There are some specific September dates I find very easy to remember.
September 11, 2001: The coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States.
September 12 2014: The day our business in Rockhampton – Clear Waters Financial Planning – celebrated its final release from the Franchise Company Elders Financial Planning (aka The Crocodile Company) after they sought to destroy us.
September 14 1986: The day fourteen church people in the Philippines were named on national TV as members of the Communist Party. One of the names was Tony Conway. In Christian church calendars this date is marked as the Feast of the Holy Cross, commemorating in various ways the cross Jesus carried to his death. I felt that day a little cross was added to my shoulders.
The Socio-Pastoral Institute (SPI) in Manila had gathered a variety of their previously published articles relating to social justice, re-publishing them in a book to be released on the Feast of the Holy Cross. To this day the SPI continues its contribution to church and society under the banner “sharing our gifts for the renewal of church and society”. In 1986 Remy was working with SPI.
The co-founder and national leader of SPI was the venerated Bishop Labayen. He was a staunch defender of human rights during the years of Martial Law and was numbered as one of the “Magnificent 7” who voiced their opposition against the Marcos regime. Bishop Labayen was prominent as the chair of the National Secretariat for Social Action-Justice and Peace (NASSA), a secretariat of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)
Aside from the SPI, Bishop Labayen was founder or co-founder of numerous NGOs:
- Bishops’ Businessmen’s Conference
- Integrated Alternative Medical Health Service (INAM)
- Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP)
- Management Organizing for Development and Empowerment (MODE)
- New Rural Bank of San Leonardo
- Community Organizing for People Empowerment (COPE)
- Philippine Association of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA)
- Kilusang Makabayang Ekonomiya Movement for Nationalist Economics (KME)
- Development for Women Network (DAWN)
The first person named on National TV as a Communist on September 14 was Bishop Labayen. His was the first article in the book.
The pattern is clear. An individual or a group could criticise President Marcos and Martial Law but not necessarily be labelled a communist. However, if an individual or a group used any of the following words they would be labelled communist: the poor, the oppressed, human rights, justice, freedom, struggle etc., etc. Even an esteemed Bishop whose life was a demonstration of integrity was not excused from such treatment.
My contribution to the book was two Prayers for Peace that SPI had previously printed on prayer cards and disseminated both in the Philippines and to support groups in Europe. These can be read following. Frankly, it is ludicrous and ridiculous that these two poems led to my elevation as a member of The Party. Fake news was rife long before Google, Facebook and Trump.
This brings us to another September date:
September 21 1972: President Marcos proclaimed Martial Law throughout the Philippines.
The history of Martial Law and the Marcos dictatorship has not been fully written and is certainly not taught in Filipino schools. Young Filipino families migrating to Australia have little appreciation of the violence and effect of Martial Law. Mostly they recall it being a fight against the communists. The story of People Power Revolution that ousted Marcos in February 1986 is celebrated but the memory of violence is lost. The control of media under President Marcos was malicious as it was effective. Thus it was, if a person followed a dictate of Christian faith to live with, work with or speak on behalf of the poor, they and their work was immediately denigrated and seeds of doubt sowed. Much more so the poor who struggled on their own behalf were pictured as being “infiltrated”.
The situation was compounded by contradictions in the churches, particularly the catholic church that is so dominant. The few Bishops who stood against Martial Law, such as Bishop Labayen, were often ostracised by fellow Bishops for their stance. Cardinal Rosales was a close friend of First Lady Imelda Marcos and lived in opulence, an opulence I personally witnessed when I visited his palace on the island of Negros.
There was such fear of “Brand Red”. That fear, bordering on psychosis in the churches and among the wealthy, was a disabling factor in church response to the situation of the majority of Filipinos at the time. The institution of church was deeply compromised.
Meanwhile the strength of the National Democratic Front (NDF)- led by the Philippine Communist Party (PCP) – grew day by day. Likewise, its military wing, the New Peoples Army (NPA) was attracting recruits, particularly students who were being “radicalized”. Why wouldn’t these organizations grow? The reality of the majority as I had confronted for many years in the Bicol provinces was steadily worsening. The economic deprivation, the injustice, the poverty, lack of education and so on were growing more oppressive. On top of that was the political oppression of the dictatorship enforced by an ever-expanding military.
There comes a time when people will say: “Enough is enough”. When the institutions of the people – including the churches – are refusing to embrace the struggle of the poor, those poor will be drawn to radical solutions.
In that climate I joined a wide network of committed Christians – committed to faith in Jesus Christ and committed to the struggle of the people – who would not back down and give ground because of the Red Tag. I became radicalized, as a Christian, not as a member of the communist party. I became radicalized, meaning I sought for the root causes of the deprivation of peoples and sought for root solutions. This, not on my own but with other Christians – single, married, religious nuns and brothers and priests – in search of a faith and spirituality responsive to and instructed by the poor themselves.
In this search I rubbed shoulders with people who had joined (banned) organizations affiliated with the NDF, simply because they were there, not as communists but as Christians. The task that challenged us was to find new ways of expressing our faith that was inspired both by the gospel and by the peoples’ struggles.
Beginning 1977 while in Legazpi City in the Bicol region, I became involved in the Charismatic Renewal to the extent of being appointed by the local Bishop as the person responsible for this movement in his diocese. In this capacity I attended a National Convention of the Charismatic Renewal in Manila in 1980. The Convention was held in the Cultural Centre of the Philippines, the icon project of Imelda Marcos. It occurred to me this was a poor choice of venue, symbol as it was of affluence and dictatorship. At this time I was seeking to understand how this personal spiritual renewal movement could address the situation of injustice and poverty in the Philippines. This was the question I raised in a private meeting with some of the organizers, who were known as the “discernment team”. Rather than seeking deeper understanding of my question, they simply asked me if I was sure we were not being infiltrated by communists.
What type of discernment was that? What type of openness to the Spirit?
June 1986
prayer for peace I
Bless your people Lord
Who have walked too long in this night of pain
For the child has no more tears to cry
The old people no song of joy to sing
And the blood of our youth drains away in the gutters
The cry from the cross is heard throughout the land
The pain in His nailed hands is carried by the worker
Terrible thirst is in the throat of the farmer
Too many women mourn the loss of their sons
And all the earth is turned into another Calvary
With your Spirit Father we cry for Peace
With your Spirit we struggle to be
Free Bless us with the wisdom of our ancestors
The courage of our martyrs
That the resurrection of Jesus may be ours to claim
And all people embrace the earth in the harmony
Of peace springing from justice
prayer for peace II
Restore Your People Lord
Who from the beginning of time have nourished
The seed of peace in their dreams
Lift from their bleeding hearts
The dead weight of suffering and allow
The spirit of interminable longing to break loose
And shatter years of pain like the morning sun
Of the Cordilleras breaking open the darkness
Of the valleys
Restore our families Father
So that children can laugh and learn
Not beg and die so young
So that the wife be not anxious for her loved one’s
Safe return
So that the husband can rejoice in his work and relax
With his family without fear in the cooling twilight.
Restore your land Creator, your irreplaceable gift
And allow it to return to your people
Free it from its torturers
From the ravishing of machine and money
That your poor can live from it in harmony with
The forests and rivers the mountains and plains
