about
supporting some young men in their first two years of
training with the Dominicans. They offered to pay the
60,000 pesos needed!
The next day after Mass we visited the home of John,
Bien's driver. John and his wife Michelle had just had
their first baby baptised and we were invited to the
celebration lunch. The family lived with Michelle's
parents in a sturdy but very small house. Many of their
friends were teachers and pharmacists.
That afternoon Bien took me out to the Dole * plantations
that went for many kilometres. I guessed the continuous
land area planted to be about 12 to 15 square kilometres
with areas fruiting at different stages. Up in the hills
beyond the plantation was a Trappistine Sisters'
Monastery. A local family had financed this extremely
large new complex for enclosed women. On the way back we
called in at a durian** orchard for tastings and photos. *Dole
is one of the very biggest of the food transnationals and
has huge plantations in Mindanao. **Durian is a tropical
fruit. Ed.
The following day we were up early and off to Davao City,
the main city of Mindanao. The three-hour trip was
through some spectacular high mountains. Along the way
were three military checkpoints we had to go through.
About 30 km from Davao we visited a convention centre and
tropical gardens called Eden. Our return trip to Gensan
was inland through Digos, Makilala, Kidapawan, M'Lang, a
large rural Muslim area of South Cotabato, then through
Koronadal back to General Santos City. The quality of the
houses and the standard of living in the Muslim areas was
noticeably poorer than the Christian Filipino areas. The
day ended with meeting up with Noemi and sharing a meal
together.
One important area of work for both Noemi and Bien has
been the Mindanao Truth Commission. This is a church and
citizens' initiative following the "Greenbase
Exposé" where junior officers of the Armed Forces
mutinied and occupied the luxurious Oakwood Apartment
complex in Makati, (Metro Manila's city of the rich), in
July 2003. They accused the President and the leaders of
the Armed Forces of being party to a series of recent
bombings that had occurred in Mindanao. These junior
officers claimed that the bombings were part of a
military initiative called "Operation
Greenbase." In the time Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has
been President, 33 bombing incidents have occurred on the
island, 95 people have been killed and 490 people have
been injured. The most dramatic were the bombings of
Davao Airport on March 4, 2003 and of Sasa Wharf on April
2, 2003. In the progress report of the Commission in
March 2004, it found "substantial evidence" to
back the accusations of the junior officers. The
Commission also claims there is evidence that the
military had a "special operation to lob grenades at
mosques".
Midsalip
Because my Dominican friends deemed it unsafe and unwise
for me to take the 12-hour bus trips through Cotabato to
Ozamiz, I flew back to Manila for another night at the
University of Santo Tomas. I then flew Air Philippines to
Dipolog City on the northwestern coast of Mindanao. I was
met by a driver and taken two hours to Ozamiz City where
I stayed with Columban missionaries. One is a New
Zealander, Paul Finlayson, from Napier. Because it was
their feast day, all the lay missionaries also came in
for dinner. There were women from England, Ireland, Tonga
and Fiji.
The next day Paul took me two hours drive to the poor
mountain town of Midsalip where he was parish priest.
Midsalip has about 30,000 people in the town and
surrounding rural area. I was told that the average wage
for a worker on the richer lowland farms was about 75
pesos a day and on the less productive hills only about
30 pesos (at the time of my visit I was getting 55 pesos
to a US dollar).
Over the five days in Midsalip, I visited a number of
barrios* where Paul said Mass, conducted weddings,
baptised and confirmed people. I walked around the town,
visited peoples' homes and drank Tanduay Rum** with men
who had little or no English. Often though there were
people with some English, and I enjoyed listening to how
they saw their own situation and what the issues were for
them. *Barrio - the basic unit of local government.
**Tanduay is the largest brand of Philippine rum. Ed.
One afternoon I spent with some Subaanen tribal young
women who were making circular mandalas or dream catchers
to be sold in Canada and the US. The Columban priest who
organised the project had designed a series of circles
with wooden and coconut beads threaded in a pattern to
illustrate the story of the universe. He based the design
on circular mandala patterns used by Buddhist monks
created to draw the eye inward to the centre and to
facilitate meditation. The centre of the Subaanen women's
work is a small circle with a bead held in a web to
represent the beginnings of an ecological consciousness.
Feathers were added to the large outer circle for the US
market as the North American First Peoples have a
tradition of making circular spider web hangings with
feathers to keep young ones safe as they sleep.
Another day Paul took me almost an hour's walking through
paddy fields to visit Mr and Mrs Calito. They lived in a
very simple wooden house on poles in the middle of a
forest area. In the afternoons monkeys would often come
to the house looking for food. Arnold, their son-in-law,
had a semi-tame one as a pet inside. After eating a real
feast and drinking bohol - fermented coconut milk -
Arnold took me for a couple of hours walk further into
the hills. There we met a few Subaanen families. And I
saw lots of scattered small rice paddies.
The biggest issue for Midsalip is one of corruption. The
local officials have had the town and surrounding area
reclassified as a special city. This has enabled the 21
paid officials to radically increase their salaries to a
level that averages more than 9,000 pesos each month.
This has significantly lessened the money that could be
spent on medicine, adequate health personnel and
services, drinkable water, roads, farmer support
programmes and forest protection.
The failure to deliver appropriate basic services and
infrastructure is seen by the community as a violation of
the mandate under which the local authority was formed.
So with the support of the Columbans and the local Bishop
a court case has been filed by some of the taxpayers. The
people are looking for letters of support and letters
supporting their cause to President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and to the Deputy Ombudsman for
Mindanao, Antonio Valenzuela.
The day I left to fly out from Dipolog was memorable.
Paul accidentally ran over a straw hat that had blown off
the owner's head as he rode his motor scooter. Unbeknown
to us, he followed us to the airport and accused Paul of
doing it on purpose. When he did not get satisfaction he
got the police involved and we sat in the small airport
police building while this man tried to get Paul to admit
he was at fault and would pay compensation. All ended
when the owner of the hat withdrew the charges to honour
the coming Christmas festive period.
Dominican Contextual Theology Consultation
Back in Metro Manila, I stayed a final few days with the
Dominicans at the University of Santo Tomas. I had been
invited a week or so earlier to respond to two keynote
presentations on the nature and scope of contextual
theology. Contextual theology is a conscious attempt to
do theology, to reflect about the nature and action of
God, in the light of a specifically named context. In
reality all theology is contextual but many theologians
are not aware or do not name the worldview and social
contexts that shape their work.
One of two I responded to was Dr José de Mesa from De La
Salle University in Manila. He reflected on the Filipino
relational concept of loob, the quality of personhood
that is only revealed when people relate with one
another. It is, according to de Mesa, the interior truth
of a person known in relationship, thus the authentic
self. This he developed as an insight of what the Divine
Loob is about and how the Divine calls us to be magandang
kalooban - beautiful within. This has strong parallels
with the Mäori spirituality approach out of which Pa
Henare Tate is working with his context (Pa Henare, from
Te Rarawa iwi, is the Vicar for Mäori for the Auckland
Catholic Diocese and teaches theology at the University
of Auckland).
Concluding Reflections
As with my first trip the year before, the huge gap
between the wealth of a few and the poverty of the vast
majority is the most striking aspect of visiting the
Philippines. And while there are many in the Catholic
Church in the Philippines who are pained by this reality
there are also many who live very well and do not have an
analysis that calls them to work to change the reality. I
am fortunate to have made some good contacts who have a
passion for working for justice in a variety of ways. I
was overwhelmed by the hospitality and graciousness of
people and full of admiration for the courage of those I
met whose lives seem to be just one tragedy after
another.
The whole experience has given me a greater awareness of
the value of exposure/immersion experiences. I have since
given the subject much thought and written a reflection
entitled "We all need disorientating dilemmas".
This draws on North American educationalist, Jack
Mezirow's, insights into the importance of disorientating
dilemmas for a learning process that is transformative,
and on Paolo Freire's sense that conscientisation
requires the unveiling of contradictions. The late
Paolo Freire was a radical Brazilian educationalist who
was extremely influential in the last few decades of the
20th Century. His best known book is "The Pedagogy
Of The Oppressed". Ed.
I feel that by intentionally leaving our comfort zones
and immersing ourselves in a very different context, we
can create an opportunity where our sense of what is
normal and right gets challenged and questioned. This can
only happen though if we go with a sense of humility,
because if we go thinking that we have all the answers we
will not be open either to the different context or to
learning from the people and issues we encounter. I look
forward to an opportunity of returning.
David Tutty is a PSNA member and works for the
Auckland Catholic Justice and Peace Office.
Go to top
|
