Father Pops

There is perverse irony in the timing of the assassination of Fr. Fausto Tentorio, Father or Tatay Pops to his beloved parishioners.  He was gunned down last Monday morning, Oct. 17, the day after World Food Day.  October, too, is Indigenous Peoples’ Month in the Philippines.

Father Pops is an Italian missionary, a member of PIME or the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions.   The residents in his parish, in Arakan Valley, North Cotabato, are predominantly lumad, or indigenous peoples.  An Internet posting by the local government describes the area as being rich in natural resources, a food bowl, a nature reserve and a potential site for mining gold and other minerals.  Father Pops had many community projects running, including a school and a sustainable agriculture program to help the lumad to tap into these resources.

The lumad of the area have known of their land’s wealth for centuries, the name of the valley derived from the Manobo “ara” meaning abundant natural resources and “kan” meaning heroism and bravery.

PIME missionaries have put their lives on the lines by choosing to serve areas like the Arakan Valley.

Two PIME missionaries have been kidnap victims: Fr. Luciano Benedetti in June 1998 in Zamboanga del Norte and Fr. Giancarlo Bossi in June 2007 in Zamboanga Sibugay.

Others have given up their lives.  Father Pops was the third PIME missionary to be murdered in the Philippines.  The first martyr was Fr. Tulio Favali, gunned down in 1985 by Norberto Manero Jr and other paramilitary operatives known collectively as the Ilaga (Rats), used by the military against anyone suspected of being “anti-government.” The second martyr was Fr. Salvatorre Carcedda, killed in Zamboanga in 1992.  Like Father Pops, his assailant was a man on a motorcycle.

Death squads

The motorcycles, a trademark of paramilitary death squads during the presidency of Gloria Arroyo. Are we seeing a resurgence of these assassins?  Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad (Kalumaran), a coalition of lumad organizations in Mindanao, thinks so, and is blaming the president’s Oplan Bayanihan for Father Pops’ assassination.

Oplan Bayanihan is supposed to be a “pacification” campaign, targeting the increasingly restless lumad in different parts of Mindanao, their restlessness coming from the encroachment of agribusiness and mining interests into ancestral lands. The “pacification” campaign has already resulted in the murders of several outspoken lumad leaders.  This year alone has seen the assassinations of Lumad Higaonon leader Datu Lapugotan and his nephew Solte San-ogan in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur.  San Fernando, Bukidnon, has also been another hot spot, with the killings of Jimmy Arion, Nicomedes de la Peña, Sr., Nicomedes de la Peña Jr., and Ruben Gatong.

Let’s not forget, too, that the president recently endorsed the use of paramilitary organizations to protect mining companies.  This could embolden death squads in Mindanao.

If indeed the government is activating paramilitary groups, they are playing a dangerous game.  Marcos used the paramilitary Ilaga against Muslims, and ended up with roaming “lost command” fanatics, some of which are still scattered in Mindanao.

“Fanatic” might even be too mild a term to use and to explain what I mean, let’s go back to the Favali case.  His assassins were convicted and imprisoned, but Manero was released in 2008.  He knelt at Favali’s grave to seek forgiveness and in press interviews after his release, he declared himself a new man, converted by religious charismatic groups in prison.  He also repeated his old claim that he had killed Fr. Favali only because he was falsely accused of burning the priest’s motorcycle and that he didn’t know the man was a priest (as if killing a non-priest would have been acceptable).

If you want to understand impunity, read the Supreme Court decision that upheld the Maneros’ conviction.  The decision had grisly details on what happened and which belie the “born-again” Manero’s claims. Witnesses testified that Manero and his followers conspired to assassinate another PIME missionary.  The day of the assassination Manero and his group burned down Favali’s motorcycle and when the priest confronted them, they taunted him addressing him as Padre asking what he intended to do, then shot him to death.

It didn’t end there.  They kicked and defiled the corpse, dancing and singing.  There were rumors of cannibalism but this has never been confirmed.  (If you check the Internet for cannibalism reports though, Mindanao and the Maneros keep coming up, which shouldn’t be surprising because Favali’s assassination was extensively covered in Europe.)

Tadtad

The pathological fervor involved here should not be surprising.  Manero and his group had come to be known as Tadtad, which means to hack, usually with intentions of killing.  Much has been said about “Muslim fanaticism” but there are equivalents too among Christian groups and the lumad, combining old animistic beliefs and practices with a notion of “holy war” against suspected communists.

So when the president declares his approval of paramilitary defenses for mining companies, he sends a message out, even if inadvertently, that groups like Tadtad have a place in our society.     The government can deny that they are behind these assassinations but the fanatical groups will have a different reading.  Each kidnapping, each assassination, is a signal that emboldens them.

In Oplan Bayanihan, lumad men are themselves being recruited and indoctrinated into believing that they are being mobilized to defend their territories.  Again, the Aquino administration should be reminded that the now extremely complicated Muslim secessionist movement was in part a creation of government, the Marcos regime in particular, that used Muslims to fight Muslims.  In the end, what happened was that many of these groups ended up becoming antigovernment themselves, armed to the teeth courtesy of our own Armed Forces.

That is what will happen with the lumad, with government feeding into the egos of many self-styled leaders, each wanting his own fiefdom and eventually turning against government if they do not get what they think they’re entitled to.

The institutional Catholic church, too, must go beyond ritual condemnations of the killings.  Father Pops belonged to a new breed of Christian missionaries who believed in bringing back the spirit of early Christianity, of communities helping each other and moving forward together.  I saw these movements, called Basic Christian Communities, in the 1970s, peasants being empowered and learning to speak up.  Unfortunately, the Catholic church turned its back on these communities, labeling them too leftist.

Indigenous People’s Month is mainly used to showcase the various indigenous groups’ arts.  But the activities often end up further exoticizing them.  It would be better if we had an Indigenous People’s Rights Month, a time to take up the challenge that Father Pops and other foreign missionaries pose to us: can we be as committed as they are, when it comes to serving fellow Filipinos?

The Supreme Court decision on Manero et al. can be found on: www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1993/jan1993/gr_86883_85_1993.html