Gingerbread

I wonder if he felt like bread in an oven that very hour.

Jaime E. Dela Cruz, municipal administrator of LGU-San Jose came to the ceremonial launching of Competitive Selection Process (CSP) for new power providers and the event was initiated by Occidental Mindoro Electric Cooperative or OMECO. Mr. Orlando M. Andres, chief for corporate finance services of NEA-MAG and Ms. Beverly M. Estella, Corporate Staff Specialist A of the Special Planning Division of NPC’s PTSD-SPUG were there last January 28, 2012 for the occasion held in said municipality in Occidental Mindoro. Dela Cruz came along with him a letter from the town's chief executive giving the former the authority to represent the Island Power Corporation (IPC) to “speak for or against” the CSP.

Both Andres and Estella stressed during their separate talks that two of the main objectives of the CSP is to reduce power cost and power reliability will be assured. They also conveyed that their respective agencies support the process. For his part, OMECO General Manager Alfred A. Dantis exhaustively discussed some background information prior to its launching, the Energy Development Plan and the legal grounds to the holding of CSP.

CSP refers to the process wherein a New Power Provider (NPP) is selected through transparent and competitive bidding undertaken by an Electric Cooperative (EC) to secure, among others, the lowest long-term cost of power and services, a transparent procurement process for the fuel used in the generation of power, environmental compatibility with the local area, and the most advantageous implementation schedule.

The meeting went smooth since OMECO chair Samuel A. Villar officially proclaimed its launching until the start of the press conference cum open forum when Alex del Valle insisted that dela Cruz should be asked about the present office address of the IPC in order for to know where the court summon should be addressed. Dela Cruz retorted that he is only there to speak in behalf of the IPC. This prompted OMECO counsel Jose Aguila-Grapilon, former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), to ask dela Cruz if the latter could receive the notice or summon but dela Cruz also declined.

In our huddle after the CSP ceremonial launching, all of us are wondering in what capacity did his principal issued the authorization, was it in his capacity as the town’s chief executive or as owner or former chair or president of IPC?

If dela Cruz didn’t present his boss’ authorization letter and came to the event as municipal administrator or a plain OMECO member-consumer, he couldn’t have been the gingerbread man from the king’s court…

Finally, Mangyans as Municipal Legislators

November 20, 2011 was a red-letter day for the Tau-Buhid and Alangan, two of the biggest ethic groups of Mangyans in Occidental Mindoro, specifically those who dwell in the upland communities of Sablayan. Municipal Mayor Eduardo B. Gadiano signed Executive Order No. 2011 – 014 creating the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the preparation and adoption of local guidelines on the mandatory representation of the indigenous cultural communities/indigenous peoples in policy-making bodies and local legislative councils. Said representation of IPs in local legislative councils is mandatory under the DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2011-119, dated October 20, 2011. Such representation is likewise in accordance with Section 10, Article II and Section 17, Article XIV of the Philippine Constitution. Aside from the Mangyans, Sablayan is also second home to some migrant Igorots and Aetas.

The TWG was chaired by Gadiano himself and MLGOO Jerry V. Santos serves as co-chair. Along with some 17 other members and representatives coming from various private and government sectors, the group have already prepared local guidelines for the selection process of IP who would sit in the town’s selected legislative councils. The finalization of the local guidelines was facilitated by Atty. Ulysses Bambo and Eden M. Cenon, legal officer and field officer, respectively of the National Commission for the Indigenous Peoples or NCIP.

In the Joint Memorandum of NCIP and DILG, and this was followed by the TWG, the Mangyan tribal leaders and elders were given a free hand in selecting who would represent them in said bodies. The traditional process hinged on their culture was used by the Tau-Buhid and Alangan leaders who among them will represent their sector in said bodies including how would be the sharing of their terms of office.

Even before he entered into politics, Gadiano have been working close with the Mangyans. A known environmentalist during his NGO days said that his administration recognizes the contributions of our Mangyan brethren to the total development of Sablayan.

Statistically nationwide, the IPs number from 12 million to 14 million. They have a presence in 110 communities. Yet they are represented—in appointive capacities at that—in only 21 local councils. Of some 1,700 local government units (LGUs) in the country, only 21 have complied with the requirement of the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) of 1987 for the mandatory representation of IPs in policy-making bodies and local legislative councils. The Local Government Code also requires the appointment to the municipal or city council or the provincial board of representatives of marginalized sectors, which may include the IPs.

On January 24, 2012, no less than President Simeon Benigno S. Aquino III hopefully will be coming to Sablayan to award the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) to the Tau-Buhids and Alangans in the towns of Calintaan, Sta. Cruz and Sablayan. The future Mangyan legislators will also take oath before the chief executive that day called Dugoy Manganwa or Mangyan Day. The event will be held at Sablayan Plaza in Brgy. Buenavista and part of the weeklong 110th Araw ng Sablayan.

Ironically, many LGUs in the country do not recognize the rights of the IPs, especially their ancestral domain.

Sablayan is not one of those LGUs…

The Mangyan Christmas Connection

You cover your noses when we pass by while running away from us as if we are inflicted with communicable disease. You drive us away with words and gestures we hardly know but we do understand what you feel. You considered us nuances when we are in a crowd or public places. We know we are different in ways though we breathe the same air and share the same island. Rivers, mountains, forests and cultures made us apart but do not forget that we too share the same dream of living in harmony with nature and of unity. You laugh at us and you lined the generic term “Mangyan” with negative words in your dictionary but still we keep on daring dangerous terrains and risk our lives and limbs only for this season you call Christmas. At times we are objects of your insensible jokes and ethnic slurs. Even though, we cross angry rivers and life-threatening cliffs and sleep in the cold and dark forest just for this occasion. By the way, would you dare do that in return to reach us and celebrate with us in our rituals? I’m afraid not.

I feel sorry for the inconvenience, you who considered yourselves civilized, every time we beg for your leftovers and loose coins while you are eating in food courts or anywhere this Christmas. We do not have those kinds of stuffs in the mountains. They are good smelling foods of various tastes, colors and shapes that we also love to try once in a while. Like how you are delighted in seeing the exotic orchids and tasting the distinctive taste of our yellow ginger as one of the ingredients of your menu or in the comfort of lying on a hammock that we made.

We regret to annoy you while you enjoy. We beg you for food, clothing and money not only because we need them badly back in the upland but we also want to continue the tradition your great grandparents have started centuries ago. Christmas originated from your beliefs not ours, remember? Isn’t this tradition this time of the year was initiated by wealthy powerful lowlanders who grabbed our land and displaced us from our former haven? The natural resources that our ancestors nourished for generations are now within your reach thus under your care. Hope you care for it like what they have done for you are in such advantageous position having practically all the power, responsibility and the legal authority to protect them from intruders and exploiters and to promote them through environmental programs and projects. It is emphasized in our culture that the tribes are profoundly interconnected to our Creator, to others and to all creation.

At least, we always celebrate Christmas with you despite of everything and we both know that it allows us to feel that you are people of faith who care for the least of your brethren. Christmas connects us even if we always spoil your strolling around the plaza including your holiday revelries and parties wherever it is done with your loved ones and friends. But that’s the only way to connect and interact with you for, as I have said, we are world apart. You are not fully aware of our rich customs and traditions for you did not sincerely immerse with us. Who would be interested with irritants or inferior people, anyway? Oftentimes you people in government treated us as objects instead of subjects of progress and development. You only absorbed negative things about us using your own standards of looking at things. Looking through many spectacles that you designed and wear, we are inferior if not abnormal people based on every aspect of life.

We both don’t expect discussions on news of the day, the country’s present political feud, the global socio-political reality or the latest rumor in the entertainment world including the recent developments in modern technology and gadgets. For sure, you will not allow us to dive and swim on a pool with you and your beautiful kids or allow us to enter the privacy of your homes, to join you in your banquets inside air-conditioned halls. Thanks but no thanks, we are not interested in any of those either. We have our own swimming pool in rivers and we also throw parties of our own when we give thanks to the creator and we have homes where we share our blessings for all. Our homes are communal and even strangers are most welcome. Chances are, you would not be interested if I let you know how to catch wild pig or get honey from a beehive, to know what particular herb heal certain sickness or any of our economic activities, our own music, poetry and art, and the rest. There are indeed a lot of barriers between us specially language. But we have to acknowledge that there exists a “language” which we both speak and compassionately understood today: the hand gestures of asking and giving.

We may be nasty and dirty, foul-smelling and yucky minorities or natives (in fact, we do not want to be called as such) but please do not judge us. To borrow from your pop goddess Lady Gaga, we are “born this way”. Also, we were told that that long-haired man in g-string and was born surrounded by animals inside your churches is in no way judging on man’s appearance but the sincerity of one’s heart. How people share each other’s experience and how they define and refine their relationships, soul and spirit.

It shows that in five hundred years of our recorded history we have been abused. Your governments, past and present, does not truly help us restrain our rights and foster economic developments for us. But Spartan as we are, we have survived. We still celebrate and connect with you at Christmastime even you considered us as its mega-spoilers. Isn’t irritation at times wonderful than solitude? Truth to tell, annoyance is preferred by most people of my kind than being alone and lonely.

We are not acquainted with legal and political customs of your society and we let you took our land which is our life. We did not resist for we love peace. That was long ago but still we are discriminated. I cannot help too but wonder why you hate each other and why you can afford to hurt and kill your fellow citizens for senseless reasons. Why you forsake your own brother over petty temporal things such as finances and related processes. This way, we are more human than you are and forgive me for saying it. No wonder why you treat us differently. You cannot be at peace even with your own kind! How about us? We always avoid conflicts and we survived for centuries. Our main concept of justice is healing of broken relations rather than punishment. Consist of eight ethnic groups we never waged war against each other. Violence never be, never been and never will be a Mangyan norm. Have you forgotten that Peace is one of the major themes of your, or could I say our, Christmas?

When will you realize that Christmas is not celebrated to display your supposedly modern culture of excessive individualism and the obsessive pursuit of personal gains? The small amount of money, the used clothes and the crumbs from your table and everything you give us are keys that would free us from your chains of isolation and neglect. Even for a moment we feel freedom and relief, belongingness and acceptance. And we owe you a sack load of gratitude for that which words alone cannot express. To tell you the truth, it is more redeeming to embrace us with compassion than to discard us and therefore reject the connection that we begged and aimed for. We hope that one Christmas you come to realize that the things, both big and small, you hold in your hand placed on mine, whether as gift or alms, is a symbol of our interconnectedness. If you would only analyze you will know that you are not always the giver and we the receiver. We handed unnoticed important contributions from our culture to your great men such as missionaries, scientists, journalists, academicians, sociologists, scholars and community workers and the institutions or organizations where they belong. Since we are the ones who have direct contact with our endangered, beautiful flora and fauna including our wild animals and watersheds, we take good care of them the best way we can according to our culture, tradition and beliefs including legislatures that wherein our rights as indigenous peoples are written. Those are the things we humbly offer in exchange of what you are giving us this Christmas. Most importantly, we gave identity to this island we both cherish. Let this sense of interconnectedness brought about by Christmas lead us to similar acts of love displayed by that half-naked man wearing g-string, like me, inside your grandiose churches.

The man whose birth also annoyed the rulers of His time and made us all interconnected today…

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(Photo : Education Ethnic Mangyan Center)

Junking Childish Junks

I have reached this age but it is only now that I completely realized that it’s insane to argue with a hard line political partisan and arguing with them is like arguing with a two-year old. Most of them are childish, just like a child of two who cannot yet distinguish between fact and fancy. To that toddler, Santa Claus is real no matter what he is told. He do not give a damn if his patron owns the meanest mouth in town as long as he’s is included in the “list of special gifts”. They are all praise to “Santa” the whole year round and especially during the holidays because if they don’t, their fat bellied giver would warn each one of them, “You better watch out…” But what really makes Santa so enticing to a young child? By nature, children are egocentric or self-centered. A child of this age believes in everything that will bring fulfillment to his desires, or “ambitions”. They are told: “Do not be naughty. Santa will not give you a toy for Christmas!” So, everybody in the kiddy station behave nicely but only to each other. But anyone to those who belong to other nursery will be the objects of his savage fury and hitting. When they are told not to heart and respect each other for they belong to same profession, they will even accused you of siding with the other group. It is indeed, useless to argue with a baby, or with people having traits of a baby, no matter how old they are.

Arguing with your opponent or somebody that are blinded by political eye-pads is very much the same with arguing with a baby. If we put different objects, both nice and mean, in his crib, say; a pacifier, a hacksaw blade, a leaded toy, a bottle of milk, a candy, a box of pin, a running chainsaw, etc., you cannot tell the child to treat them differently. All of your arguments will be in vain because for a baby - not unlike some of the political partisans in Occidental Mindoro - anything can be judged by whether or not it can be put into the baby’s mouth and eaten. Political partisans, on the same vein, have only one way of judging every issue, whether or not they can be swallowed by their patrons! As I have told you, it is only now that I fully understand that it is stupid to talk to a wall like where the stupid egg named Humpty Dumpty sit and fell.

Grown-ups like politicians usually “answer” arguments by vituperation and slander. They counter allegations with harsh words no matter how truthful they can be. According to Frederick Faber, “The art of saying appropriate words, especially in public, in a kindly way is one that never goes out of fashion, never ceases to please and is within the reach of the humblest.” They as leaders who attended Catholic schools supposed to know that. How can we communicate objectively our ideas if we use arrogant and foul words against our rivals or anybody who do not have same opinion as ours? The communication of ideas is impossible when all of the logical argument is inefficacious.

Me? I have learned my lessons. Fulton J. Sheen once wrote (the title of the book skipped my almost “golden” mind) that discussion and argumentation are useless with certain people. There are some souls that are incapable of understanding spiritual truths. Indeed, the late cardinal is right. He stressed farther, “As Christ was silent before Herod, there are some with whom discussion is futile because of their behavior, so, too, discussion is useless with certain minds because of their abnormal mentality or obsession with lies they created and repeated until they believe that they are the truth.” That childish junk should be junked like Santa Claus in proper and appropriate time.

Learning that sometimes arguments with someone is pointless, Jesus said, “Cast not pearls before swine,” since swine are not capable of appreciating pearls…

Timely Words from Future Cardinal Chito

Among his many credentials and achievements, Luis Antonio “Chito” G. Tagle, was a member of the International Theological Commission (Vatican City) prior to his ordination as bishop of the Diocese of Imus. He was here in our diocese some years back to ordain two diocesan priests, his former students as seminarians, and in his homily he constantly reminded the candidates of “pagpapakababa” (humility) and “pagpapakumbaba” (humbleness). The San Jose Cathedral was filled with laughter for reason that I prefer to keep to myself. Now, I had mixed feelings of laughter and pain whenever the anecdote crosses my mind. One thing is certain, Cardinal Chito, wherever he addresses the public he continues to bring light lightly.

Manila Archbishop Chito Tagle formally took over his archdiocese during solemn installation rites at the Manila Cathedral yesterday morning attended by more than 1,500 priests, religious men and women, and lay faithful from his previous diocese.

In his speech entitled “Priestly Communion” delivered during the National Congress of the Clergy held at the World Trade Center in Metro Manila last July 5 to 9, 2004, the prelate emphasized that, “A priest exercises his authority effectively when he finds, especially in difficult times, what the Church holds in common and lives by them…. He searches for what he holds in common even with his enemies, those who want to exclude him and whom who might want to exclude him in turn.” True enough, with constant rediscovery and rooting of a precarious bond among the priests would lead to dialogue, discernment and unity. He said that the practice of consultation and dialogue with other gifted people are to be intensified. We do not need a dynamic and intelligent bishop like Cardinal Tagle to understand that what we currently need as a local Church is the constant and intensification of consultation and dialogue among the clergy. All of us, friends and foes alike surely have things in common, and he jokingly added, “Ah, there they have something in common – they dislike each other!”

If you would ask me what would be the local realities to achieve unity and communion in my workplace and my diocese, I’ll just borrow in verbatim the words of Bishop Tagle: “A priest of communion cries with others until their common tears become the Church’s lamentation. He smiles with others until their common smile becomes the Church’s ode to joy. He is frightened with others until their common fear becomes humanities longing for trusts. He is poor with others until their common poverty becomes the world’s cry for justice. He loves with others until their common love becomes creation’s paradise. He is with others in order to be for them. And by being for them, he becomes more with them. And the Church becomes more what is meant to be.”

By actively doing her usual advocacy works and charitable programs within her ecclesiastical territory, we locate the Church where she belongs, not in the four-corners of our offices but in faith communities...

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(Photo from Rafael Alfonso's Paintings)

Flying Priest and Nuns

Everybody knows that on December 12 we Catholics will be celebrating the Feast Day of our Lady of Guadalupe but only few are aware that in Honduras of the 80s’, there was a revolutionary priest nicknamed Guadalupe. People call the late Fr. James Carney as Padre Guadalupe, an expression of his deep devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. That time the most striking reality in Honduras was the degrading poverty of the rural peasants. Carney turned his back from the comfortable security of the priestly world to immerse and identify more deeply in the world of the poor. In his book “All Saints” (p. 404) author Robert Ellsberg has this to say on the American Jesuit: “Over the next decade Carney became increasingly committed to peasant struggles for land and justice.”

The author further wrote, "Grossly inequitable distribution of land left the majority of the rural population in the status of indentured servants – hungry, illiterate, living in shacks, resigned to watching their children die of malnutrition and disease. Meanwhile, the owners of the haciendas made a show of their Catholic faith, appealing to the bishops to bless the status quo and to denounce communism. But when the bishops began to talk about social justice, then the rich spoke of betrayal, heresy, communist subversion! Carney was a particular scapegoat.” He was stripped off his Honduran citizenship and was exiled to Nicaragua. Carney told highlights of his life in his autobiography called “To Be a Revolutionary: The Autobiography of Fr. James Guadalupe Carney” which was published by Harper and Row in 1987.

In September 16, 1983 after his armed band of Honduran guerillas (He served as chaplain of the Central American Revolutionary Workers Party or PRTC) was captured by the government forces, he was taken up in an army helicopter and hurled out, alive, to die on the mountainsides below. His remains was never recovered, wrote Ellsberg.

Getting thrown out of an aircraft seems the favorite execution method in Latin America that time. In Argentina way back in Advent of ’77 there was this story of the “flying nuns”. Sisters Alicia Domon and Leonie Duquet, both French nationals and members of Toulouse Institute of the Sisters of Foreign Mission, are said to have been tossed out of the airplanes over the Atlantic Ocean and like Padre Guadalupe, their remains were not been recovered.

The incident was confirmed later by a retired Navy commander, Adolfo Scilingo who confessed his role in the “death flights” of the “flying nuns” (a joke and rumor moving around that time in military camps). The former military officer testified that he did not know that the bodies are those of nuns and he said he is just following orders. And this is the saddest part: when he confessed his actions to a military priest, he was told the killings “had to be done to separate the wheat from the chaff!” Violation of human rights was so rampant in Argentina that time but the conservative Catholic Church remained largely silent those days. As silent as our local Church that did not even initiated a diocesan-wide and concerted campaign against the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill.

Before her disappearance and way back in Buenos Aires, Sr. Alicia Domon became closely involved with a courageous organization of women called Mothers of the Disappeared. Several months before her disappearance, according to Ellsberg, she had written to the archbishop of Toulous, “I would not ask you not to do anything to save me which could endanger others. I have already made the sacrifice of my life.”

Our Lady of Guadalupe was proclaimed “Patrona de las Americas y de las Islas Filipinas” in 1565 by Pope Clement VII. For all the Christians in Latin America and the Philippines, this feast is a reminder of Mary’s importance as type and mother of the Church and that crosses all cultural boundaries like the three internationalists that we have studied. The message of Our Lady of Guadalupe was clear: the church must not serve as the religious arm of colonial oppression. Today the message is still relevant but in a new context: the church should not allow herself used by politicians towards their selfish ends. Instead, conversion must be rooted in the experience of the poor and become a vehicle for their cultural and spiritual survival. This is the message of the Our Lady in Juan Diego’s ayate (cloak). This is the same message that was imprinted in the hearts of our “flying priest and nuns”.

Well, not all priests and nuns are the same. Some are even putting down the lowly and raises the mighty high above their thrones, an exact opposite of Mary’s protest in her “Magnificat”. ..

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(Photo from msanantonio.com)