2012 Medical and Advocacy Mission to the Philippines

More Than a Year in the Making

Although the mission was first envisioned in the fall of 2010, planning began in earnest in July 2011. Monthly meeting were held at Rosewood United Methodist Church, mostly chaired by Jolo Buktaw and Kuusela Hilo. Jolo and Kuu formed the backbone of the mission. It was they who made the contacts with our Davao-based partners, got our plane reservations, insurance coverage, and other important logistical arrangements. We were also blessed by a group of women who came to be called "The Friends of Brenda Calida Buktaw", a group of gorgeous, lively women who are Brenda's school-mates and friends. More about them later.

We partnered with several other organizations both in the USA and in the Philippines. A partial list: Anak Bayan USA, Habi Arts, Sisters of Gabriella Awaken; Bayan Muna, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, Gabriella, Panalipdan, Mindinao Interfaith Services Foundation, Inc., and many more.

The US team was interfaith with representatives from the United Methodist, Roman Catholic, Ecumenical Catholic, and Buddhist faiths. There was also diversity among our ages-- our youngest just turned 17 when the trip began, our oldest was 79.

May Vargas, from an organization called Panalipdan Southern Mindinao, was head of the group on the Philippine side. Between May, Jolo, and Kuu, it is hard to imagine a more patient, wise, or kind trio of leaders. Together they resolved issues, handled crises, held hands, found lost objects, and in general, provided the glue that held our team together.

The Death of Father Fausto "Pops" Tentorio

Father Pops was murdered inside his parish garage on the morning of October 17, 2011. Father Pops was an advocate for the rights of the indigenous peoples of Mindinao, and he worked tirelessly to support them in their struggles against the encroaching corporate mining, logging, and hydro-electric dam building that destroys ancestral lands and pollutes rivers, streams, and air. The case of the murder of Father Pops has yet to see the inside of a courtroom. Father Pops is the third priest from his order to be murdered; this is a continuation of the harassment of leaders who stand up for the rights of the people. There are many religious leaders who have been detained by the military, threatened with their lives, and even killed.

During our visit, we remembered Father Pops through a Welcome dinner called, "Libolong" (Solidarity). The event raised funds for the Father Pops Foundation, which will continue his work in establishing schools and helping the indigenous people to maintain rights to their ancestral lands.

I was struck with how complacent we have all been about the death of Father Pops. Accused of being a communist, he really followed the teachings of Jesus Christ. He made the sufferings of the poor his own; he did all he could to bring the love of Jesus to the people he served. In his will, he specified that Micah 6:8 be on his tombstone. Why have we fellow religious leaders been so silent? When one of our brothers is slain to make way for corporate profits, why aren't we in the streets, demanding that justice be done? How long will they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look?

Recently, the Philippines was declared the most dangerous place for foreign missionaries. That should concern us for several reasons, perhaps the top two being that the United States government supports both the Philippine Army (which commits enforced disappearances and may have played a role in the death of Fr. Pops) as well as the corporations which seek to exploit the resources of the Philippines, AND that we as United Methodists have several missionaries in the Philippines who worked alongside Father Pops and now continue the advocacy he began.

A Plea for Humanity

“You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?  Matthew 5:43-46  (CEB)

One of the most difficult spiritual disciplines is that of loving one’s enemies and praying for those who harass you. On the face of it, it shouldn’t be so hard. Jesus himself told us to do it, and even demonstrated enormous grace as he prayed for those who were in the act of torturing and killing him. “Father, forgive them,” he prayed, “For they know not what they do.”

Why did Jesus ask us to love those who hate us? And what does this love look like? We must begin looking at one another’s humanity. Some of us will recall the plaintive cold-war verse from Sting, in his song titled “Russians”: “We share the same biology regardless of ideology.”  Perhaps when we see what’s at stake for our ‘enemy’, we can better understand why they are taking the stance they take. Instead, we elevate our own perspectives and denigrate the ‘other’.

The language we are using is alarming. I ceased a facebook friendship with someone who, while swearing he wasn’t acting racist, continued to refer to our president as ‘The Hussein’ and continually decried Barack Obama with racist-tinged ridicule. Likewise, I am always shocked to see people spell ‘Republican’ as ‘Repugs’, as if nothing good could ever come from anyone who is part of that party. Now, people may say, if one is a public figure, one is fair game. Perhaps, but we must watch carefully not to step over a line where the object of our disagreement becomes a target of derision.

The price of our increasingly divisive culture is alienation. We find ourselves becoming alienated from one another, and in the balance, we are becoming alienated from our own humanity. We begin the process through ridicule and a sense of superiority, as opposed to simply disagreeing. The subject ceases to be that about which we are debating, and becomes an ad hominem attack on one another’s actual worth as a human being.

Once we allow others to become less than human in our eyes, we give ourselves permission to treat them as less than human. This very phenomenon allowed ‘good, church going’ men and women to own as chattel, to beat, and to torture human beings that they held as slaves. We still live in that legacy today, as our racist systems carry forward despite ‘good intentions’ to end them.  It allows us as U.S. Americans to condone torture of prisoners of war, despite the fact that, as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, we have said we never would resort to such a thing.

We can only torture people whose humanity we deny. Otherwise, we see ourselves in their faces, cringe at their pain, become horrified at what suffering has been visited upon them. If, in our rage and fear, we want to see someone harmed, then we have strayed far from the path Christ has set for us. We have become something different, something monstrous. In denying the humanity of others, we also lay down our own humanity.

Let us begin by reining in our own fears. We must become spiritually mature and able to examine ourselves as deeply and mercilessly as we examine our ‘enemies’. And, though the examination be merciless, the resolution must be the opposite. We must be full of grace and mercy for ourselves and one another, for it is in imitation of the grace and mercy Christ has for us. And it is what allows for reconciliation and peace, gives hope for the future, and truly shows the world what it means to be Christian.