It is very important to weave the experiences and lessons of religious leaders' participation in building peace in Southern Philippines. There are many and varied experiences of peacebuilding that involve religious leaders of all faiths.

This has become more important, because both violent and peaceful people continue to use religious images and passages from the Scriptures or Holy Books to “justify” their acts and actuations that either promote conflicts and violence or build peace.

The peoples of Mindanao are witnesses to these two strands.

They have seen both the violence and bloodshed in war and rehabilitation and reconstruction in peacebuilding. War, piracy, and kidnappings have always marred, from the very beginning, the encounters between Islam and Christianity in Southern Philippines.

It is often said that the Southern Philippines has really not known peace. What we, sometimes, experience are fleeting truces that allow peoples to build anew their homes and livelihoods until war erupts again and send them back to evacuation centers.

It is said that Christianity and Islam are, indeed, physically adjacent.

Yet, for all their nearness, the relations between these two faiths and their respective followers are largely shrouded in mutual suspicion and darkness. There are exceptions on either side to rise above the general ignorance and suspicion. But these are few.

When faiths and religious traditions confront each other, it is for the most part, with "fixed sentinels."

In the Southern Philippines, Christianity and Islam have always been presented as two competing faiths for the same geographical area.

Wittingly or unwittingly, the recent spate of lawlessness like kidnappings, terrorism, and plain and simple banditry is read along the understood "separateness" between Christianity and Islam.

All these are familiar enough and part of our present problem.

Often, they exercise tyranny over our spirits.

They have produced a culture and a habit of suspicion and confrontation that make inter-religious collaboration and dialogue, truly, a very difficult task.

It requires a commitment and determination to steadily school ourselves to resist and reject our habit of preferring suspicion to trust; our instinct to prefer the familiar confrontation to a new relationship of partnership in the world that is in difficult transition.

In the past as well as today, there is an ever-growing awareness of common territory and affinity between Islam and Christianity.

The Qur'an in Chapter 5 verse 82 unequivocally encourages Muslims to cooperate with Christians. “Thou wilt surely find the nearest of them in love to the believers are the ones who say, 'We are Christians'; that because some of them are priests and monks, and they wax not proud” (S.5:82).

The Second Vatican Council document, Nostra Aetate, clearly articulates the common territory and affinity between Christianity and Islam.

“Over the centuries many quarrels and dissensions have arisen between Christians and Muslims. The Sacred Council now pleads with all to forget the past, and urges that a sincere effort be made to achieve mutual understanding; for the benefit of all men, let them together preserve and promote peace, liberty, social justice and moral values.” (NA3).

Muslim-Christian Partnership

There are a few religious leaders in the Southern Philippines who have understood the importance of Muslim and Christian understanding to attain a lasting peace and sustainable development. There are difficulties, frustrations and pains, yet, they are transcended as they continue to learn how to live as neighbors.

These attempts now constitute the examples of religious leaders' participation in building peace in Southern Philippines. I will outline four traditions of Muslim-Christian leaders' involvements in peace building.

The first tradition was the continuing attempts to bridge the education and development gap in the Southern Philippines due to long years of government neglect.

In the then empire province of Cotabato and the Archipelago of Sulu, OMI's began the Notre Dame School System that brought quality education to the Moro peoples long before the establishment of the Mindanao State University.

The Notre Dame School system has generated so much social capital that educated Moro people and the leadership both in the rebel front and in local government easily point to their experiences in the Notre Dame campuses all over the Southern Philippines as examples of harmony and unity between Muslims and Christians. This was also true in the island province of Basilan with the Claret Schools under the Claretians.

The second Tradition was the struggle for justice and human rights, particularly during the dark years of Martial Law.

Arbitrary arrests and detentions, Military “zoning” (military encirclements of a community where all males were lined up in the public square and houses were searched and ransacked usually at nights), cases of “salvagings” (killed or liquidated and later the bodies were dumped into the river) and disappearances led to the formation of the first Christian-Muslim Leaders Association of the Philippines.

Prominent personalities in this struggle were Bishop Antonino Nepomuceno, OMI, Episcopal Bishop Constacio Manguramas, and Sheik Omar Bajunaid.

This group conducted capacity building for dialogue and monitoring human rights violations for priests, Imams and Pastors. They were able to forge Muslim-Christian solidarity that witnessed to the common tradition of trust, friendship, and hospitality amid the legacies of suspicion, anger, and hatred.

The third tradition is the path personified by Bishops Bienvenido Tudtud (Lanao del Sur) and Benjamin de Jesus, OMI (Sulu).

Both Bishops were gentle, jovial and friends to all, but most especially to the poor and the vulnerable sectors of Philippine society.

Their passionate commitment to the poor and dialogue of life led them to venture in a humble and non-threatening friendship with the Muslims in the Vicariate of Sulu and the Prelature of Marawi. They wanted to be the humble and compassionate servants of the peoples of Sulu and Lanao del Sur.

This path is now enshrined in the universally accepted dialogue of life that translates into everyday life the desired friendship that should characterize the relationships between and among neighbors. It is a path that continues, in daily living, to break down the walls (both visible and invisible) that separate Muslims and Christians.

The fourth tradition is the pioneering peace education and advocacy began by the OMI run Notre Dame University (NDU).

It is the first institution of higher learning that has integrated peace education in its curriculum where both Muslim and Christian students are required to take peace studies.

The University's peace advocacy has led to mediation and conflict resolution efforts of the citizens (Muslims and Christians) in Southern Philippines. The first experiences of civilian peacebuilding began at NDU following the signing of the cessation of hostility between the GRP and the MILF in 1997.

These traditions show concrete Muslim-Christian collaboration on the ground that indicates the heart of dialogue and peace building.

Like politics, peace building is local. They are rooted in “being” with the people, especially the poor and the vulnerable sectors of society.

It is a “rootedness” that is shaped and fashioned by a shared living, sympathy and solidarity. This becomes the well-spring of active participation in all human endeavors, economic, political and cultural, always in favor of the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized. Oftentimes, this kind of witnessing is clearer and more eloquent than any signing of agreement.

Muslim-Christian collaboration is not something abstract. It is a human activity which involves our total life experience.

It takes place in the individual as well as communal lives as peoples of differing faiths live out their faiths and conviction according to the living traditions.

No doubt, the partnership, and collaboration depend upon a bridging leadership that enhances mutual trust and understanding.

It demands respect for the identity as well as the integrity of the other. It rests on the conviction that God who is all merciful and compassionate desires to draw all peoples and the whole creation into a relationship of love and peace.

I am writing this blog to introduce a forthcoming book on the life of Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI, the martyred priest of Tabawan.

More than a year has passed since the country was shocked by the brutal killing of an Oblate Missionary in Tabawan — one of the islands in the Tawi-Tawi Archipelago.

The first book launch will be held at Notre Dame University on August 13th, Thursday at 4 pm.

We are also making an arrangement to have a book launch at Loyola House of Studies (Ateneo de Manila University Campus), Fr. Rey's alma mater for his friends, classmates and friends of the OMI's in the National Capital Region also during the month of September.

There were three cases of bloody murder of OMI Missionaries in the Vicariate of Jolo within the last ten years — the Vicar, Bishop Benjamin de Jesus, OMI on February 4, 1997, Fr. Benjamin Inocencio, OMI on December 28, 2000, and Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI on January 15, 2008.

To the eyes of the world, these deaths may appear senseless and incomprehensible. But to people who believe in the ministry of presence, the lives and deaths of these three missionaries are, indeed, not in vain and not without meaning.

Linguistically speaking, presence is a noun, not a verb. It connotes a state of being, not doing. States of being are not highly valued in a culture which places a high priority on doing.

Yet, true presence or ‘being with’ another person carries with it a silent power, that is, to bear witness to a passage, to help carry an emotional burden or to begin a healing process. In it, there is an intimate connection with another that is perhaps too seldom felt in a society that strives for ever-faster ‘connectivity.’

To the three OMI martyrs of the Vicariate of Jolo, it was not their ‘doing’ that had, in a sense, precipitated their murders in the hands of the lawless elements of the Provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. It was their ‘being with’ their people and communities that had become a powerful witnessing beyond words and actions.

Bishop Ben in the whole Vicariate of Jolo, Fr. Benjie in the islands of Mapun and Jolo and Fr. Rey in Tabawan journeyed with their people with endearing smile, innocence, and passionate love.

Often these values were clearly revealed in their testimony of fidelity to their religious call that is often translated in simply “just go, just be there and just live with your people.”

In the book, we focus on a particular journey of ‘being with’ as exemplified by the most recent OMI Martyr, Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI of Tabawan.

Fr. Rey, during his formative years, already thought of becoming a missionary in the Muslim countries of Asia.

This wish was realized at the last lap of his life passing through the circuitous road of ministry to the oppressed and the marginalized in the Diocese of Kidapawan in North Cotabato and formation work in Thailand.

When his wish came true, it was not in Malaysia or some islands in Indonesia, but in the Archipelago of Tawi-Tawi in the southernmost part of the Philippines.

It began in the island of Batu-Batu and would end in the island of Tabawan. It was a presence among the poor Sama people. Often, it was a powerless presence with his community for whom he could “do” nothing.

He walked, sat and ate with friends. There were times that he was pulled by the urge to do more than be, yet repeatedly struck by the lack of resources.

Paradoxically, it was during these times of powerlessness that he discovered the healing power of connection created by being fully there in the quiet understanding of another. In it, no one is truly alone.

Every night, he sat in the small chapel of the rectory and felt the presence of Him who had called him to become a priest and a missionary. There, too, in the presence of the Lord, he journeyed and sat with his confreres, particularly missionaries living alone in the other islands of the archipelago of Tawi Tawi and Sulu.

In that silent and lonely island, Fr. Rey painstakingly discovered the power of presence that was not a one-way street, not only something missionaries give to others.

It is said by the old missionaries in the archipelago that the islands and the communities always change them, and always for the better.

In Tabawan, there are two powerful witnesses of this mutual transformation and enrichment.

The first was the ‘Bapa’ of Tabawan, Fr. Leopold Gregoire, OMI who lived and journeyed with the Sama people for nearly 20 years and second was Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI who walked and sat with his Sama friends for nearly ten years. Both missionaries were changed and definitely, it was for the better.

The life of Fr. Rey amid the Sama people was a witness of being with the weak, the poor, and the marginalized.

He found this the hard way, often, in turmoil questioning over and over again: why the poor continue to suffer not only of man-made disasters but also natural ones, why the poor are often the victims of almost total neglect by the ‘powerful’ and by seemingly endless calamities.

Their anguish and the cry of the poor DO NOT reach God!

Tabawan that led to a disclosure that God is NOT the all powerful one that he was taught from catechism to the liturgies. The God revealed to him in the island, especially in the night of his murder, was all weak, so helpless and so poor.

But was this not the message both of the manger and the cross?

Yes, God is not only so poor and weak, but also a suffering one and dying on the cross.

Is this not the real meaning of Emmanuel — his presence, God's birth into the world? God is NOT the all powerful one! Much less is He the all TRANSCENDENT One.

Definitely, the God revealed by Jesus in the Manger and the Cross is NOT a sort of a SUPERNATURAL DEITY!

This message Fr. Rey, OMI heard while sitting in the chapel in the company of the Lord who invited him to live a radically different life from what the world offers.

It was an invitation to live a life of simplicity and at the service of the poor and all who were on the fringes of society.

These so called unclean, unwanted, unacceptable people, the pagans, the sinners, the prisoners, and the lepers are now the number one in the roll call of Jesus of Bethlehem and of Golgotha.

These were the people through whom God chooses to reveal Himself.

Allow me to write something personal about President Cory. In 1986 when the possibility of changing our society was almost futile and the only option left was revolution, the specter of snap election was floated with Cory being pitied against the astute and schemer dictator.

I was not a believer in the possibility of change at the start of the electoral debate.

But when I first met her, the strength and nobility of her character ‘converted’ me to the snap election option. I took a strong stand for snap elections during the raging debate over boycott or participation among the progressive left who after the bloody debates opted for boycott.

This option for participation in the snap elections was the beginning of my NAMFREL involvement and fascination with Cory Aquino.

In Mindanao, particularly within the then autonomous Region XII, to prepare for clean and honest elections was nearly impossible. But Cory inspired people to do the impossible. I thought then that she believed in the God who does the impossible!

She lost the elections in Mindanao, particularly in the two autonomous Regions IX and XII — the balwarte ng dayaan. Yet the anomalies were exposed and this, in many ways, contributed to the feeling of national shame that resulted in wanton electoral cheating.

True to her word and promise, she sought out the “rebels” and more specifically the MNLF Chair Nur Misuari to begin a real dialogue for peace.

It was not important whether she succeeded or not. In fact she was a failure in terms of achieving any peace settlement with the rebels.

But her strength was in trail blazing the peace talks and in walking the phenomenal ‘extra mile’ in dealing with her ‘enemies.’ She went to Jolo and met Prof. Nur Misuari — a meeting that remains a symbol of peace making.

The present structure of the ARMM is her legacy. She had no illusion that it was anything but an imperfect structure of autonomy.

Yet to her mind it was the beginning of the long process of people empowerment.

She started the direct consultation with the people through the Regional Consultative Assembly that debated territory, self-governance, and resource sharing. She just hoped and prayed that government and Moro fronts with the ARMM could craft a better structure in the years to come.

On a personal note, I regarded her with great friendship and devotion.

She gave me a Presidential Citation in February 1988 at Malacanang for the outstanding community services rendered to Region XII when NAMFREL, post Snap Elections, reinvented itself to monitor community projects, especially the one-million emergency employment program in the countryside.

Cory, to the peoples of Mindanao, stood tall in believing in ourselves to effect change. She exuded courage and a belief in our common humanity. She had no pretensions about solving all of our problems but she would be there to accompany us on the journey. This companionship on our journey as nation had become the hallmark of her life and advocacy post-presidency.

In many ways, it was this message that she wanted to communicate to the present power holders that there is a wonderful life post presidency.

Life is much bigger than any position, no matter how lofty and mighty the position may be. The important lesson is to journey onward. She has joined the father and has finally arrived in the kingdom.