Assignment: Mindanao

After I was ordained as a Dominican priest in 1993, my assignments have been in the three campuses of Colegio de San Juan de Letran or Letran College for short. I spent one year in Calamba, Laguna campus (1993-1994), twelve years in the “mother campus” in Intramuros, Manila (1994-2006) and two years in Abucay, Bataan campus (2006-2008). I spent a total of fifteen years in all the three campuses of Colegio de San Juan de Letran.

Hoping to be assigned to other houses or convents of the Dominican Province of the Philippines, I thought of volunteering to go to Gen. Santos City, where we have a mission station. I thought to myself that I have already spent a very long time in the school setting, that a change of assignment maybe a good idea. And so I told some of our priests that I would like to volunteer to our mission station in Gen. Santos City. A few months later, after the Provincial Chapter (the meeting and election of our friars for a new Provincial – our superior in the Philippines), the newly elected Provincial talked to me. He told me that he heard the good news that I wanted to volunteer to go to our mission stations. I told him that I was hoping to be given a new assignment since I have stayed for so long a time in Letran, and that I wanted to volunteer to go to our mission stations. Then he told me that he was actually looking for somebody to be assigned to our mission station in the Babuyan Islands, and that he was thinking of sending me there. All the while I thought that my dream of going down South to Gen. Santos City will be fulfilled, but instead I was assigned up North to Babuyan Islands. Later on I have resigned myself to the idea that God will not give me what I like, but he will give me what I need.

And so I spent three years in a remote island of the Babuyan group of islands, which I would say was altogether challenging, fulfilling and life changing. Before I ended my three years term in the island, there was news that our Province (the Dominican Order in the Philippines) has plans of establishing a foundation in Davao City. This time around, I again let my voice be heard that I wanted to volunteer to go to Davao. And so again the Provincial talked to me and asked me if I would like to be assigned to Davao. When I was a seminarian, I had my teaching exposure in Davao, and I still have friends there who were my former students. I thought to myself that it would be nice to be assigned in Davao, even though it was not yet clear to me what our ministry and apostolate would be.

When my mother learned that I will be assigned in Davao, she asked me if it was safe for me to go to Mindanao. I told her that Mindanao is not what many people think it is, especially for those who have not yet been to Mindanao. I stayed in Davao City for a year before I was asked by my superior to transfer to Gen. Santos City, when I was elected as the superior of our newly established St. Antoninus House. For those who are not from Mindanao, like the people from Luzon, particularly Manila, their picture of Mindanao is all about war, bombings, and kidnappings.

I had my first taste of the delicious durian in our small durian farm in Tagum City. The durian trees in that farm, about two hundred of them, would yield so many durian fruits twice a year. The view of Mt. Apo, the highest peak in the Philippines, can be seen even from the streets of downtown Davao. Samal Island, which can be reached by a ten minute drive from the city and another ten minute boat ride, is really an island paradise with its crystal clear waters. I had my first encounters with the “lumads” of Mindanao  when we had an outreach to the Manobo school children in the mountains of Surigao Del Sur and when I joined a medical mission to the B’laans in the mountains of Sarangani. The Enchanted River of Hinatuan and the majestic Tinuy-an Falls of Bislig are unforgettable experiences I had in Surigao Del Sur. My occasional visits to the Benedictine monks of the Monastery of the Transfiguration in Malaybalay, Bukidnon were always a refreshing and revitalizing one. I have unforgettable stories of my visits to Cagayan de Oro, Compostela Valley, Mati in Davao Oriental and Zamboanga City. In my three years of stay in Mindanao, I have come to discover why it is called the land of promise.