Friday, August 26, 2022

Friday, August 26, 2022 Human Face columns

HUMAN FACE

Overbearing cops at the school gate

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:11 AM August 26, 2022

If you were a kid on your first day of school for face-to-face classes and you experience a commotion at the school gate, see policemen exercising force and confiscating free health items and info materials that are being distributed by outsiders, how would you feel? Might you rather go back to online classes circa the pandemic years and bear missing friends your age? If you were a parent seeing off your child and you witness something like that, aren’t you going to imagine the worst?

God forbid that mass shootings like those in the US schools should happen here. Anything that suggests force or violence in what is supposed to be a safe place for children should be avoided by all means. The city streets (rivers and mountains for those in remote places) are dangerous enough, and exposing the schoolchildren to what looks like danger dampens their desire to learn.

On Facebook (via @inquirerdotnet) last Monday, Aug. 22, the first day of face-to-face classes, was a video footage of policemen confiscating face masks, alcohol, and food items being distributed by Salinlahi, a nongovernment organization, and the Children’s Rehabilitation Center to the students of President Corazon Aquino Elementary School in Barangay Batasan Hills in Quezon City. (Just asking: Why was the so-named school chosen?) The FB caption read: “Placards calling for the safe return to in-person classes were also confiscated.”

The commotion that resulted from the police’s strong-arm tactics was in full of view of pupils and parents. In the video clip, a voice could be heard saying: “Pati ba naman ang para sa bata, bakit ninyo kinukuha? Ano ang kasalanan?” (Even those for the kids, you are confiscating? What wrong was committed?)

I went to the Salinlahi (Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns) Facebook page to find out what it was all about. Salinlahi belied police claims that they caused fear to students and parents when they distributed the health items.

Salinlahi’s statement: “It was a peaceful gathering that aimed to help, not cause chaos or bring fear to children and their parents. We positioned the booth at the side of the school and it was clear that parents and schoolchildren were approaching our booth on their own to get fruits, face masks, and alcohol.” The children’s rights advocacy group said schoolchildren have the right to know the issues affecting them. “Children are intelligent, creative, and have a capacity to understand.”

The dispersal and confiscation were not what a child should experience on the first day at school. Did the police see something provocative? A Salinlahi streamer that looked like a blackboard had the words: “Ligtas na balik-eskwela, ipaglaban.” (Fight for a safe return to school.) If you ask me, ipaglaban (fight) might be a strong and loaded word for a grade schooler. That probably sounded rally-like and the police’s knee-jerk reaction was to use force. Talk about fine-tuning an advocacy call to suit an occasion.

Gabriela, a national alliance of women, condemned the “violent intimidation, harassment, and physical assault perpetrated by the Philippine National Police from Batasan Police Station 6 against” the groups that distributed hygiene kits and food packs…

Said Gabriela secretary-general Clarice Palce: “What the police did was extremely inhumane! Since when did helping children become a crime? The relief distribution was meant to assist kids and parents who were sent back to school today without clear assurances and plans from the national government for ensuring safe school reopening.

“Instead of assisting the distribution, the police chose to scare, physically assault, and then tried to illegally arrest children rights advocates who only intended to provide aid to children.”

Questions: How should school officials deal with activities—especially if unannounced—around their campuses, such as the one organized by Salinlahi? How should advocacy groups, no matter how well-meaning, conduct their activities so that students, parents, and school officials are not unnecessarily alarmed? How should law enforcers and local government officials deal with such activities that may be well-intentioned but which they might find provocative or antigovernment?

The children, think of the children.

—————-

Friday, August 19, 2022

Friday, August 19, 2022 Human Face columns

COLUMNISTS

HUMAN FACE

Nuns in the crosshairs

By: Ma. Ceres P. Doyo - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:16 AM August 19, 2022

Calling himself “a bit feminist,” Pope Francis has pictured what the church would be like without the consecrated women religious: “It would be missing maternity, affection, tenderness, and a mother’s intuition.”

Hereabouts, some nuns who are ministering to needy, neglected communities in remote places feel they are being surveilled, if not persecuted, by government forces. I say forces because they are a fearsome lot, their words alone can translate into making life difficult for these women who have vowed to serve.

Sometime back, I did write a piece (“Catholic women religious in the trenches,” 7/12/2018) describing the difficult but liberating work nuns are doing here and all over the world.

They are in the news again. Inquirer news headline on Aug. 16, 2022: “Four nuns, 12 others charged with channeling funds to Reds.” The report said: “The Department of Justice (DOJ) has found probable cause to indict 16 individuals, including four nuns, for allegedly channeling funds to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), which were tagged as terrorist organizations by the government and other countries.”

The bank accounts of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines-Northern Mindanao Region (RMP-NMR), to which the accused belong, have been frozen since 2019 for allegedly violating Section 8 of Republic Act No. 10168 or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012. I had interviewed the former RMP head Good Shepherd Sister Elenita Belardo who said that RMP’s funding came from the European Union, so how could it have been used for something illegal?

Yesterday, Belardo told me that sometime back, RMP head Sister Emma Cupin (one of the recently accused) went to the EU office in Makati City to submit all documents and books, with the EU office hiring auditors to examine them. “Nothing irregular was found,” Belardo said.

Of the 16 charged, four are nuns: Sisters Emma Teresita Cupin, Susan Dejolde, Augustina Juntilla, and Maryjane Caspillo, who are working with RMP.

RMP is not a religious congregation but is one of the mission partners of the Conference of Major Superiors in the Philippines (CMSP), a voice in the wilderness during the dark years of the Marcos dictatorship. RMP was founded 53 years ago.

Yesterday, RMP released a strong statement denying the allegations and questioning the credibility of the DOJ witnesses and their accusers’ motives. RMP’s opening salvo: “Why is the government—especially from Duterte to Marcos II—hell-bent in using all resources at its disposal to shut down the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines for good? … The DOJ’s charges are based on the testimonies of two so-called surrenderees. Based on information obtained by RMP, one of the two has been presented as a former NPA member after authorities arrested her mother. In exchange for her mother’s release, she executed a spurious statement accusing RMP members of channeling funds to the CPP-NPA…”

The July 14, 2022 CMSP convention statement already pointed out the plight of its workers on the ground: “Some among our ranks were red-tagged; irresponsible labels and name-calling will not cow us. To serve the people of God is never wrong…” I was told that a CMSP statement on the RMP case is forthcoming.

The DOJ accusation is serious. Channeling funds to a terrorist group violates the terrorism financing prevention law, which is being invoked against the 16 who are now facing 55 cases filed against them at the Iligan City Regional Trial Court. The 16 have yet to file their counter-affidavits. A perjury case against former RMP head Belardo filed way back in 2019 has not been dropped.

At a big 2015 papal audience, where participants of the World Meeting for Young Consecrated Men and Women were present, the Pope wondered aloud about the women religiCOLUMNISTS

HUMAN FACE

Nuns in the crosshairs

By: Ma. Ceres P. Doyo - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:16 AM August 19, 2022

Sometime back, I did write a piece (“Catholic women religious in the trenches,” 7/12/2018) describing the difficult but liberating work nuns are doing here and all over the world.

Of the 16 charged, four are nuns: Sisters Emma Teresita Cupin, Susan Dejolde, Augustina Juntilla, and Maryjane Caspillo, who are working with RMP.

At a big 2015 papal audience, where participants of the World Meeting for Young Consecrated Men and Women were present, the Pope wondered aloud about the women religious’ “desire to always go to the front lines.” His answer: “Because you are mothers, you have the maternal instinct of the church, which makes you be near” those who are in need.

“You truly have this function in the church, to be the icon of the church, the icon of Mary, icon of the church’s tenderness, the church’s love, the motherhood of the church, and the motherhood of Our Lady. Do not forget it. Always on the fron tlines…”

On the frontlines but also in the crosshairs of those who do not appreciate what these daring women do, who think of these women as subversives, as an affront, and a threat to the powers that be.

Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebookous’ “desire to always go to the front lines.” His answer: “Because you are mothers, you have the maternal instinct of the church, which makes you be near” those who are in need.

On the frontlines but also in the crosshairs of those who do not appreciate what these daring women do, who think of these women as subversives, as an affront, and a threat to the powers that be.

Friday, August 12, 2022

Friday, August 12, 2022 Human Face columns

COLUMNISTS

HUMAN FACE

Flashes of the past in ‘Katips’

By: Ma. Ceres P. Doyo - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:06 AM August 12, 2022

Many reviews have been written about the musical “Katips: The Movie”—some glowing, some the opposite, on how the story is told, the script, the music, the actors, the roles, what it is and what it is not, what is portrayed and what is missing, etc.

This piece is not a review.

I went to the cinema on the second day “Katips” (short for Katipunan) was showing and after I had already heard and read varying opinions, mostly from those who had lived through the dark years of martial rule and the Marcos dictatorship that serve as the backdrop of “Katips.” I sat in the darkened cinema, open to how it would speak to me and even entertain me (with its music).

After I had heard about the bloody torture scenes that had viewers cringing and looking away, I told myself: I will not blink.

I did not blink. I watched the blood-curdling parts through my tears. Because I remembered. “Katips” became a movie in my mind. I remembered persons I know/knew who suffered severe cruelty in the hands of their torturers, tormentors, rapists, and killers. Unlike most parts of the movie, those bloody moments had no music in them, just plain sounds of cruelty and agony, played out in the dark and behind closed doors where no one could offer succor.

If you had watched Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” you’d know what extreme cruelty looks like but as inflicted in the open for all to see and hear the utter humiliation of the holy one named Yeshua. The long-drawn scourging scenes made me ask with incredulity—“Why isn’t he dead yet?” But I digress.

Such scenes, and the ones in “Katips,” inspire meditation, but I do not want to engage in spiritual profundities here. Let me just say that “Katips” offered me moments to remember; it gave flashes of the past when courage shone, when the young, the brave, and the daring pushed the limits in the name of freedom.

My remembrances were played out, staged, if you may, through songs and choreography before me. Remembrances of particular persons I knew and events where I was present, some I had written about.

Through the character Aleta, I remembered Q, R, and S, who were raped by their captors. The torture scenes made me remember community organizer “Richie,” who guided our group through the hills of Central Luzon. One day, I learned that Richie was killed. I went to his wake with a nun-friend. There was only his sister at the small funeral parlor. Weeping, she told us that Richie’s corpse was dragged around the village by a military vehicle. I could see the rope marks on Richie’s neck.

I remember being present at the autopsy of the activist who was hit by a bullet during a rally. Dr. Sylvia dela Paz and Franciscan Sister Carmen Balazo watched with me. I took photos of the autopsy. I still have them.

The water cannons in the movie made me remember how the Metrocom hosed us down on Rizal Avenue. The water had red dye in it. After we were dispersed, we ran toward Sta. Cruz Church for safety. Sister Annunciata Salamatin, a Good Shepherd sister, bought dozens of T-shirts so we could change into dry clothes and avoid being arrested. I changed my clothes inside the confessional. Later, at the Good Shepherd convent in Paco, Sister Christine Tan proudly showed off her white veil that was stained with pink.

I remember the tear gas. Photojournalist Willy Perez has a photo of me “marooned” alone on the street island in Mendiola, enveloped in swirling smoke. Reuters’ Erik de Castro gave me two photos of myself being dragged by the Metrocom.

I remember the mountains I scaled (in Abra, Kalinga) to get to frightened villagers; the wilderness in Mindanao where we were to exhume missing persons. Thank you, Melvyn Calderon, for the photo of my barefoot self and the fact-finding team crossing a stream.

I remember driving along Kamagong Street in Makati with the late Chit Estella and being intercepted by armed cops (“Baba! Get down!”). My car was full of the newly published “Iron Hand, Velvet Glove” of the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace. Sister Christine Tan and Fr. Ralph Salazar came to the rescue.

I remember going through military interrogations twice (1980 and 1983), the 10-million libel suit filed by a general who was not even in my story, the human rights lawyers who defended me and my editor.

“Katips’” throbbing music, composed for millennials, is the movie’s soundtrack for my generation by the younger generation. Thank you, director-actor Vincent Tañada and the cast and crew of “Katips.”

Friday, August 5, 2022

Friday, August 05, 2022 Human Face columns

COLUMNISTS

HUMAN FACE

Marcos movie maligns Carmelite nuns of Cebu

By: Ma. Ceres P. Doyo - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:06 AM August 05, 2022

My first “encounter” with the Carmelite nuns (of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites) was while reading “The Song at the Scaffold” by Gertrud von Le Fort for a review for English class. It is about a community of nuns in Compiègne, France, who were guillotined during the French Revolution. I was smitten. I was barely out of my teens when I tried reading “The Interior Castle” of St. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), but I couldn’t get past a few pages at that time. (I still have that copy.)

St. Teresa was proclaimed “doctor of the Church” in 1970, the first woman to be so honored in the Catholic Church. In Spain, she began to reform the ancient Carmelite order that had its beginnings in Mount Carmel in Israel. Her most quoted words for this day and age: “Nada te turbe … Solo Dios basta.” Near my writing area is an enlarged, laminated copy in her own handwriting that reminds me not to be troubled because “God alone suffices.”

I have since learned more about the Carmelite order and several individual Carmelites personally, women and men, who live the life in contemplation, silence, prayer, and service. I had written about the late Bishop Julio Labayen, OCD, an advocate of liberation theology, and Sister Teresa of Jesus, OCD (University of the Philippines professor and prolific writer Josefina Constantino), now 102 years old. Those stories are in my book “You Can’t Interview God: Church Women and Men in the News” (Anvil, 2013). The 21 Carmelite monasteries for women in the Philippines are considered powerhouses of prayer.

The Carmelite nuns in Cebu are raising a howl because they were falsely portrayed and maligned in the Marcos family’s version of history as depicted in the movie “Maid in Malacañang” (directed by Darryl Yap). It is now showing neck and neck with the anti-Marcos martial law movie musical “Katips,” which ran away with seven awards at the recent FAMAS. Congratulations, director Vincent Tañada.

Mother Prioress Mary Melanie Costillas’ statement:

“Well-meaning friends have brought to our attention pictures, supposedly coming from the film ‘Maid in Malacañang,’ which are now trending on social media. The pictures depict the late Cory Aquino together with some religious sisters. The nuns are not wearing our brown religious habit. But if these pictures are portraying the events of February 1986, then the allusion to the Carmelite Order in Cebu is too obvious for anyone not to see.

“Let it be known that no one responsible for the production of the movie came to us to gather information on what really happened. Any serious scriptwriter or movie director could have shown such elementary diligence before making such a movie. After all, many of those nuns in [the] Carmelite Monastery of Cebu in 1986 are still very much alive and mentally alert. Among them is Sr. Mary Aimee Ataviado who was the superior at that time.

“The attempt to distort history is reprehensible. Depicting the nuns as playing mahjong with Cory Aquino is malicious. It would suggest that while the fate of the country was in peril, we could afford to leisurely play games. The truth was that we were then praying, fasting, and making other forms of sacrifices for peace in this country and for the people’s choice to prevail. While in our prayer, we were constantly in fear that the military would come to know of the whereabouts of Ms. Cory Aquino and would soon be knocking at the monastery door. We knew the dangers of allowing Ms. Cory Aquino to hide in the monastery. But we also prayerfully discerned that the risk was worth it, as our contribution to put an end to a dictatorial regime. Indeed, we were ready to defend her at all cost.

(There is a photo of Cory with the nuns. A few days later, she would be sworn in as president and people power would drive the Marcoses out of Malacañang and into exile. -CPD)

“Thus the pictures would trivialize whatever contribution we had to restore democracy. But there is more to the pictures than the trivialization. Over more than seven decades, Cebuanos have asked us to pray for their intentions. With the grace of God, we take this vocation to pray for and with the people in all seriousness. But … if these pictures would be taken as authentic representation of what really happened, they would put into doubt the trust that the people have placed in us.

“Lastly, we are praying for the unity of Filipinos. But this unity can only be built on truth and not on historical distortion.”

HUMAN FACE by Ceres

Friday, August 26, 2022

Overbearing cops at the school gate

Friday, August 19, 2022

Nuns in the crosshairs

Nuns in the crosshairs

Friday, August 12, 2022

Flashes of the past in ‘Katips’

Friday, August 5, 2022

Marcos movie maligns Carmelite nuns of Cebu

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HUMAN FACE by Ceres

Friday, August 26, 2022

Overbearing cops at the school gate

Friday, August 19, 2022

Nuns in the crosshairs

Nuns in the crosshairs

Friday, August 12, 2022

Flashes of the past in ‘Katips’

Friday, August 5, 2022

Marcos movie maligns Carmelite nuns of Cebu

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