During the months of December, January and February, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate remember three of their four martyrs who were brutally killed in the Provinces of Sulu and Tawi Tawi.

On December 28th, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, we trooped to Barangay Ugong in Pasig to celebrate with the family, friends and the people of the barangay, the 10th anniversary of the martyrdom of Fr. Benjamin Inocencio, OMI. On the same day in 1990, Fr. Benjie as he was fondly known was shot just behind the Jolo Cathedral.

He was new to Jolo after spending about ten years of missionary life as teacher and a ‘factotum’ in a remote island somewhere in the Sulu Sea called Cagayan Mapum.

To many, Fr. Benjie was the least likely victim of violence. He was one of the kindest and one of the most peaceful creatures on earth. As a scholastic and a missionary, he would prefer to do house chores to street demonstrations. Yet, in the end, the lamb-like Fr. Benjie ended in the altar of sacrifice –victim of wanton violence and fanaticism in the name of God!

Then in January 15th, in our small chapel of the OMI Provincial House in Cotabato City, we remembered the third anniversary of yet another Oblate martyr, Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI. In the evening of the same day in 2008, Fr. Rey’s house was attacked by several armed men. The murderers tried to kidnap him. He was bludgeoned by rifles, hacked and later shot in another remote island called Tabawan somewhere near the Celebes Sea.

Fr. Rey was a man full of passion for the islanders. He worked for quality education in the said God-forsaken island to give the young people opportunity to pursue higher education. He invited NGO’s and some benefactors to journey with his people as they eke a livelihood in an island forsaken by the powers that be.

In the month of February, the OMI’s will be remembering the 14th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bishop Benjamin de Jesus, OMI. Bishop Ben was brutally shot in front of the Jolo Cathedral on February 4th, 1997.

Bishop Ben and Fr. Benjie were made of the same stuff. They were kindness personified. Bishop Ben would go around Jolo and the whole Vicariate always with a smile and a greeting of peace on his lips. He would listen endlessly to the cry of his people, Muslims and Christians alike.

The fourth martyr was a bit controversial, because of his passionate commitment to clean and credible elections in the Municipality of Ampatuan during the local election of 1971. Fr. Nelson Javellana, OMI, then Director of Notre Dame of Ampatuan, and a group of CNEA volunteers believed that clean and credible elections were possible in Ampatuan. Riding back home in a mini bus after a seminar on the conduct of elections in Cotabato City, they were ambushed somewhere in Tambunan on November 3rd, 1971.

The brutal ambuscade just days before the 1971 local elections, many claimed, galvanized the Christian votes that marked the shift of leadership in the Cotabato Province and the City from the Muslim hands to the Christians. Carlos Cajelo became the first elected Christian Governor of North Cotabato that included then the Province of Sultan Kudarat. Teodolo Juliano became the first elected Christian City Mayor of Cotabato.

As we remember our martyred confrères, in many ways, we are forced to re-think the meaning of ‘martyrdom’. This does not mean that everything in our world has changed, but the actual situation provides new examples and trends of martyrdom.

In the re-thinking of martyrdom, two prominent theologians, Johann-Baptist Metz and Edward Schillebeeckx, have offered three points by way of appreciating this phenomenon.

The first is labeled as responsive mercy in a cruel world. The situation of injustice and poverty produces people albeit few in number who respond with mercy to defend the victims of the economic order, and for this reason they are violently and unjustly killed without being able to mount any defense. And there are also those who, in the midst of ethnic conflicts, work and struggle to overcome differences and to defend the human rights of the most oppressed.

Not everything in these conflicts can be lumped as ‘terrorism’, as some would lead us to believe. Many people go to the length of giving up their own lives for the weakest. All the deaths mentioned are, above all, an expression of love for the poor and the victims, and their exceptional nature stems from this love. Even if we do not give such people a particular title, they are responsively merciful to the end.

The second point is called as Suicide and terrorism. With the outbreak of terrorism and fanaticism, religions, which claim to be bearers of something good and absolute, can come to defend this something absolutely, which involve violence. They can also induce their members to be prepared, and even willing, to give their lives in defense of this absolute. This carries with it the double danger of generating the fanaticism of suicide (often undertaken from a belief in a reward after death) and of using suicide to bring about the death of innocent people.

The third point is to give a name to the crucified peoples. Here we speak of the deaths of millions of people, especially of children, in what used to be called Third World countries, in the form of poverty, exclusion, wars, massacres, in the everyday form of hunger in sub-Saharan countries (Somalia, Darfur, Eritrea, and others) and in some regions of Asia, of deaths from AIDS, particularly those of children, who are in no way to blame. What is happening is undeniable, but society and government do not even give these victims a name, let alone grant any sort of dignity to these deaths.

These nameless masses of people share with the ‘martyrs’ the fact that they suffer death, indefensibly and unjustly, sometimes slowly through hunger and oppression, sometimes violently in wars and massacres imposed on them. The term used to designate these millions of human beings can be debated, but what cannot be done is to leave them without a name in a distant and everlasting anonymity.

The martyrdom of our four confreres in the Southern Philippines can only be understood within the three points outlined above. In many ways, the brutal killings of Bishop Ben, Frs. Nelson, Benjie and Rey give platforms to these nameless deaths, in society, a sort of giving one’s life to bring these crucified peoples down from the cross.

The martyrs teach us a great lesson that living is learning to suffer with grace, with elegance; to struggle, certainly, but at the same accepting suffering and tragedy without hatred or loss of hope.

In a similar vein, a liberation theologian, Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga, tells us that re-thinking martyrdom communicates, in our contemporary times, what he has seen, thought, and experienced over the course of many years. ‘Martyrs die with no trace of masochism or ‘sacrificialism’. They die with the joy of giving life to all, even to one’s enemies, and not taking it from anyone, with commitment, gratitude, and hope.’

As we look forward, with hope, to a renewed peace process, we present a sort of historical background on war and peacemaking in Southern Philippines. To begin with, the war and peacemaking in Mindanao is not a new invention of our times. In fact, the present realities of war and “peace” in Mindanao are fruits of various attempts at peacemaking with differing goals and emphases usually set by the Manila-based central government.

Northern Mindanao and some parts of western Mindanao were successfully brought to the mainstream politics by way of settlements beginning the second half of the 19th century. But in southern Mindanao, including the islands of Sulu, Tawi Tawi, and Basilan, the Spanish presence was limited to military stations and garrisons, except for pockets of civilian settlements in the present city of Zamboanga and Cotabato City.

Largely, the Moro populace was left on their own. They lived under their sultans and datus and were governed according to their laws and traditions. The Spanish government interfered in the Moro affairs by way of playing politics in several succession issues in the Sultanate of Sulu and in the two dominant Sultanates in the mainland Mindanao (Buayan and Maguindanao). However, the Moro people always rejected Spanish anointment.

The political and economic configurations in Southern Philippines were radically altered during the American occupation. Paradoxically, the “new life” began with a peace pact known as Bates Treaty of 1899, with the Sultan of Sulu recognizing the sovereignty of the USA over Mindanao and the Archipelago of Sulu. This was the real beginning of the systematic program to integrate/assimilate the Moro people into the mainstream body politics of the whole Philippines.

At the end of the Philippine-American War (from 1898 to 1902) with the defeat of the nascent Philippine Republic, the Americans unilaterally abrogated the Bates Treaty. And with a far superior army, the Americans quashed and brought the surrender of all Moro resistance.

To put the peace in Southern Mindanao on a more solid footing, several “peace programs” were unfolded, from the perspective of the central government in Manila.

First was the creation of the Moro Province. It was a “de facto” autonomous government that ensured fast and effective governance of the Moro peoples and the Indigenous peoples.

Second, the Moro Province looked into the economic development of Mindanao’s fertile land. Corporate plantations were opened and major trading posts, e.g. Zamboanga, Cotabato, Jolo, and Iligan, were consolidated.

Third, Mindanao was opened to settlement from Luzon and the Visayas. It began with the establishment of the agricultural colonies in the fertile plains of the then empire province of Cotabato. A massive and a well-planned settlement program followed this during the Commonwealth period that continued unabated in the post war era during the subsequent administrations of Presidents Roxas, Quirino, and Magsaysay.

Another pillar of the integration program was the establishment of an educational system in the whole Southern Philippines. The two salient features of this peace program were the “universal” public school system and the “pensionado” (scholarship) program for the children of Moro ruling families. From the latter would emerge the “new” Moro leaders (the Piang brothers, Pendatum, Sinsuats, Alonto, Lucman, Kirams, etc.) who advocated the full integration of the Moro people into Philippine body politics.

The open war between the Philippine Government and the MNLF calling for a separate and independent Islamic Republic ensued following the declaration of Martial Rule on September 21, 1971.

The war in Mindanao attracted the attention of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Attempts at reconciliation between the MNLF and GRP through OIC mediation yielded a peace agreement. The Tripoli Agreement was signed on December 23, 1976. The Marcos Government acceded to the Moro people’s demand for local self-rule in what was recognized as the “Bangsamoro homeland” within the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of the Philippines.

The Philippine government under four Presidents (Marcos, Aquino, Ramos and Arroyo) came up with different political set ups to address the autonomy issue in southern Philippines. A quick review of these set-ups is in order to contextualize the present debate or impasse between the GRP and the MNLF and the “on and often off” peace talks between the GRP and the MILF.

Presidential Decree (PD) 742 and Letter of Instruction (LOI) 290. Prior to the historical Tripoli Agreement, then President Marcos on July 7, 1975 issued Presidential Decree 742 and Letter of Instruction 290 establishing the Office of the Regional Commissioner for Region IX and Region XII. He appointed tested administrators, Rear Admiral Romulo Espaldon and former Cotabato Governor Simeon Datumanong, as Regional Commissioners for Regions IX and XII respectively.

Proclamation 1628: On March 26, 1977, President Marcos established a provisional government in the 13 provinces stipulated in the Tripoli Agreement. Lanao del Sur Governor Ali Dimaporo was appointed Chairman with all the governors in the said provinces and the two Regional Commissioners and Batasan (National Legislature) Assemblyman Hussein Loong as members.

On April 17, 1977, a plebiscite was conducted in the 13 provinces. The people in the 13 provinces overwhelmingly rejected the merger of the 13 provinces into one autonomous region. They opted for two separate regional autonomous governments, one for Region IX and one for Region XII with the provinces of Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, and Palawan opting for exclusion from the autonomous regions. Following the result of the referendum, President Marcos issued Proclamation 1628-A defining the composition of the two Autonomous Regions.

Batas Blg. 20. Following the Presidential Proclamation, the Batasan Pambangsa (National Parliament) passed Batas Blg. 20 providing for the organization of Sanguniang Pampook (Regional Legislative Council) and Lupong Tagapagpaganap (Executive Council) in each autonomous region.

Presidential Decree 1618. President Marcos issued PD 1618 on July 25, 1979 implementing the organization of Sanguniang Pampook (Regional Legislative Body) and Lupong Tagapagpaganap (Regional Executive) in the Autonomous Regions IX and XII providing the political set up and framework of autonomous governance in Regions IX and XII.

On February 2, 1987, the new Aquino Constitution was unanimously ratified. This constitution provides for the creation of autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and the Cordilleras by an Act of Congress with the assistance of a Regional Consultative Commission (RCC). President Aquino convened the RCC in Cotabato City on March 11, 1988. The RCC was mandated to come up with a draft Organic Act to be submitted to Congress for enactment. The RCC failed to vote on its draft Organic Act because of the deep divisions within the said body.

The Congress of the Philippines passed Republic Act 6734 or the Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and on August 1, 1989, President Aquino signed it into law.

The Republic Act 6734 was submitted to the people of the 13 provinces and nine cities as stipulated in the Tripoli Agreement on November 19, 1990. Only four (4) out of 13 provinces and nine cities ratified the Organic Act. These were the Provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi Tawi.

The ARMM elections for all elected offices were held on July 9, 1990. Zacaria Candao and Benjamin Loong were elected Regional Governor and Vice Governor respectively. The ARMM elections regularized and completed the 1987 Constitutional steps in creating the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao.

President Fidel Ramos issued Executive Order 125 on August 25, 1996 articulating the vision and the framework of the peace process that his administration would pursue to address the three internal armed conflicts: The National Democratic Front (NDF), the Muslim Separatist Movements in Southern Philippines and the Military Rebellion.

On September 2nd, 1996, Ambassador Manuel Yan and Prof. Nur Misuari formally signed the Final Peace Agreement between the GRP and the MNLF witnessed by the OIC Sec. Gen. Hamid Algabid and Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas in the presence of President Fidel V. Ramos.

President Arroyo allowed RA 9054 to lapse into law. RA 9054 was ratified by five provinces (Basilan, Lanao Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi Tawi) and one city (Marawi). The New Expanded ARMM was created and the new officials installed on the 7th of January of 2002. Then Philippine Government declared that it has fulfilled the final obligation and requirement of the 1996 Final Peace Accord between the GRP and the MNLF.

There were three devastating effects of the failure in the proper implementation of the 1996 Peace Accord.

First, the failure to effect concrete and immediately doable bridging program for the MNLF combatants and their families resulted to the transformation of the whole SPCPD and ARMM structures and bureaucracies into instant employment agencies. And since these bureaucracies have limited absorption capacities, it is inevitable that those not absorbed by the ARMM, SPCPD, AFP and PNP, and foreign-assisted programs became discontented and began to drift away, either as disgruntled MNLF or lost commands.

Second, the absence of government bridging program for the MNLF non-absorbed combatants and families had led the international donor communities to DIRECTLY intervene into mainstreaming of the MNLF combatants and families using the MNLF State Command structures and the SPCPD Secretariat.

Third, there is no “bridging” program for transition in the important aspect of governance and public administration. The paralysis and the lack of cohesiveness that people experience in government bureaucracies was a clear indication of lack of preparation in terms of capability-building of those tasked to run the local, regional and SZOPAD affairs during the period of transition.

The leadership of the ARMM, SPCPD and the CA was clearly given to the MNLF under Chairman Nur Misuari. Sad to say, the failure of the national government was equally matched by the failure of leadership within the MNLF ranks to provide clear and decisive leadership in the post Accord environment.

The ARMM could have been the showcase of autonomy in the Phase two of the Peace Accord. The marked failure in providing clear and decisive leadership that should have brought intense development and peace initiatives in the ARMM has become the counter argument of the “oppositors” to the Accord and the ARMM.

People say that there are three prominent characteristics that are typically Filipino. First is the family and clan “connectedness”. Pinoys may find themselves in the remotest part of any continent or in the middle of the oceans, or they may live in foreign lands for years and even centuries, they always find their way home. They remain, forever, Pinoys. For the Pinoys, home is in the heart and blood - “Pinoy kasi at Pinas ang bayan”!

There are two powerful instruments to express interconnectedness. The first is the cheap communication system through “texting” or SMS, which I believe is a wonderful invention of Filipinos. And the second is the now world famous “balikbayan” boxes.

At airports everywhere, the balikbayan boxes that are checked in for all kinds of ‘pasalubong’ easily identify the Pinoys. Balikbayan boxes are endless and they come from all parts of the world as Pinoys “deliver” the whole world to the motherland box by box!

The movement is also two-way. Pinoys also “import” their kin and kith the very moment they get their legal papers. And soon they build a small barangay or network of kinfolks in their adopted land.

Second is, believe it or not, the Pinoys’ patient work and discipline. You find Filipinos doing all kinds of jobs and odd jobs. They work double shifts and they work also on weekends and holidays and they pay their taxes.

They obey rules and they are good citizens notwithstanding the Philippine notoriety of “palusot” and connection. But the real miracle is the fact that they are happy. There is always a smile in their faces and there is laughter in their lives that they can even make jokes out of their tragedies! Filipinos are a happy people and the Philippines is a happy nation even in moments of passing insanity.

The third, Filipinos are known for their belief and traditions. The Visayans bring their Santo Niño; the Tagalogs their Nazareno; Bicolanos their Peñafrancia; the Ilocanos their Santa Lucia; the Pampangos their Pedro and Santiago, and Zamboangenos their Nuestra Señora Virgen del Pilar; etc. They, too, have their visita iglesia and misa de gallo. The Filipinized faith and tradition become not only their soul but also the bulwark of strength against adversities and challenges, in foreign lands.

People, institution, nation, communities and individuals endure and are recognized by their fidelity to values and traditions they stand for. And to Pinoys, the three values that stand out are family, joyful hard work and the Filipino faith and traditions.

Today people admire Mother Teresa or Oscar Romero or Martin Luther King Jr. or Desmond Tutu or Nelson Mandela, not because of their achievements but for the values and beliefs they stood for. They believed and lived with integrity and no embarrassment.

Something is happening today in the era of globalization. Nations and leaders around the globe work endlessly to increase their GNPs. It is an obsession and a veritable “rat race” in the real sense of the word– an endless competition both for the developed and the developing countries, as if the only thing that matters is the chart that indicates growth of the economy.

The beginning of the wake up call, I believe, came one early morning of September 9th, 2001. We stood in awe, in fear and trembling as that seeming senseless destruction began to settle into our consciousness. We named the act as terrorist attack against the powerful symbol of economic power, the twin towers, right at the very heart of the US economy – New York City. The terrorists tried also to go for the jugular - the military and political powers – Washington DC. Then there was the Madrid bombing and followed by yet another bombing in London. And the rest is history!

And now we are stuck with two seeming endless and very costly Wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) that even the biggest economy in the world could not sustain. This tells us that power and wealth are not enough and things in the world are not OKAY!

This reminds me of a story from Stephen Covey’s famous book, First Things First with slight modification. Once there was a man who began his career step by step. He first defined his goal; then came up with a workable plan charting his career and moved up, step by step, into that proverbial ladder of his career. Finally, he reached the top of the ladder - believing that it would be his greatest glory but only to discover, in his total dismay that his ladder leans on the wrong wall!

More than ever before, there is a need to “re-appreciate” and perhaps even “re-construct” the stories of successes and failures, of power and wealth in the present age now labeled as both “post modernism” and “post ideologies”. I turn to Gil Bailie (cf. Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads: 1996) for the apt description of this age. He takes the person of Bernard (a character in Virginia Woolf’s novel, The Waves) to depict the modern person. In the novel, Bernard says: “I have made up thousand stories. I have filled up innumerable notebooks with phrases to be used when I have found the true story, the one story to which all the phrases refer, but I have never yet found that story.”

I believe that we, Filipinos, notwithstanding the difficulties, have found the way to the writing of the needed story line… it is there in the story of our family, tribe and clan. It is a “kindredness” shaped not only by blood, but also by our “ili” - our community and eco-system. Our story line is rooted in faith and traditions that shape our values that lay the foundational set of virtues to move together forward in achieving our goals for ourselves and for humankind. We are darn proud of our story and we share it with the world with smile in our faces and joy in our hearts.

What we have are Filipinos in great abundance and by the millions! We soon we shall number 96 millions. Experts tell us that about 15 million of them work outside our borders. They are found almost everywhere - in the desert of Sahara or in the glaciers of the Arctic or in the middle of the great oceans - you find Pinoys who are diligently and patiently at work making the whole world work! The truth of the matter is the fact that the Philippines would have been a classic case of a failed state without the 20 or so billion dollars of annual remittances by our Filipinos overseas workers.

I am inclined to locate our real global contribution in the work of millions of Filipino workers and civil servants across borders and cultures. I have seen them in the five continents and at seas who, in season and out of season, make the global system work.

Few years back, a short message in the internet came to my attention that specifically point to their contribution. The title of the message is when Pinoys would go on strike. The UN would close down, because it could not operate without Filipinos who manage the secretariat and the general services, including the janitorial and computer network. Major US airports would shut down for the lack of guards and security personnel. Many oil wells would simply cease pumping oil, because they need Filipinos to keep them open and operational. Can you imagine the economy of Hong Kong, Singapore and most of Europe if all Pinoy nannies and domestics go on strike? The crisis will be surely felt in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other health facilities without Pinoy doctors, nurses, technicians and care givers.

Pinoys have traveled across borders and cultures, yet preserving their identity and cultural mooring with no embarrassment. They can lead the way in building a new world with no borders and barriers yet preserving identities as they continue to tell and re-tell their unique Pinoy story line with smile in their faces and joy in their hearts.