The Baptism of Bishop Pabillo

Last Saturday and Sunday, I was asked to facilitate the 5th National Congress of UNORKA, the national federation of local farmers’ organizations that has been at the forefront of the struggle for agrarian reform.

I did not hesitate to accept the invitation, especially since it came from the chair of the steering committee, Ka Eking Tayo from Negros Occidental. Ka Eking is head of NOFFA, a federation of hacienda-based organizations. He is also a graduate of the grassroots leadership course of ELF, but even before he was elected president of NOFFA, he was already an active leader of the basic ecclesial communities.

Over the two days, I was impressed by the low key but steady leadership demonstrated by Ka Eking and the members of the steering committee. While UNORKA is a rather “flat” federation of “autonomous local” organizations, it still needs national leaders to represent it, especially to lead in its national advocacy campaigns. The 5th national congress has been convened to elect new national leaders for the next three years.

Being national leaders of UNORKA is not for the faint of heart. At its 4th National Congress, it had to elect a secretary general to replace Ka Eric Cabanit who was murdered by killers suspected to be hired by landowners. For various reasons, many of those elected to serve for three years either cut short their term or failed to serve altogether.

On Saturday morning, the 600-plus delegates listened to reports from various provincial and municipal federations. After some time, I teased the assembly that after listening to the reports, perhaps very few will consider being elected to be national leaders of UNORKA.

For example, Eva from Masbate talked of how her husband was killed in front of her and their seven children. There were over 30 delegates from Iloilo who have just been released on bail after spending over a month in jail; they now face another imprisonment, due to harassment cases filed against them.

Although all the reports started with local cases and struggles, they all ended with the reason they are in MetroManila – to continue the campaign for CARPER, or CARP extension with reforms. With just 10 session days left, they see the need to press both Senate and House to pass a new law, but also have to guard against “killer amendments” that opponents seek to insert.

All the reports also had another recurring item – the welcome involvement of many church leaders in solidarity with the farmers’ struggle for CARPER. For the few of us present who worked with the Federation of Free Farmers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this was a reminder of a partnership that we think should be revived, if agrarian reform is to push ahead in the face of the determined resistance of vested interests.

Although the timing of his appearance at the UNORKA congress was set by his busy schedule, Bishop Pabillo’s address came at the right time, since it followed the reports about the farmers’ experience of solidarity from many church leaders.

Instead of a general solidarity message. Bishop Pabillo gave a succinct and substantial summary of Church social teachings. It was my first time to hear him speak about the topic to an assembly of farmers, and if the spirited Q and A after his talk is an indication, his message both inspired and challenged the audience.

The seven principles he discussed are: 1) Human dignity as the basis for human rights, 2) The common good based on people being social beings, 3) Solidarity for the pursuit of the common good, 4) Subsidiarity and empowerment, 5) Care for the environment, 6) The universal destination of all creation, and 7) Peace as the fruit of justice and peaceful forms of struggle.

This simple listing doesn’t capture the stirring and relevant application Bishop Pabillo made of these principles to the struggles of the farmers, not just against outside powerful forces, but also within their ranks. Hence the lively Q and A that followed.

The last point he made about achieving peace through struggles that are both just and peaceful drew a question from a veteran farmer-leader from Mindanao. “How far will church leaders go to show their solidarity with our struggles?”

Bishop Pabillo’s answer was short and direct: “So long as your struggle is for a just cause and is peaceful, you can rely on me to be with you all the way.”

Adding credibility to his answer is the fact that Bishop has not only hosted meetings of farmers, issued public statements, and lobbied persistently with government officials. He has also marched with farmers on the streets, and has joined them in a hunger strike in front of Congress.

Although I couldn’t join them, I  was told that there was a planned march on Monday to Congress to call on its members and leaders to stop discussing charter change, and instead accelerate the passage of CARPER.

When I got home last night from a meeting, I heard the news that the march had been blocked and that the security forces had hosed the marchers with water cannons.  Bishop Pabillo was with them, and was not spared.

I have not been on the receiving end of a water cannon, and wondered if the water used against Bishop Pabillo was colored or icy.  Jane Capacio of Kaisahan and PARRDS who blogged about it as her first time to be hosed, described the water as “dirty and smelly.”

My mind flew back to another May, in 1972. I was with a protest march that was stopped on Roxas Boulevard, at some distance from the US embassy. Without warning, tear gas canisters were lobbed from behind the riot police into our midst.

That was a sort of baptism, and I remember it vividly. Whatever was in the tear gas really stung my face, and made it hard to breathe. Not just tears but mucus flowed uncontrollably. I ran away together with my companions, looking for a way to relieve the heat and the pain. We saw a small faucet at the edge of Rizal Park, rushed to it, but it had only a tiny trickle of water. Below it was a small puddle of dirty water, and we all scooped some to wash our faces.

Explore posts in the same categories: Agrarian reform, Leadership, Renewing our spirit