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Category Archives: Indigenous people

Scuole tribali chiuse

14 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by Admin in Culture, Indigenous people

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In Mindanao almeno 55 scuole per scolari tribali sono state escluse dall’esercizio di questo anno scolastico sulla base di una raccomandazione del consigliere per la sicurezza nazionale Hermogenes Esperon Jr., ex capo delle forze armate.

L’ufficio del Dipartimento dell’Educazione Regionale di Davao  ha emesso un ordine, reso pubblico il 13 luglio, sospendendo i permessi delle scuole per operare e il loro riconoscimento come scuole private.

Il motivo di questo ordine è stato un rapporto fatto da Esperon, che è anche vice presidente della Task Force nazionale per porre fine al conflitto armato comunista locale, secondo il quale le lezioni nelle scuole di proprietà non erano in accordo con le linee guida stabilite da DepEd .

Il rapporto si basava su una dichiarazione giurata di un certo Melvin Mansaloan Loyod il 28 dicembre scorso, un insegnante volontariato che ha sostenuto che i moduli di apprendimento utilizzati dalle scuole tribali incoraggiavano i bambini a partecipare a manifestazioni antigovernative, a imparare canzoni del New People’s Army e a recitare rappresentazioni di abusi da parte dei militari, tra cui bambini torturati e donne violentate.

Per varie organizzazioni non governative la chiusura delle scuole senza verificare le accuse di Esperon è un chiaro segno di mostrare la supremazia militare in Mindanao e del rifiuto del governo di ascoltare l’opinione delle organizzazioni tribali.

The speech of Chief Seattle

31 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by Admin in Indigenous people

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Letter from chief Seattle Si’ahl

The first environmental version was published in the November 11, 1972 issue of Environmental Action magazine. By this time it was no longer billed as a speech, but as a letter from Chief Seattle to President Pierce. The Native Americans were powerfully bound to the earth; the idea of property was foreign to them, and they actually considered the earth to own humankind. This was the Chief’s moving, lucid speech in 1855 and edited first in English in 1887:

The Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. The Great Chief also sends us words of friendship and good will. This is kind of him, since we know he has little need of our friendship in return. But we will consider your offer, for we know if we do not so the white man may come with guns and take our land. What Chief Seattle says you can count on as truly as our white brothers can count on the return of the seasons. My words are like the stars –they do not set.

How can you buy or sell the sky –the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us? We will decide in our time. Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing, and every humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap that runs through the trees carries the memories of the red-skinned man.

The dead among the white man forget their birthplace when they leave to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth because she is the redman’s mother. We are part of the earth and she is part of us. The scented flowers are our sisters: the horned beasts, the horse and the majestic eagle are our brothers. The fields, the warm body of the foal and man, all belong to the same family. Thus when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our lands, he is asking for a great deal. The Great Chief sends word that he will reserve a space for us to live comfortably with each other. He will be our father and we will be his children. Because of this, we will consider his offer to buy our lands. But this will not be easy, because these lands are a sacred to us. The sparkling water that runs in the rivers and streams is not only water; it is the blood of our ancestors. if we sell you these lands, you must remember that they are sacred, and teach your children that they are, and that every ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes speaks of the lives and memories of the life of my people. The murmur of the stream is the voice of my father’s father.

The rivers are our sisters, and calm our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children. If we sell you our lands, you must remember and teach your children that the rivers are our kin and your kin; you must henceforth treat the rivers as kindly as you would your brothers and sisters.

We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father’s graves and his children’s birthright is forgotten. He strips the earth from his children and cares not. He forgets his father’s tomb and the rights of his children. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother the heavens, as if they were things that could be bought, plundered and sold, as though they were lambs and glass beads. His insatiable hunger will devour the earth and leave behind a desert.

I do not understand. Our ways are different to yours. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the redman. But perhaps it is because the redman is a savage and does not understand. There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to listen to the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand –the clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? I am a redman and I do not understand.

The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind itself cleansed by a mid-day rain, or scented by a pinõn pine.

The air is precious to the redman. For all things share the same breath –the beasts, the trees, and the man. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench. If we sell you our lands, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it sustains. And, if we sell you our lands, you must set them aside and keep them sacred as a place that even the white man may go to to taste the wind sweetened by the flowers in the grasslands.

If I decide to accept your offer, I will make one condition. The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. I am a savage and I do not understand any other way. I have seen thousands of rotting buffaloes on the prairie left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive. What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of their grandparents. In order that they may respect the earth, teach them that the earth is full of the life of our ancestors. You must teach your children what we have taught ours: that the earth is our mother. Everything that affects the earth affects the sons of the earth. When men spit on the ground they spit on themselves.

We know this: the earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the earth. Man has not woven the net of life: he is just a thread in it. Everything he does to this net he does to himself. What befalls the earth will befall the sons of the earth. We know this. All things are bound up in each other like the blood that binds the family.

Even the white man, whose God walks with him and speaks with him, cannot be excluded from a common destiny. We may even be brothers in the end. We will see. One thing we know that the white man may one day discover. Our God is the same God. You may think that you own him as you wish to own our land, but you cannot. He is the Body of man, and his compassion is equal for the redman and the white. This earth is precious to him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. The whites, too, shall pass – perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. But even in your last hours you will feel illuminated by the idea that God brought you to these lands and gave you a special purpose, and ownership over them and over the redman. When the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses all tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by the talking wires, where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone. And what is it to say goodbye to the swift and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.

Arakan, armed Lumads avenge kin’s death

05 Friday Oct 2018

Posted by Admin in Indigenous people

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MINDANEWS

Hundreds of residents from both settlers and Lumads left their homes in a remote area in the hinterland of Arakan town in North Cotabato after a group of armed indigenous people on Monday entered their village to avenge the death of a kin, reports said.

The Lumads, according to Arakan municipal information officer Leo Reovoca, were members of the Matigsalog tribe from neighboring Barangay Tawas in Kitaotao, Bukidnon. He said that the armed Matigsalogs wanted to avenge the death of one of their tribesmen who got killed after he attended a public dance in a nearby barangay on September 30.

The Lumads, said Reovoca, call this as “pangayaw” or “revenge.” He added that the relatives of the slain Matigsalog believed the killer resides in Barangay Sumalili in Arakan, so they went to the area the next day and hacked to death a certain Dolfo Handumon, an Ilonggo. Reovoca stressed that Handumon had nothing to do with the September 30 killing of a Matigsalog.

Handumon, according to Reovoca, was tending his farm when a group of armed Matigsalogs killed him on the spot on that day. “When the residents of Barangay Sumalili knew what happened to Handumon, they left the place for fear of also being killed by the natives,” said the municipal information officer.

Reovoca said that on October 2, in the hope of settling the disputes between the Matigsalogs and residents of Barangay Sumalili, Arakan Mayor Rene Rubino went to the area and started to dialogue with the concerned families. During the talks attended by tribal elders, both parties agreed to pay the Matigsalog family a certain amount as “blood money,” Reovoca said. “Mayor Rubino, on his part, bought a carabao worth P15,000 and gave the farm animal to the bereaved family of the slain Matigsalog. There was peaceful settlement of the issue after that,” he said.

On Wednesday, however, residents of Barangay Sumalili again panicked after they saw a group of armed men entering their village, said Chief Insp. Jose Mari Molina of the Arakan police. “Instead of returning to their homes on October 3, they chose to stay at the barangay center for fear another killing might take place,” said Reovoca. He could not yet ascertain if the area is now safe for their constituents.

“The mayor has ordered the PNP to closely monitor the village and already sought help from the Army to ensure nothing … will happen again in our place,” Reovoca said. (Malu Cadelina Manar / MindaNews)

Eroe per sfortuna

25 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by Admin in Church Philippines, Culture, History Philippines, Indigenous people

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27 agosto 2018 festa nazionale degli eroi filippini.  Di per sé la Costituzione filippina non indica chi sono questi eroi, ma sono abbastanza conosciuti anche perché le loro statue sorgono, chi di uno e chi dell’altro, nei cortili delle scuole sotto le aste dell’alzabandiera. Eroi come Josè Rizal e Andres Bonifacio, i più famosi, o Emilio Aguinaldo, Apolinario Mabini, Marcelo DelPilar e altri ancora. In buona parte tutta gente che lottava contro la presenza degli spagnoli e il colonialismo del XIX secolo. In buona parte tutti di fede cattolica.

E uno si domanda come mai cattolici nativi ce l’avevano con i cattolici spagnoli? Questo ci rimanda a un “eroe” abbastanza sconosciuto eccetto in Tayabas, Quezon Province: Apolinario Dela Cruz meglio conosciuto come Hermano Poli (o Pule). Nato a Lucban nel 1815, indio (Tagalog) e figlio di Pablo e Juana, devoti cattolici, dopo aver completato la formazione scolastica nel 1829, decide di diventare prete a Manila nell’Ordine dei Predicatori (Domenicani). Tuttavia, la Chiesa in quegli anni non accettava indios nei seminari, cosa abbastanza strana perché i primi preti di etnia malese (non meticci) erano stati ordinati dopo il 1702 dall’arcivescovo Diego Camacho y Avila di Manila, ma poi l’ordinazione di un nativo divenne evento molto raro. Così la richiesta di De la Cruz viene respinta per la sola ragione della sua razza! Apolinario allora si cerca un lavoro e lo trova come “donado” (fratello laico, oggi si direbbe anche OS operatore sanitario) all’ospedale San Juan de Dios, Manila, ed è durante questo periodo che migliora il suo parlare in pubblico dedicandosi anche a un maggior studio della Bibbia e di altri scritti religiosi.

Nel dicembre del 1832, De la Cruz, insieme a un certo padre Ciriaco de los Santos, fonda la Confraternita del Glorioso Señor San José e la Virgen del Rosario nella quale poi De la Cruz diventerà noto come Hermano Poli (fratel Poli o manong Pule). Una fratellanza che aveva come scopo di mettere in pratica le virtù cristiane con una devozione particolare a San Francesco d’Assisi e alla Vergine di Antipolo. Tuttavia, siccome ancora in parte legato alla cultura tribale degli antenati malesi, Poli comincia, oltre al Rosario, a introdurre nella confraternita pratiche religiose legate a credenze pagane precoloniali come, per esempio, l’uso di talismani. Inoltre, forse per rivalsa, ordina che la confraternita debba essere formata solo da indios proibendo agli spagnoli e ai meticci di aderirvi. Confraternita cattolica comunque che partecipava alla messa domenicale celebrata regolarmente da un sacerdote cattolico, padre Manuel Sancho, che tuttavia si accorgerà ben presto della pericolosità del movimento e aiuterà le autorità spagnole nel sopprimerlo.

Accusato di eresia dai frati francescani di Tayabas Hermano Poli, su consiglio dell’amico Ciriaco de los Santos, invia subito una lettera all’arcivescovo di Manila, José Seguí, accusando i frati stessi di pestaggi nei confronti dei nativi, frati che tra l’altro, vogliono la scomunica della Confraternita di San Giuseppe. Invia pure una lettera, firmata da p. Manuel Sancho, al vescovo di Nueva Cáceres per riaffermare che la confraternita non violava il diritto canonico. Tutto inutile comunque e ben presto l’accusa di eresia circola per le strade di Manila.

Nel giugno del 1841, Poli scrive allora alla Real Audiencia chiedendo al governo spagnolo di riconoscere la confraternita, per lo meno, come associazione caritativa. Ma il Governatore Generale, nel leggere che questa escludeva spagnoli e meticci, conclude che la confraternita è una organizzazione sediziosa e le sue devozioni relgiose solo pretesti per spingere la popolazione più povera a insorgere contro le autorità spagnole. La Confraternita viene immediatamente messa al bando e Poli è costretto a lasciare il lavoro all’ospedale. Tacciato oramai come un pericoloso brigante, con i suoi seguaci, scappa da Manila e si rifugia sulle montagne di Quezon.

Anticipando un imminente attacco, Poli e 4000 seguaci si radunano alle pendici del Monte Banahaw, tra questi un gruppo di negritos Ayatas della Sierra Madre. Il 23 ottobre 1841 il sindaco di Tayabas con numerose guardie lancia un attacco alla confraternita, ma ha la peggio e viene ucciso dalle frecce dei nativi. Allora  il primo novembre, Manila manda il colonnello Joaquín Huet a Tayabas con un migliaio di soldati armati di fucili. Dopo un paio di fallite negoziazioni, l’assalto diventa un massacro. Circa cinquecento uomini, donne, anziani e bambini della confraternita verranno uccisi e altri fatti prigionieri. Il resto si rifugia nelle foreste circostanti adirati contro Poli che ingenuamente aveva fatto loro credere che per via dei talismani sarebbero stati invulnerabili ai proiettili dei nemici e che gli angeli del Paradiso sarebbero scesi per aiutarli in battaglia. Poli verrà catturato da quattro dei suoi stessi seguaci e consegnato ai soldati spagnoli che lo fucileranno pochi giorni dopo il 4 novembre 1841.

I membri superstiti della “Cofradía de San José” vivono ancora vicino al Monte Banahaw, e qua e là in alcune isole dell’Arcipelago. Sono conosciuti come i “colorum”, una corruzione della frase latina in saecula saeculorum (“fino ai secoli dei secoli”) usata durante la messa al termine delle preghiere. In seguito, il termine colorum fu applicato a tutti i culti e gruppi fuorilegge caratterizzati da devozioni religiose, dalla superstizione popolare e dal culto degli eroi. Divenne ben presto anche un termine popolare per descrivere qualsiasi attività illegale nelle Filippine, in particolare per i veicoli di trasporto non registrati.

La Chiesa cattolica, a metà del XIX secolo, poco prima dell’arrivo dei missionari americani, aprirà definitivamente le porte del sacerdozio ai non più “indios”, ma (finalmente) “filippini”. Nel 1898 si contano circa 830 preti diocesani filippini, ma solo un piccolo numero potevano amministrare parrocchie, in maggioranza ancora nelle mani delle quattro congregazioni  religiose: Agostiniani, Domenicani, Francescani e Recolletti. Se Hermano Poli sarebbe stato un buon prete, interessa relativamente. Tuttavia, la sua tragica storia ci fa capire che, per non combinare maggiori guai, una Chiesa (ma anche una Nazione) può dirsi finalmente fondata solo quando anche gli “ultimi della terra” hanno la possibilità di gareggiare, pari a pari, con i primi. Senza discriminazioni. Insomma, sfortunati sempre saremo se abbiamo ancora bisogno di eroi. Come Poli, appunto.

(Lucius)

Bakil Gumandao

01 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by Admin in Indigenous people

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The link of Silsilah with the Subanon tribal groups of Zamboanga Peninsula started in 1977 when Fr. Sebastiano D’Ambra, PIME, founder of the Silsilah Dialogue Moevement, arrived in Siocon, Zamboanga Del Norte for his first mission in Mindanao. The death of Timuay Bakil Gumandao last April 13, 2018 is a great loss for all of us but also an occasion to honor him and encourage the young generation of Subanons to live in this “Modern Society” without losing the values of their roots as Subanons.

After the death of Timuay Bakil Gumandao, Fr. D’Ambra with other members of Silsilah went to pray in his house and met his closest relatives and one of the sons of Timuay Bakil, and they recalled the link of Subanons of Siocon with Timuay Bakil. Among the different testimonies to honor Timuay Bakil, we chose the testimony of Prof. Cecil Bernal, a retired dean of the College of Social Welfare and Development of the Western Mindanao State University who is now the coordinator of the Silsilah for the Subanon community close to Zamboanga City. Her experience and love for the Subanon community started long ago as she remembers in her tribute to Timuay Bakil that we share here in full:


I’m writing my tribute to a great Tribal Leader, TIMUAY BAKIL GUMANDAO who died at the age of 83 last April 13, 2018, but for me I still wish it could have been a hundred years more. Life is indeed short no matter what age a person dies.

Timuay was my primary source of information when the Rural-Urban Missionaries commissioned me to write the story of Subanons in the Zamboanga Peninsula. I always have looked to him as a great icon, a leader who stood firm on his stand against mining, against illegal logging and embraced at heart and practiced the principle on Indigenous farming (bio-dynamic agriculture).

His advanced age was not a deterrent on his active involvement with their organization known as LPLSICC (Labuan Patalon, Limpapa Subanon Indigenous Cultural Community). The same organization which vigorously had struggled for the claim of their Ancestral Domain. He was with the team who visited the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority to study how the Joint Management Agreement was forged with the Aeta Gambala of Zambales.

Like any other leader, he aspired that the same agreement be forged between their group and the ZamboEcozone. This wish of his is underway to be realized soon.

Timuay Bakil’s residence is found at the end of Barangay Limpapa, around 50 meters from the coastline. Every trip to do official visit to him is always a desire of my heart and so with the Silsilah staffs who joined me. It is because of the amazing view when we reach the highway on top of the hill, plus the modern bridge completed in 2011. The sea at the rear of his residence is perpetually restless. During the storm season, the waves are as tall as the houses in the sea.

Our beloved Timuay was interred April 19, 2018 at 2 PM at a nearby cemetery in a tomb well prepared by his children. The love of his children (8 living & 5 dead) was evident on how they gathered and helped during his wake. There was a tarpaulin bearing his name with his enlarged photo, a smaller photo on top of the simple coffin and two (2) bouquets of flowers.

What was unique, was a meeting held in front of the people preparing to go with the funeral. The meeting was attended by Subanon Leaders local and from  Zamboanga del Norte. I was told it was a process of selecting a new leader to take his place. Martin said Timuay Bakil cannot be buried without a successor to be selected. Right there and then we all witnessed a new Timuay emerge in the person of his younger brother by the name of Dionisio Gumandao (Temporary).

His remains were carried by loyal supporters including Carlito Santos, Silsilah staff whom Jojo said is also one of Timuay’s “adopted sons”.

BI arresta una suora, ma per poco …

17 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by Admin in Filippine Eventi, Indigenous people

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See also INQUIRER

nunL’Ufficio d’Immigrazione delle Filippine (Bureau of Immigration, BI) ha eseguito l’arresto di una suora australiana, Suor Patricia Fox, 71 anni, che vive nelle Filippine da molti anni e appartenente alla Congregazione di Notre Dame di Sion, una congregazione religiosa presente in varie parti del mondo e arrivata nelle Filippine nel 1990. Molto probabilmente il fermo della suora è in relazione al suo impegno nell’IFFSM, International Fact-Finding and Solidarity Mission, una missione internazionale (composta tuttavia, in maggioranza, da associazioni filippine impegnate nel sociale) d’inchiesta e di solidarietà che si è data il compito di verificare le violazioni dei diritti umani.

Recentemente in Mindanao, nei primi di Aprile, una di queste missioni di circa 200 persone è stata bloccata per ben due volte prima di procedere nel luogo della sua investigazione per poi essere ricevuta con una certa e forzata ostilità dalla gente locale organizzata, non si sa da chi, in rally di “pace” e di protesta dove sono stati sbandierati cartelli con le scritte “Stay out” (State lontani) e altri inneggianti alla legge marziale (Defend Martial Law! Defend Peace!) In quella missione IFFSM si era dato il compito di investigare 63 casi di uccisioni extragiudiziali oltre a casi di arresti illegali e accuse sollevate contro semplici agricoltori e leader tribali.

Comunque il fermo è durato poco anche perché il capo del BI Jaime Morente ha approvato la raccomandazione di rilascio per ulteriori indagini dopo che è stato verificato che la suora ha un valido visto ‘missionario’ e, quindi, è una residente straniera adeguatamente documentata.

War vs NPA endangers Lumads

31 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by Admin in Indigenous people

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DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 30 January) – President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s order to “destroy” the New People’s Army (NPA) endangers thousands of Lumads (indigenous peoples) and farmers in Mindanao as it gives the military a “go signal” to continue the deployment of troops and operations in their communities, a Lumad group said Tuesday.

Kerland Fanagel, chairperson of PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations-Southern Mindanao, said the all-out war could displace the indigenous peoples, worsen the situation in Mindanao and cost the President “isolation and condemnation” from the Lumads. Fanagel said over 100 Manobo evacuees from Talaingod and Kapalong towns in Davao del Norte have been holed up for four years at the Haran evacuation enter of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Davao City to escape alleged harassment by paramilitary and military units in their areas.

He said PASAKA-SMR noted that 34 of the 112 victims of politically-motivated killings recorded since 2016 were Lumads, including a student from Talaingod who was killed last year by the Alamara, an alleged paramilitary group. He said a certain Ricky Olado, 30, a Lumad in Arakan, North Cotabato and member of the Tinananon Kulamanon Lumadnong Panaghiusa was killed on January 28.

Another Lumad, Timuay Alberto Andes, a leader of the Subanen tribe in Zamboanga del Norte was arrested by the paramilitary. Upon arrival from his two-day visit in India on Saturday at the Davao International Airport, Duterte said his order against the “enemies of the state,” including the NPA, is to destroy them.

He also vowed to go after the so-called legal fronts of the NPA. “Pero kayong (but you) enemies of the state, my orders are really to destroy, to destroy the apparatus. Itong NPA, totodasin ko talaga sila. Tatapusin ko. (This NPA, I will kill them. I will finish them). The talks are over. No more talks,” Duterte said.

He said he will also order Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu to cancel the permits of mining companies that are paying the NPA so-called revolutionary taxes. “Kayong mga nakikinig, Kayong mga Lumad. Niloloko lang kayong lahat niyan. Alam mo kung si — kay sabi ko nga, kung bright ‘yang Sison na ‘yan, siya ang Presidente ngayon galing sa India, hindi ako. (Those of you who are listening, you Lumads. You are just being fooled. As I said, if Sison was really bright, he could have been the President who visited India, not me),” he said.

He said the money the NPA reportedly collects from mining companies is being used to fund an organization that destroys the country. Fanagel said there has been a rapid deployment of troops in Mindanao, including the 56th Infantry Battalion and the 15th IB from Bicol Region that are detailed in Davao del Norte, North Cotabato, and Bukidnon. “It shows that this government is no different from the past governments who launch counter-insurgency programs that target Lumad and peasant communities and schools. They will fail to silence the Lumads who are defending their culture and their ancestral domain from mining and plantations,” he added.

Duterte’s Proclamation No. 374 declares the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA as terrorist organizations pursuant to Republic Act No. 10168, also known as the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2002. The law states, “It is the policy of the State to protect life, liberty, and property from acts of terrorism, to condemn terrorism and those who support and finance it and to recognize it as inimical and dangerous to the national security of the country and the welfare of the people, and to make financing of terrorism a crime against the Filipino people, against humanity, and against the law of nations.”

The proclamation added that the law “criminalizes the financing of terrorism and dealing with property or funds of designated persons/organizations, and prevents and suppresses the commission of said offenses through freezing and forfeiture of the property or funds of said designations persons/organizations, among others.” (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)

Justice is slow

16 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by Admin in Fausto Tentorio, Indigenous people, Peter Geremia

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KIDAPAWAN, Philippines (CNS) — Justice is slow in the Philippines, but Father Peter Geremia is running out of patience as he awaits justice for the killers of a fellow priest.

fr-peter-geremiaFather Geremia is hoping that the country’s new president, Rodrigo Duterte, can cut through the impunity and corruption that the priest says have prevented bringing to justice the killers of Father Fausto Tentorio. The Italian missionary was shot to death on Oct. 17, 2011, just outside his parish office in the rural town of Arakan on the southern island of Mindanao, where he had helped indigenous communities organize to resist the theft of their lands by foreign mining companies, loggers, and large agro-export plantations.

Father Geremia, who was born in Italy but became a U.S. citizen in 1971 after living in the United States for more than a decade, is a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, as were Father Tentorio and two other priests assassinated in Mindanao. One of them, Father Tullio Favali, was murdered in 1985 by military-linked assassins who thought they were killing Father Geremia. Six men were convicted of that killing and served lengthy prison terms. But that’s not the case with Father Tentorio’s killers, who remain officially unidentified despite multiple investigations and a Byzantine trail of confessions and recantations by people with links to a paramilitary squad.

Father Geremia says the church got several key witnesses to Father Tentorio’s killing into a witness protection program, but as the case has dragged on, the witnesses have chafed at their lack of freedom. “It’s been five years since the killing, and after a while the witnesses and their families couldn’t stand it, it was like being in prison. They’d had to abandon their homes and farms and we had to support their families,” Father Geremia told Catholic News Service. The priest, who met personally with the leader of one paramilitary group linked to the killing in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to confess, is hoping things will improve under Duterte, who took office June 30. As part of the president’s pursuit of a peace deal with the National Democratic Front, in September he ordered the Philippine army to dismantle the paramilitary groups blamed for widespread repression in indigenous communities. “These groups are instruments of politicians and the military and serve as security guards for the big plantations and mining operations. They are often composed of indigenous people who’ve been manipulated by the military and armed with high-powered weapons. They have steadily taken over land and driven people out of their homes, all in an effort to destroy the tribal communities. It’s genocide,” said Father Geremia.

Asked if he knows the identity of Father Tentorio’s killers, Geremia declined to answer specifically, but said the country’s army was clearly involved. “We cannot point fingers at individuals, because they have the right to due process,” he said. “But the investigators know very well. The initial information from the National Bureau of Investigation mentions names, but they always refuse to admit the military was in control of the area. Fausto could not have been killed without their permission. When he was killed there were soldiers just a few meters away. The killers felt safe to wait for Fausto in broad daylight with the military all around. And after the killing, they just got on a motorcycle and went away without anyone asking them any questions.”

Like many church workers who have sided with indigenous communities in Mindanao, Father Geremia has endured years of harassment and threats. According to Sister Maria Luz Mallo, the executive secretary of the Sisters Association in Mindanao, Father Geremia’s commitment during 44 years of pastoral work in the Philippines has brought him unique acceptance by native communities. “Father Peter may have been born in Italy, but the blood that flows through his veins is Filipino,” she said. Sister Mallo, a member of the Missionaries of the Assumption, has provided pastoral accompaniment to indigenous families — chased out of their rural villages by paramilitary violence — who have sought refuge in a Protestant church compound in Davao. She said church workers who side with the indigenous are going to suffer. “Sometimes we are followed, and people often accuse us of being part of the NPA (communist New People’s Army), of being reds. But we are not working against the government, we are just responding to the needs of the people. And we will continue to stand as prophets even though we are red-tagged and our security is threatened. That’s part of following Christ,” she said. The struggle of Mindanao’s indigenous people, commonly known as Lumads, took a bloody turn April 1 when police opened fire on several thousand demonstrators in Kidapawan, killing three and wounding dozens more.

The protesters were indigenous and nonindigenous farmers suffering from a prolonged drought. They came to Kidapawan to pressure the provincial government to release thousands of sacks of rice that the national government had sent for their relief. It wasn’t the first such incident. During a 1992 drought, Father Geremia and several indigenous leaders were jailed for 28 days following a similar protest. A drought struck again in 1998, but the provincial government released the rice in response to farmers’ demands. During this year’s protest, Father Geremia was trying to mediate between the protesters and the government when shots rang out. As many of the demonstrators took refuge in a nearby United Methodist Church compound, Father Geremia stood at the entrance and forbade the police from entering.

In the wake of the melee, charges were filed against almost 100 of the protesters and their supporters, who in turn filed countercharges against the police and the North Cotabato provincial governor, Emmylou Talino-Mendoza, who reportedly ordered the violence. Those cases are pending in court, though Duterte reportedly has pressured to have them dropped. Valentina Berdin of Arakan was one of those charged. The 78-year-old indigenous woman was held for 11 days before her release pending trial. “We planted rice, but because of El Nino, none came up. I went to Kidapawan because the alternative was starving to death,” said Berdin, who is charged with assaulting a police officer. “I didn’t assault him. I turned myself over to him so I wouldn’t get shot,” she said.

Father Geremia said those captured by the police were the ones who could not run fast. “How insulting it is to the police that the only ones they arrested were the old women and the wounded,” he said. Although the demonstrators were unable to obtain food with their protest, Berdin said she has been offered one sack of rice and 4,000 pesos (about $82) every month if she agrees to drop the charges against the governor. Berdin says she that she and other indigenous people in Mindanao appreciate the accompaniment of church leaders like Father Geremia. “Father Peter has continued the work of Father Fausto in supporting the Lumads against the mining companies and the plantations that are trying to take our land. With Father Peter on our side, we will continue to fight for our rights,” she said.

With tribal Filipinos

01 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by Admin in Indigenous people

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Interview with Fr. Peter Robb, C.Ss.R.

Fr. Peter Robb C.Ss.R. served for many years in the Philippines. In an interview during October, 2007, he reflected on his time living with tribal Filipinos in the forests of the Sierra Madre mountain range. Fr. Peter describes this time as “the most enriching years” of his life.- How did it begin? – In 1973 I had a severe attack of typhoid fever and was hospitalised in San Juan de Dios Hospital, near Baclaran, Manila. Quarantine was rigid, however, a Philippine bishop and a good friend paid me a visit. During his visit he told me about 150 families who had resettled in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains. They had been squatters around the Manila Cathedral for many years. – After a couple of warnings to relocate, 15 6 x 6, ten-wheeler army trucks arrived to take the people away. There was great consternation! Within one hour the men-folk had arrived from their jobs or casual labour. Despite great anger, nothing could be done. Each truck had an army man with an American M15 attack rifle. The squatters were taken about 40 kilometres away to the town of Montalban, then across the upper reaches of the Marikina River and inland some 6 kilometres on roads accessible only by 4 four-wheel drive army trucks. – Tree hut The bishop asked me to visit the people when I was able. This I did after some months. a I spent three months living with them. While there I met a group of Dumagats, one of the major groups of indigenous people living in this area. They were a different physiognomy from the locals – a bit taller, quite dark, very kinky hair and dressed in G-strings. I chatted with them in broken Tagalog on their part and also on mine. “Where do you come from?” I asked. They gave a nod of the head with a movement of the eyebrows towards the mountains. Then one of them gave the Gospel invitation: “Come and see”. That’s how this apostolate began. – “Is it far to your place?” I asked? “For us, three hours; for you, maybe four hours,” they replied. “Two days from now, I will meet you here at this time,” I said. Sure enough, they turned up. I gave them a stick of pressed tobacco to chew with their betel nut and off we went. It did take me almost four hours, climbing steep tropical mountains and down to the rivers. They told me: “Halik tuhod ‘yong bundok”, which means: “You kiss your knee while you climb.” It was a good novitiate for the years to come. On arriving at a community of about 15 lean-tos for homes, the kids all fled to the surrounding bush. – They had never seen Kapre (a giant from popular fairy tales) before. “Kapre”, they shouted. The women-folk retired to their lean-tos and covered their breasts for the present. I spent two days with them, ate their diet of carbohydrate roots from the mountains and the tender tips of different plants (Mga talbos). It was a very nutritious diet! Each lean-to had three stones arranged as a stove for cooking. After the simple meal, we gathered around the fire. There was no light of any kind except for the fire. This became the pattern of my life for 12 years. The night was dark. The log caught fire. I could see it in the eyes of all intently looking at the fire. The fire of the Holy Spirit was in our midst. Conversation was very quiet and sporadic. – It was time for “bed”. We all slept on the ground around the fire. The log had been smouldering all day and the ground around it was warm. Next morning, before sunrise, we were awakened. The fire was rekindled and all of us sat with smoke curling from the morning fire. Few words were spoken. The tribals are very comfortable with silence. They can sit around in one another’s presence without words for long periods of time. This doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. They are highly sensitive to non-verbal communication. A part of the understanding of silence as a spiritual value has to do with waiting and not being impatient – Sleeping around the fire was something I experienced for a number of years. Sometimes the ground was damp after heavy rains but it was always warm. After a couple of years I developed kidney trouble. The solution: cut a few branches with my machete (itak) and sleep in them. We all bedded down together; men on one side, women on the other, and children all over the place. The dogs were also with us. If the ground was a bit dusty there was the possibility of a wee mite or insect called a niknik. When it nicked you it was very painful. In the early hours of one morning I was nicked in the groin area – once, then twice. It was painful so I headed to the mountain river about 100 metres away and sat in waste-deep water to cool off. A couple of men-folk had followed me. Next morning around the fire, my night predicament was the source of great merriment. The padre’s family jewels had been attacked by the niknik! – Who are these people – about 100 families – I worked with? – My information comes from the Ethical Studies and Development Centre (ESDEC), a department of the University of the Philippines (UP). We worked closely together. They came with me to the mountains. Most of my reflection comes from my living with these people.

Dumagats: Dagat means “sea”; people of the sea; people who came by the sea; Island hoppers from southern Philippines, possibly from the Celebes of Indonesia, even western Papua, New Guinea. So why did I find them in the deep forests of the Sierra Madres? When they arrived on the east coast of Luzon, they found their way up the rivers to the upland streams (UP). They are animistic in background, but most have arrived at monotheism (one spirit who is number one in every way). I didn’t find any who are henotheistic (each major tribal group with their god or gods). What follows are a few thoughts on animism from my exposure to it. – Animism gives primacy to the spirit. It is a sign and symbol of transcendence; a sense of God; a sense of mystery which is often lacking in our scientific, technological, secular society which has little appreciation of the sacredness of nature and men and women. In my time, there were many conflicts between transnational agro-industrial business corporations, government logging and mining concessionaires and tribal peoples about their forests and lands. – The Dumagats were still hunters or food-gatherers. In my time, there was little introduction to the ‘cash economy’.

Remontados: On two occasions I took members of the Ethical Studies Centre with me. In the late seventeenth century, numbers of the distant village (barrio) people refused to submit to Spanish rule. They returned to the mountains (Re Mons) where they inter-married with Dumagats or Agtas and assumed a tribal way of life. They have more ‘social mobility’, engage in upland rice cultivation (dalatan), build a better type of home, and encourage children to take some study in the village school (if any). – I brought out four or five members of the Ethical Studies Centre to a barrio, found a small dwelling and provided simple provisions. They came on Monday in the morning, about 12 kilometres and returned on Friday afternoon. They persevered for  four years. Remontado parents also seek baptisms for children. It’s a social ceremony with little religious significance.

Where are they? Remontados are located in small, enlarged family groupings in eastern Rizal, east of Manila, on the Lenatin River’s upper reaches, stretching towards Bulacan, and the Limutan River, part in Rizal, part in Quezon Province. They have long distances to walk; very steep tropical mountains; up to 35 kilometres walking. They are also present along the Umiray River in the heart of Quezon, which takes all day to walk with guides. The Sierra Madre Mountains run down the eastern Pacific coast like a spinal column. 1974-1978: First stage of my journey with the tribals – I call this the missionary stage in the former understanding of the word “missionary”. The tribals invited me to their many groupings. I joined them, and to a certain extent, immersed myself in their families. I didn’t really know the people, but their basic needs were obvious. Government and private agencies were contacted and teams were formed.

Some of the agencies who helped over the years included: ECTF Episcopal Commission for Tribal Filipinos – KAMP Alliance of Filipino Tribal Citizens ESDEC   Ethical Studies and Development Centre (UP) – LUSSA Luzon Secretariat for Social Action LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTRE for Indigenous Filipinos

The help was rather sporadic but useful at times. This included social services, health and education, while I inserted instruction and elements of faith. Gradually, I realised the paternalism of this approach. It was condescending. I had everything to give and they had nothing. It was creating situations of dependence. No true personal relationships were established. I was a slow learner. 1979-1981: Stage of immersion, sharing and being ONE with them For 18 months I lived with the tribals, shared life and hardships, asked for no exceptions, worked with them, ate their simple diet of root-crops, slept together around the fire at night, made myself dependent on them, tried to show that we were equals, and to some extent captured their values, attitudes and rhythm of life. Any talk of ‘belief’ was useless. It didn’t register. But when any hint of “experience” of my ‘Makedypat’ (or God) came up, I could share with them my experience of my ‘Makedypat’. I suppose I was a sort of “commodity” to be shared. That was evangelisation. 1981-1989: Stage of service as equal partners Tribals became subjects not objects of evangelisation. I recognised some important features of the tribal outlook on life and their way of life, learnt from experience and reflection. I suspect that many of my reflections here would apply to Australian Aborigines within the framework of their “Dreaming”. I speak as one less wise!

Fully in touch with “being” – The tribal is not interested in becoming and achieving. Hence they are co-operative and not competitive with nature and with one another. They see themselves as a part of creation and nature. They experience the harmony and rhythm of nature, the land, the forests and the people as a part of each other. In an unspoken way, they show gratitude and thanks to their “Makedypat”. This attitude was of immense help to me to realise what I knew all the time. In my Eucharist, I not only give thanks for creation but with creation. The bread and wine are thanks offerings to God who gave them to us. I affirm the whole of creation which Christ affirmed in the incarnation.

Fully in touch with reality – They co-operate with nature and do not compete against it. The destruction of forests and environment by logging companies is inconceivable. Their swidden or slash-and-burn systems are environmentally astute. For centuries their system has thrived on the lush, forest slopes. Their technology in the shifting cultivation is economically non-destructive. They cultivate their one to two hectare upland plot for one season only and leave them for five to six years before returning. This gives ample time for the land to renew itself. But low-landers, who come and see the semi-cleared land, proceed to harvest year after year consecutively. This destroys the land and depletes the top soil.

Co-operation – Relationships within the tribal family. One does not compete with one’s neighbour (kabalat). Frequently, I heard them say: “We are all brothers”. If one has no sweet potatoes or mountain roots, he approaches his neighbour and they share what they have. There is no question of payment or barter. “Food is the gift of the Makedypat for us all.” Steeped as they are in non-material values, their lives are independent of riches and material well-being. Concepts of hoarding wealth, acquiring possessions and saving for bad times are foreign to them.

Concept of time – The tribal lives in close harmony, a partnership with the forest and rivers, the flora and fauna, the land and nature. From this is derived his concept of time. Time, as divided into small segments – weeks, days, minutes – has little significance. They are not people of the clock or watch. They don’t have any. Time is the rhythm of nature – the rising of the sun, midday, the setting of the sun, the succession of days and nights, light and darkness. Time is the rhythm of the two seasons – the dry season and the wet season. The tribal’s yearly cycle, which for many years I became part of, can be described roughly as follows. Life revolves around the annual cyclical phases of the upland rice season (for the Remontados). The kaingin are one or two hectares plots. Between January and February, the kaingin sites (environmentally non-destructive) are chosen. Between March and April, clearing the lots – burning and cutting vegetation – is done wisely. In late April, the corn crops are planted. At the end of May, with the onset of the monsoon wet season, sowing rice seed begins. In August, the crop is weeded and protected from birds, rats, monkeys and wild pigs. This is the job of the women and children. Corn and root crops are harvested after three or four months and upland rice after six months. At the end of October harvest rituals are held. – Rituals are associated with the selection of site, the first planting, and of course, the harvest. The only one I became acquainted with was the Harvest Ritual. Harvest season is the end of October. I went up three days beforehand, a very steep three hours to a rather extensive plateau. The Remontados told me: “halik tuhod po iyan”, which means very graphically and truly: “you kiss your knees as you climb.” How true! I joined them in their final preparations for this important yearly event. The day arrived and I had set up a rickety bamboo altar.  Fifteen or twenty men had dried half-coconut shells containing the new rice. A couple of women led the rhythmic dance to the altar. I joined them with my bread and wine and danced the ‘light fantastic’. All the gifts were placed on the altar. Then we squatted around and discussed the meaning of it. My approach was in no way peremptory. I was one less wise looking for help to understand. Why do we do this each year? Thanks to the Makedypat. But why do we say thank you? Because He gives us our daily food. And why is that important? It keeps us alive; LIFE! This was the springboard for discussing the Mass. We all stood around the altar holding high our gifts. In the meantime, the women-folk were cooking some of these first fruits. We sat around the altar, men and women, and shared our communion! For the Remontados, it is a must to plant a small section of glutinous rice called lagkitan. It is used to make sweet rice cakes, pinipig, sometimes ginamis. The making of pinipig is inevitable in the kaingin cycle. It calls for a celebration and one is expected to join. It seems to be some kind of ‘offering’ to the rice (palay), and if neglected, the rice harvest will not be good. They say, “nagtatampo and palay”. The rice is sulking or “in a huff”. I thought this experience worth sharing.

Time is the life cycle

Birth: Couples live together at an early age – early teens – but there is no marriage at this age. Tribal marriage occurs when the couple are 19 or 20 if there’s a child. If there is no child, there is no marriage. After the formal marriage, they are very faithful, more so than the Christian lowlanders, despite what the government maintains.

Dying: Death holds no fear for the tribals. It is a part of the holistic concept of life. Death is a returning to Mother Earth, the resting place of the mga ninuno, the ancestors. I recall a conversation around the fire (siga) at night. The soil beneath us is sacred. It is rich with the dust of our ancestors and our parents. We will go back to join them. Memories of those who have died are very much a part of daily life but not in an oppressive way. Time and space does not separate us.

A reflection: The tribal Filipino has not escaped from time and things. Rather, he lives with their essential rhythm. To some extent, he has assimilated the deepest core of life and things. Living with this interior harmony and rhythm of nature is a kind of secret prayer. Something I learned: Is not this interior harmony a secret prayer, a pre-fabricated liturgy hidden in the visible universe? Silently, it awaits the person of reflection and prayer to capture, disengage and make it known in all its splendours. In their own unsophisticated way, the tribals have done this. Twenty-five years ago, I spent an evening with a Dumagat in his lean-to with the evening mists coming in, an apology for a roof. He had stoked the fire (siga), throwing on it some special leaves to make it smoke vigorously and drive away the mosquitoes. Lying on the ground beside the fire, we talked about his roots, his people, his experience of the Makedypat, and way of life. It was an amazing acceptance of a Caucasian, a foreigner. I asked him if he ever talked to the Makedypat. Almost indignantly, he answered “No! I live with Him. Tomorrow we go up the mountain to check the bitag, the traps. Maybe… I have trapped a mountain cat or rat or a baboy damo, a wild pig. Our companion is the Makedypat. If we catch something we come down, two hours’ walk, and share it with the enlarged family. The Makedypat is happy because we are sharing His caring for us.” Here was a contemplative in a G-string, completely unschooled but experiencing the presence of God at the heart of his life. Apart from my lying on the ground, the thought of my own penury prevented sleep for a long time. One of many inspirations with these beautiful people, taught to me by Palasapis, the name of this old man, a contemplative in a G-string. He experienced the presence of his Makedypat at the heart of his life. Lying beside that fire I realised more profoundly that this is what my life is really all about – to live fully this presence to God, to ourselves and to our Filipinos.

Work:  For us, work is an activity occurring within a defined portion of the day. Not so for the tribals. Work is defined or determined by the needs of the day and the seasonal cycles. Work is a part of the ongoing and unified activity of being and living. It is an experience to live and join them in their completely unstructured attitude towards work. In recent years, as a result of more contact with logging and mining companies, and the army and lowland settlers stealing their land, they have inevitably been introduced to the cash economy.

Education:  For the Dumagats, there is one school on the upper Limutan River. It is the Province of Quezon and the teacher spends two days to get there from the town of General Nakar. The Dumagats attend off and on depending on the movements of the family. The Remontados generally attend if possible. Not always so! In general, tribal children are not encouraged to question, to explore ideas and seek understanding. The patterns have already been determined by ancestors and they are taught to accept these patterns. They learn by rote, observance and imitation, rather than inductive or deductive thinking.

Functional Literacy:  This programme was initiated by a Brazilian Educator, Paulo Freire (1921-1997). He had great success training community leaders and social activists. The key question: What is it that people really want to happen in their communities? How can we help them to achieve it? Two questions asked in the meeting: 1)    What issue or problem do the people feel strongly about? What fires them up? 2)    How to get large numbers involved? Leaders are not experts. All have important contributions. All are teachers; all are learners; channel strong feelings towards practical action. One can see the possibility of encouraging subversion here – action from the masses. The army under Martial Law was very suspicious and we had our moments. I became a sympathiser, possibly a collaborator of the NPA, the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party. Two tribals who had been dragooned into the army to spy on their fellow tribals warned me: never bring my jeep, cream colour, into the mountains. It identifies you. And never go alone on those long treks, up to 30 kilometres. Contact the village first and ask the pangulo or leader to pick me up with five or six men. There is safety in numbers. For two years that situation prevailed. It was quite inconvenient, but necessary.

The Land: The land is a very pervading concept for the tribals. So often I heard them say: “The Land is our Mother”, our Ina. The land provides everything, nourishment for living, a welcome for the dead. It is a part of the life of each person. Our ancestors returned to this land we stand on, we came from it, and to it we will return. The land is not only the soil; it is the plants, trees, creatures of the forest. All are part of the land, the whole world. No one owns the land. It belongs to the Makedypat. We have the use of it, not individually, but a defined area for the tribal group. I recall that two or three well-to-do lowlanders came with three armed soldiers to claim the land. They waved Torrens Title Deeds. The leader of the Remontado group asked to see the papers. Publicly, he proceeded to tear them up. I jumped up and stood beside him for support. “What’s this he shouted? A piece of paper, just a piece of paper.” (He couldn’t read it). Then he tore it up and shouted: “Who named the mountains? Our ancestors! Who named the river beside us and all the streams? Our ancestors, hundreds of years’ ago. What is the use of a piece of paper?” I then took over: “Kapitan, thanks for reminding us all. It’s time to go home.” I then spoke to the soldiers: “My friends, we cannot solve this problem here in the mountains. A judicial solution is necessary.”

Martial Law experiences: President Marcos’ Martial Law meant that the Philippine Constitution was thrown out and the two houses of Parliament closed down. His men were appointed as judges in the law courts throughout the Philippines. He ruled by daily degree, implemented by the army. Naturally, abuses were rife – people disappearing (desaparecidos); (our confrere, my personal friend, Fr Rudy Romano), extra-judicial killings in the thousands.

A traumatic experience: I had a team with me from LUSSA, the Luzon Secretariat for Social Action. They all had Diplomas in Social Science, three young women and one young man. For almost three years we prayed recollection days together, planned and worked as a team, then made our assessments. The young bloke wasn’t too consistent, but he tagged along. I encouraged facilitators to go through my experience of just living with tribals and being accepted. Being Filipinos, they thought they understood them, but no. To be accepted to some degree is a rather long and painful personal conversion experience. The team of five had to walk carrying their personal belongings. I heaved along a small battery-powered speaker with a trumpet. We criss-crossed a mountain stream up to 100 yards wide, fast flowing and knee deep. Our brave male companion lost one of his rubber thongs in the currents, and for the next two kilometres he complained bitterly, changing the other thong from one foot to the other. The village (barrio) people were 80% Remontado and we were billeted in different homes. Our male component complained all the first day and then requested to return to base but I had to accompany him. A real wimp! It was Lent and the four of us had a wonderful two weeks with the people. Each one of us got four or five homes together at a time that suited the men-folk. We had modified sessions of “Functional Literacy”, a la Paulo Freire, Scripture readings with shared experiences of the Makedypat. Some parents wanted children baptised, so there was catechetics but only along the lines of sharing experiences. That’s the only way that tribals grasp anything of God. Teenagers were taught Mass hymns in Tagalog. Come Tuesday of Holy Week, two of my companions, Susana Pataksil and Rose Apid, asked could they visit  two male Social Workers with a group of Dumagats, a half day’s walk into the mountains. I was hesitant because there was a rumour that the army had a search and destroy operation out there somewhere – a ‘red alert’ area. They persisted and they knew the way. So, off they went, promising to return on Easter Sunday. They didn’t come, as was half expected on account of distances. Next day I left with the remaining young woman. Later on that Easter weekend, I heard that two Amazons had been killed by the army. Women who had joined the NPA in the hills were called Amazon. Quickly I went to their Manila base to have my fears confirmed. I volunteered to try and find the bodies with a half dozen male companions. I knew the way. On Saturday we left quite early in the jeep, as far as possible. Walking in, we made enquiries at each group of homes. We drew blanks until we came to a barrio at the foot of a steep, rugged area. The Pangulo, or one in charge, a Dumagat, told us that on the previous Sunday, four army men threw into their pakwanan, watermelon patch, the bodies of two young women, completely naked, no IDs of any kind. We exhumed the bodies from the shallow grave. It was shattering, absolutely shattering for me – my two beautiful leaders, mutilated by bullet wounds and badly decomposed. We scraped the remains into body bags and arrived in Manila just before midnight. Sunday night, the army announced on TV that two Amazons had been killed in the mountains, one had a hand grenade in her belt and the other was carrying a M15 attach rifle. Amen! They knew that we had been in and discovered the bodies. What actually happened? Early Easter morning my two friends and their male Social Workers were descending on a narrow mountain track. Susana was about 150 metres up front. The hills resounded with the “Pak” of a rifle and Susana fell on the footpath. Rose ran up to her, the two young men jumped into the forest and saw what happened. Rose held the head of Susana on her lap and screamed at the four soldiers: a translation: “We are not Amazon. We are not bad women. Have pity on us: two soldiers sprayed her with automatic fire. We counted 48 bullet wounds, and she was two months’ pregnant. There was a huge funeral in a Quezon City church. The eulogies were passionate, full of praise for Susana and Rose, but also loud denunciations of the government and army. I didn’t attend, but sent a page in Tagalog of my three years’ companionship, our praying, planning and working together for the tribals. They were two true martyrs who gave their lives for them. In my situation, I thought it would be unwise, possibly unhealthy, to be present. I was an angry man and it seemed to increase. I had become a victim of the atrocity. It would be foolish to return to the mountains. The problem was solved by joining the Trappists on the island of Guim-aras, near Iloilo, 500 kilometres south of Manila. For over three weeks, the monks took me into their community of prayer and work, rising at 2.15am each day. The hurt was healed, but you can’t obliterate such a memory.

Another traumatic experience of Martial Law brutality: This happened in a village (barrio) on the borders of Quezon Province. It was my jumping off base to Dumagat-Remontado groupings 15 or 20 or 25 kilometres in the mountains and inside Quezon Province. During the dry season, I could take the jeep to this barrio. On the outskirts there was a simple home, quite small, with a lovely family – father, mother, two small children – working about two hectares of wet rice cultivation. They were so generous. There were always sweet rice cakes and a glass of spring water. On this occasion, when I drove in there were 50 or 60 people looking over the fence towards the house, about 150 metres in the rice paddies. A gruesome sight froze me. I then ran in and sat in the rice stubble beside my friend. She was holding on her lap the horribly mutilated body of her partner. Deep, deep sobs were coming from the depths, after an hour of uncontrollable screaming. I placed my arm tightly around her shoulders with a hug. She sat, running her fingers through the hair. It was difficult to look at the body – one eye gouged out, one ear gone, also the nose, teeth knocked out, the whole body lacerated, genitals gone. There she sat in the stubble, a Pieta. After 20 minutes, I could literally feel the tensions relax. Her head nestled on my shoulder and I gave her a buss in the forehead. I suppose it would have been 40 minutes later that my friend raised her head and whispered: “maraming salamat po” (“Many, many thanks, Father”). It was time to go. Words are useless. Just silence, the silence of the presence of Christ. A peak moment of my life on reflection, surely! NPA members passed by that house, the same as I did. That made the man of the home a suspect NPA. At least he could name names. At 5.00am, he was picked up by three soldiers and thrown back at 11.00am. I passed by at 1.00pm.

Other memorable experiences: a Holy Week with the tribals: It was way out in the mountains at the confluence of the rivers Lenatin and Limutan – a beautiful ambience of towering mountains and gushing streams. The people were 100% Dumagat-Remontado. I was the first priest to visit the barrio and this was my third visit. Tuesday and Wednesday went off quietly with me explaining what Holy Week was all about. On Maundy Thursday I decided to have a washing of the feet, going to great pains to explain again and again the significance of the ceremony. Some kind of expectancy was aroused. Four men and four women were seated on a bench in our outdoor meeting place. An old tin basin of sorts was provided and I proceeded to wash and kiss each foot. It was hilarious. When I finished, the basin was half full of very muddy water. I might have known that the only time they washed their feet was when they waded through streams – a classic example of something completely anti-cultural. Good Friday had its moments also. I had the 14 Stations of the Cross, quite large and beautifully painted in Manila. These were placed around the barrio. The Kapitan, the one in charge, had to be the Christ. Mary, Veronica and the women, and the soldiers volunteered happily; this was drama which they love. The soldiers almost viciously beat the Kapitan. It turned out that they had grudges against him and it didn’t go unnoticed by the Kapitan tied to his cross. Next morning, I gathered my Stations. Number 12 was missing. Nobody knew anything about it. Ah well, let’s be positive. It will be a source of devotion in somebody’s home. On Holy Saturday evening, I asked my congregation to light a fire in front of our meeting place. No trouble! A huge bonfire blazoned the night as we gathered around the burning dry bamboo. I explained that the fire was a symbol of the Risen Jesus in all His glory. A large crowd surrounded the blaze. Suddenly, an old woman grabbed a faggot from the fire and began to dance around the fire crying out, “Buhay Pa Si Christo!” One by one, 15 or 20 joined her, myself among them, each brandishing a faggot. All were crying out “Buhay Pa Si Christo” – “Christ is still alive.” The high mountain peaks echoed and re-echoed “Christ is still alive”. It was just awesome, coming from all these non-baptised people with little or no knowledge of our understanding of faith. An accommodated Easter Mass followed. Towards the end of the Mass, the reality struck home.  The living Christ’s death and resurrection, that had just been proclaimed, was really present. No mere remembering, but actually effectually present. That moment, that majestic moment, Christ’s humanity became one with the Father. But also our humanity, all those non-Christians and the whole of creation were one with the Father. The mountain peaks had echoed with “Christ is still alive”. It was my enrichment, thanks to the tribals, and I might add enjoyed a sound sleep on the bamboo slats. Another example of how a non-Christian who didn’t recognise Christ, became the Sacrament of the Spirit and Presence of Christ. It took place at Paymuhuan, a Dumagat-Remontado barrio in the heart of the mountains on the river Limutan, Quezon Province. On a couple of visits, a young Dumagat, about 28, begged for baptism. He didn’t know anything about the faith. On this occasion, his young partner was giving birth to their first child and there were all kinds of problems. He invited me to their lean-to. I blessed the mother and child, who was trying to see the light of day. I helped the midwife, an old lady, and the tiny infant was born, and mother survived, but in a very weak condition. My friend was overjoyed and again begged and begged for baptism. I shared with him my and his experience of the Makedypat and in my next Bible service of sharing experiences, I baptised him. The joy was unbelievable and contagious. He seized from my hand the mike of my battery-powered speaker. What followed was an outpouring of the Spirit of the Risen Christ. Fr. Aussie Brennan in the mid forties talked about baptism of desire. Here was a graphic example. Crossing mountains and tropical streams was always hazardous in the wet season. Kilometres back, 300 to 400 millimetres of rain in 48 hours on mountains denuded by the loggers. The thin topsoil washed into the upland streams which became raging torrents, sometimes up to 200 metres wide. With the currents waist and chest deep they became impassable. It would be foolhardy to take the jeep in with quite large stones rolling down in the murky waters. I just had to wait a week or so.  On a couple of instances, the army 6 x 6, ten-wheeler helped me out. My few belongings, speaker, trumpet, Mass kit, etc. were placed in the army truck. The jeep was then filled with large stones, fan belt taken off, rice sack over the engine, exhaust plugged, blocks under the springs, and a two to three metre cable fastened the jeep firmly to the back of the truck, and off we went with water almost up to my knees. The jeep was washed to an angle of 45 degrees, but we made it. This was one occasion to thank the army. On several occasions, I had to leave the jeep and walk out, tracks impossible even with my four-wheel, low ratio gear and chains.

Some other experiences – Presence at a birth: Birthing is a women’s affair, but the father of the child could be present, but they never do. In this group, an elder could be invited. I was invited, an extraordinary acceptance for a Caucasian foreigner. I observed from a discreet and curious distance. The woman was lying on a mat with something under the lower back to raise the pelvis and legs. Some seven or eight women were there with two elderly midwives. Experience was their teacher. It was a familial scene. One woman wiped her brow with a dirty piece of cloth. Another held her hand with a reassuring word. Her breasts were fondled and caressed to relax her; a hand on the tummy. As the muscles contracted and dilated she breathed rather heavily and groaned a little. All present joined her in a rhythmic breathing and groaning. All were in unison with one of them whispering encouragement. Everybody was involved before the infant was delivered. A great shout of joy welcomed baby from the warmth and security of the womb, a welcome to this hard world of ours. One midwife looked after mother, the other the child, cutting the umbilical cord with a bamboo knife and quickly cleaning nostrils and throat and wiping the whole frame with some kind of herbal mixture. The baby boy was quickly passed around to all of us. I gave a quick blessing on the forehead, then onto mother’s breasts. The support and care for mother and child was extraordinary.  And people say that they are “primitive”.

Presence at a wake – This is men’s business, prerogative, whatever! Again, I had the accepting privilege of being invited. Fifteen or twenty men were there, squatting around the body of a woman, the wife of one of the leaders. We squatted lotus style in silence. I could do that 25 years ago, but no way now with my fossilised knee joints. We sat in complete silence chewing betel nut with a mixture of lime (apog), chewing tobacco (maskara), and a special leaf (ikmo). After about 20 minutes, the leader shared his betel nut with the man on his right; he in turn to the person on his right and so around the group, including myself. No sweat those days! Again silence. Another 20 minutes and the leader approached the body and literally anointed the forehead and upper breast with the betel nut from the mouth. We all followed. I said the prayer we use with the sacramental anointing. Silence again! After about 20 minutes I whispered very respectfully: “Beautiful, very beautiful. Thank you for the invitation to be here, to be one of you.” It was extremely important not to be intrusive in any way. “I wonder why you share the betel nut, and then you anoint the body (bangkay).” No response. “It must have a beautiful meaning.” No response. “Our ancestors taught us.” Silence! Then the leader said: “You are asking questions. Why do you think we do it?” After a long pause, I said very, very quietly, softly. “Sharing the betel nut chewing (nganga) showed me that you are all still one, united, even though our dear one has gone to the Makedypat. The anointing showed me we are still somehow one with our dear one.” Silence! “My parents have returned to the Makedypat. But somehow they are still with me because the Makedypat is with me. That was the golden opportunity for sharing, for evangelisation.

Invitation to a marriage – This was another unique experience, one that showed, to some degree, my acceptance by this Remontado group of 50 homes. I joined the groom’s family and relations. When ready, the groom emerged from his home. We were all waiting for him and together we walked, without any order, to the bride’s home. Her enlarged family had assembled there. There was no sign of the young lady and there wouldn’t be for about 20 minutes. Without fanfare, she appeared on her father’s arm. There was no finery about her dress, a faded Filipino cultural dress for women which had probably been used for a couple of generations. But for her, no doubt, she was arrayed like a queen. The groom wore an old but clean Barong Tagalog. An aside:  Back in the seventeenth century, the Spanish colonisers obliged Filipino men to wear their shirts outside their pants as a sign of inferiority. With attractive materials (pinya, pineapple thread) and needlework, the shirt evolved into the national formal dress). In a few days he would be back in the Kaingin upland rice plot in his G-string. Pants are most uncomfortable in the groin area. Back to our wedding. The two parties walked without intermingling while an older woman led them with a slow waltz and a lilting song; all the words were improvised, thoughts re the joy and happiness of a new union, their future children and the contribution they would make to the life of the barrio. Arriving at the compound in the centre of the village, the entrance was blocked by the father of the bride. No entrance! Our songster chanted about the joys, happiness and help the mga apo, the grand-children, would give him. Some tubang lalake was offered. That is fermented coconut juice. No response! Then some Ginebra San Miguel, gin made by the San Miguel brewery. No response! Finally, a full glass of Lambanog, distilled coconut juice, 94% alcohol. A hand was reached out eagerly and he moved away. The couple entered side by side, but no holding of hands. For six or seven metres, sleeping mats were on the ground with the teenage girls on either side. They proceeded to a platform with three steps. Lying on the bottom step was the mother of the bride. The songster continued singing about a beautiful daughter; she will give you mga apo to love you and help you as you grow older. A glass of Tubang babae (coconut juice recently harvested and quite sweet), and she readily accepted it and moved. The couple sat on the top step, covered by an arc decorated with all kinds of flowers. There was a tremendous shout of joy. That seemed to be the moment of marriage. An elder squatted lotus fashion in front of them and gave a most comprehensive instruction on marriage, every aspect, physical, emotional, handling problems. My regret was that I didn’t have a tape recorder. One couldn’t wish for a better instruction. I solemnly blessed them and the banqueting began. And what a feast of Filipino food and delicacies!

Health – Health was an important aspect of integral evangelisation, people able to live with some kind of dignity. Many were the lives saved during my 15 years in the mountains. Night protection from the Anopheles mosquito was important. In Remontado homes it was possible to use nets, but not with Dumagats sleeping around a fire on the ground. They throw lots of a certain leaf which smokes profusely and drives mozzies away for a while. Early on I took out a small microscope with glass slides. Nobody believed that it was a parasite in the blood causing the fevers. Clean blood was a deep rich colour. Tainted blood was teeming with parasites according to the degree of infestation. They couldn’t get over it! Different types of Quinine drugs were sometimes effective, but frequently the mosquito is immune to it. I was able to get a new drug from an Italian pharmaceutical company which was effective. I forget the brand name. The big problem was to find somebody who could distribute it as directed. There were 12 victims of Hansen’s disease whom I tried to help. Three of them were covered with suppurating wounds, very high on the nose; the others had fingers, toes, nose receding or disappeared. I always spent a day or two in their homes to help take away the stigma in the village. Hansen’s disease is dangerous only through long and intimate association. One of Mother Teresa’s sisters was a German doctor who had worked for years in leprosaria in India. She recommended the drugs, one to cure the wounds (six weeks), the other to stay the progress of the disease. She also told me where to find them – The “Peter Donders Centre” run by the Redemptorists in The Hague, Holland. The tribals have a wide knowledge of herbal medicines. Outback they never see a doctor or nurse and they have no access to western medicines. I approached the College of Generic Medicines at the University of the Philippines (UP). They were most enthusiastic about meeting them in the mountains. Their number had to be restricted to four people – three male and one female. The jeep was not very big. Firstly, I had to contact a mainly Remontado barrio. They had to provide some kind of place to stay and meet with a group. The locals were really happy to have these professionals. Six weeks’ later I would come, weather permitting. From the UP to the barrio was a two-day journey with some supplies, a Coleman-Petromax kerosene lamp, a short handled shovel and mattock for emergencies. The last hour was hazardous after the heavy downpours. The Doctora was terrified. She had never been out of Manila and environs. The nights were so quiet and peaceful with only the cries of night birds breaking the almost deadly silence. The men-folk’s fear was different, but real. Would the Communist NPA kidnap them and demand a ransom? This was not uncommon. I could only reassure them that I could handle such an eventuality. The get-together aroused tremendous enthusiasm. During the five days, tribals came from all over, men and women. The doctors opined that they learnt more than they were able to give. They did identify more herbs, show them how to preserve them and how to concoct these remedies. A local young woman who had studied for  two years in an Agricultural High School was put in charge and I, in due time, provided the large open-mouthed bottles with screw and clamp tops. We had a Botica sa Barrio, a pharmacy in the mountains. Another enterprise was to take out a professional dietician. She had no qualms about isolation, etc. For nine days she lived with the women-folk. From the foodstuffs available she produced two nutritious meals per day. Everybody tried to help in any possible way. It was a great success! But, a couple of weeks later they reverted to their former ways. One cannot change generations of procedures in nine days. I could just hope and pray something brushed off.

Conclusion

A final thought, thanks to my beloved tribals. How to face life, poverty, oppression without bitterness, but with hope? There’s no quenching of the flickering light in their lives. They celebrate their God, Makedypat, in their life experience, His experience of His Presence in themselves, their family gatherings, in the whole of life. Thanks to my superiors for the opportunity and privilege to live with them.

Lumad killings in Mindanao

19 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by Admin in Culture, Indigenous people

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UCANEWS

International activist groups and religious missionaries in the Philippines have launched an investigation into the recent killings of tribal people in the southern region of Mindanao. “The continuing killings of tribal people is an urgent matter that the government must address,” said Ailene Villarosa, advocacy program officer of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines. Villarosa told ucanews.com that 24 foreign delegates are joining the “international solidarity mission” that will visit tribal farming communities in the province of Bukidnon. Gunmen shot Danny Diarog and Hermie Alegre, while they were returning home from a meeting with the government’s National Commission on Indigenous People, on July 15. Diarog, head of the Bagobo K’lata tribe and member of a tribal organization, remained in critical condition in hospital on July 18. Alegre a tribal school parent-teacher association president died in hospital. Pasaka, an alliance of tribal groups in Mindanao, accused soldiers and a local paramilitary group of having a hand in the shootings. Tribal rights group Katribu condemned the attack and called on President Rodrigo Duterte to end what it called a government counterinsurgency program claiming the lives of people in hinterland communities. On July 12, private security officers in Sumilao, in Bukidnon province, allegedly gunned down three Higaonon tribesmen. A 15-year-old tribal girl was also wounded in the attack. In the town of Caraga in Davao Oriental province, some 400 tribal people have fled their homes due to ongoing military operations against communist rebels.

Cultural integration

Sister Maria Fatima Somogod, coordinator of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, said the international mission has been launched so that will people will understand the situation of tribal communities in Mindanao. “We might see them on the news, but do we really know the story behind these killings,” said Sister Somogod, adding that people should see the situation with their own eyes. “People are quick to judge [tribal people] as against development … but people do not ask why tribal communities opposed the kind of development that the government offers,” the Catholic nun said. She said the investigation and an immersion program, an interfaith activity led by the missionaries, aims to “change biases” against the idea that tribesmen are barbaric. The nun also appealed to the government “to try to understand the context of our indigenous brothers and sisters.” The Rev. John Oda from the United Methodist Church in California said he wants to hear about the struggles and the people and “learn more about what is happening in the region and how we can be in solidarity with them.” The international mission will visit communities in Maramag town in Bukidnon where about 800 tribal families have been asserting their right to land that has been in the control of a state university. The university has since deployed armed guards in the area to stop residents from farming. Members of the mission will release the result of their investigation in an International Conference for People’s Rights later this week. The Rev. Rex Reyes Jr., a member of the board of the World Council of Churches, said the conference will “hear the people’s complaints about continuing rights violations” in the Philippines.

Tropical forests in Arakan

15 Friday May 2015

Posted by Admin in Indigenous people, Kidapawan

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The winner of the $500 Prize is:
Philippine Eagle Foundation – Holistic forest biodiversity conservation in the Arakan Valley through ‘corridors’ and ‘stepping stones’

Originally a lowland tropical forest, the Arakan Valley in North Cotabato, Philippines has lost 94% of its forests. What remains are confined in three forest islands, two of which are global KBAs.
Using a landscape restoration framework crafted by various stakeholders, a revitalized Arakan Forest Corridor Development Program (AFCDP) began in 2010. The AFCDP is a multi-year initiative that combines forest management, poverty alleviation, resource mobilization, local capacity building, advocacy and education to restore the social-ecological resiliency of the Arakan landscape and its predominantly poor, rural inhabitants. To date, 6,000 ha of the KBAs are legally protected with clear management regimes that also conserve IUCN ‘threatened’ species like the Philippine Eagle. Native trees were also re-planted in 370 ha of non-forest areas around ‘core zones’ through small-holder ‘rainforestation’ approaches, with census showing a 60 % average survival rate in successful reforestation plots.

Using a ‘sustainable livelihoods framework’ approach, the well-being of 200Indigenous households performing clear environmental services is also being secured. During the previous year, household annual income has tripled from rainforestation fees. Basic education, health and livelihood support were also facilitated as ‘conservation incentives’. Sustainable conservation financing and ‘in-kind’ incentives are brokered through ‘conservation agreements’ between communities and their government, private and corporate benefactors. We mobilized US $ 316,000.00 of funding so far through these innovative ‘private-public-community’ partnerships. Recently, a total of 36 ha of small, natural forests patches within production landscapes that are wildlife ‘stepping stones’ in between core zones will be rehabilitated and expanded through a private-landholder restoration initiative.

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/phileaglefdn

Mt Mahuson ICCA page: http://www.iccaregistry.org/en/sites/29

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Euntes partecipants at sea with Vinta
Euntes partecipants at sea with Vinta
Elections
Elections
Arakan Bridge
Arakan Bridge
biffi siocon
Salvavida 2003
Salvavida 2003
Nice one
Nice one
Pime Filippine 1972. In piedi Piccolo, DiGuardo, Bauducci e Vincenzo Bruno. In basso Biancat, Biffi e Alessi
Pime Filippine 1972. In piedi Piccolo, DiGuardo, Bauducci e Vincenzo Bruno. In basso Biancat, Biffi e Alessi
ZAMBOANGA16
Boats on lake
Boats on lake
Dao Parish motorbikes
Riposo in montagna
Riposo in montagna
moto di Tullio
p.Nicola B.
Bro Arici in cappella a Santa Cruz
Bro Arici in cappella a Santa Cruz
p.Biancat e p.Gheddo Siocon
p.Biancat e p.Gheddo Siocon
Mary Queen of Apostles, Manila
Mary Queen of Apostles, Manila
Auguri!
Filippine, Manila The First PIMEs Arici, Bonaldo, Alessi e Piccolo
Filippine, Manila The First PIMEs Arici, Bonaldo, Alessi e Piccolo
Santa Messa
Santa Messa
Solita tazzadi caffè
Solita tazzadi caffè
Laboring
Laboring
Parish Church build by fr. Angelo Biancat
Parish Church build by fr. Angelo Biancat
P.Lusuegro e De Maria
La tomba 1986
La tomba 1986
pade Adriano Cadei e a sinistra padre Luigi Cocquio.
pade Adriano Cadei e a sinistra padre Luigi Cocquio.
Ambulante
Ambulante
Due differenti
Due differenti
Not so good
Tondo 1981
Tondo 1981
P.Steve Baumbusch
P.Steve Baumbusch
Transportation
Transportation
Al completo
Al completo
Balud, tiro delle reti
Balud, tiro delle reti
Lubang Island
Sul carabaw o buffalo
Sul carabaw o buffalo
Modern Filipino Church
Modern Filipino Church
In occasione visita di p. F. Galbiati, superiore generale.
In occasione visita di p. F. Galbiati, superiore generale.
Carzedda, D.Ambra e Trobbiani
P. Alessi Tondo 1976
P. Alessi Tondo 1976
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Arakan 1986
Arakan 1986
p. Sergio
MQAP, CAA
MQAP, CAA
p.Tullio Favali
foto Davidde
foto Davidde
contis tondo manila 1977
Manila 1975
Don Bruno Bottignolo
ReBossi
Wandering ...
Wandering …
cammina tra kawayan
Siay, Ipil
Siay, Ipil
Rice Water Mill, Arakan
Dao Parish
Entrance Seminary
Entrance Seminary
P.Adriano Cadei, tondo 1973
Studio della lingua
Studio della lingua
P. Pecorari con P. Baumbusch, Filippine-Lago Tagaitai, 1989, stampa colore
P. Pecorari con P. Baumbusch, Filippine-Lago Tagaitai, 1989, stampa colore
P.Giuseppe Carrara
Imelda, Ipil
Imelda, Ipil
Allevamento per baluteggs
Allevamento per baluteggs
sogni e sangue
Filippine, diocesi di S. Pablo, parrocchia di S. Cruz
Filippine, diocesi di S. Pablo, parrocchia di S. Cruz
Filippine, Kidapawan, Tulunan 1985
Filippine, Kidapawan, Tulunan 1985
P. Gianni Sandalo
Arakan 1990
Arakan 1990
Spiaggia
Spiaggia
P.Angelo Biancat
pime1979
Indigenous girls
Indigenous girls
Vegetables for cooking
Vegetables for cooking
1971 Agosto 13 P. Adriano riceve il benvenuto al termine del cursillo
1971 Agosto 13 P. Adriano riceve il benvenuto al termine del cursillo
MQAP, Manila, fr. Steve Baumbush Easter Procession
MQAP, Manila, fr. Steve Baumbush Easter Procession
Pranzo a Columbio
Pranzo a Columbio
Bro.arici S.Pablo Laguna
Sosta
Bruno.Bottignolo mount Apo
cinelas
cinelas
P. Adriano Cadei
P. Adriano Cadei
P.Nevio
Fr.Gianni & Sr.Stella
Sampuli p.Ilario Trobbiani, processione
Sampuli p.Ilario Trobbiani, processione
Relict in Ig-kaputol
Manila 2000
Manila 2000
Arakan Valley
Arakan Valley
Line of tricycles, 1974
Line of tricycles, 1974
Pime Group 1982
Festivity
Festivity
2001
2001
ayalamappa
p. Luciano Ghezzi
p. Luciano Ghezzi
2007: bambini cercatori d'oro
2007: bambini cercatori d’oro
Padre Bonaldo Pietro Filippine - Natale 1968 stampa b/n
Padre Bonaldo Pietro Filippine – Natale 1968 stampa b/n
Filippine 25° Pime con mons. Juan de Dios Pueblos, sulla tomba di p. Tullio Favali
Filippine 25° Pime con mons. Juan de Dios Pueblos, sulla tomba di p. Tullio Favali
p. Fossati
P.Fausto Tentorio 1986
P.Fausto Tentorio 1986
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Bel profilo
Bel profilo
Fr.Peter & Sr.Percy
Euntes Zamboanga
Filippine, diocesi di S.Pablo, parrocchia di S.Cruz: 15 marzo 1970. Mons. Pedro Boutigua, vescovo a S. Pablo, e P. Bonaldo davanti al padiglione delle attività sociali diocesane, nella fiera annuale della provincia di Laguna.
Filippine, diocesi di S.Pablo, parrocchia di S.Cruz: 15 marzo 1970. Mons. Pedro Boutigua, vescovo a S. Pablo, e P. Bonaldo davanti al padiglione delle attività sociali diocesane, nella fiera annuale della provincia di Laguna.
p.Cocquio
P.Salvatore Carzedda
P. Ricky Lusuegro ...
Guado in Columbio 1986
Guado in Columbio 1986
Lakewood
p.Fernando Milani in Lakewood
1985 bambini di Labuan col P. Steve Baumbusch, Mindanao, 1985, stampa b/n
1985 bambini di Labuan col P. Steve Baumbusch, Mindanao, 1985, stampa b/n
pime group manila
Water boy in Estero, Tondo
Water boy in Estero, Tondo
Tondo 1978
Tondo 1978
With Cardinal Sin, Re, Cazzaniga, Cora e Sandalo
With Cardinal Sin, Re, Cazzaniga, Cora e Sandalo
Fan City
Fan City
MQAP, Manila
MQAP, Manila
With mons. Tagle, Imus
p.Sandalo, Manila
P.fausto P.nando
Sal&Seb
Euntes, Zamboanga card. Olrlando Quevedo
Euntes, Zamboanga card. Olrlando Quevedo
Last Euntes message
Last Euntes message
grupposeminario
Partecipants
Partecipants
Canasta
Canasta
Dao
Dao
Ordination of father Ace 2017
zamboanga
P.Giulio Mariani, Euntes, Zamboanga City
P.Giulio Mariani, Euntes, Zamboanga City
With old friend
With old friend
Filippine, Manila, Tondo, anni '70
Filippine, Manila, Tondo, anni ’70
Sampuli, Ipil
Sampuli, Ipil
Favali T-shirts 1986
Favali T-shirts 1986
vincenzo
Filippine, Ayala: 1974 Pime e Mons. Pirovano
Filippine, Ayala: 1974 Pime e Mons. Pirovano
Anche senza mani
Anche senza mani
Euntes Zamboanga con mons. Romulo Dela Cruz
Euntes Zamboanga con mons. Romulo Dela Cruz
Lake Sebu - T'boli 1986
Lake Sebu – T’boli 1986
dsc08982
Km 125 Tulunan with Bruno Vanin, Giulio Mariani, Giorgio Licini, Peter Geremia e Fausto Tentorio
Km 125 Tulunan with Bruno Vanin, Giulio Mariani, Giorgio Licini, Peter Geremia e Fausto Tentorio
Kumalarang 1984
Kumalarang 1984
a Sirawai 2010
a Sirawai 2010
Payao
Payao
pp. Fausto e Giancarlo
pp. Fausto e Giancarlo
Ritiro
Ritiro
Cocco
Cocco
Assemblea in Talomo
Assemblea in Talomo
p.Villano, Siocon
With city youth
With city youth
P. Egidio Biffi al guado. Siocon 1980
P. Egidio Biffi al guado. Siocon 1980
Filippine, Kidapawan, Tulunan March 1985
Filippine, Kidapawan, Tulunan March 1985
Lucius, Manila
bomba2
P.Cocquio, alluvione Laguna 1972
Mud, mud, mud ...
Mud, mud, mud …
Durante la festa della parrocchia
Durante la festa della parrocchia
P. Peter Geremia, Coilumbio, 2007
P. Peter Geremia, Coilumbio, 2007
Zamboanga
Zamboanga
DSCN2960
Euntes 2000
Tulunan 1986
Tulunan 1986
Euntes Zambo
P.Sandalo e seminarista a Tagaytay
P.Sandalo e seminarista a Tagaytay
p. Fernando Milani e comunità
p. Fernando Milani e comunità
Water conveyors in Tondo, Manila
Water conveyors in Tondo, Manila
Confessioni all aperto
Confessioni all aperto
Pinnacle on beach
2007 padre Stefano Mosca
2007 padre Stefano Mosca
First Pimes in Manila 1969. Alessi, Bonaldo, Cadei e Piccolo
First Pimes in Manila 1969. Alessi, Bonaldo, Cadei e Piccolo
padre Luiigi Cocquio mentre suona la chitarra.
padre Luiigi Cocquio mentre suona la chitarra.

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