The sharif of Singapore

Conversion to Catholicism in the last decade of Spanish rule in Davao was intense, with the pagan natives and the Moros living in remote areas as primary targets.

In Mati, the evangelization efforts netted more than what the missionaries expected. Fr. Juan B. Llopart, S.J., reporting from Mati on 14 November 1894, related his conversions of pagan leaders, led by their captain in Makambul. The new converts, mostly ranchers, brought along with them 70 followers. No kids were included since their mothers were harvesting rice when the baptisms were held. At the request of the padre, the commandant of Mati sent a unit to Binatagan, Tagabakid, and Lukatan in Mayo Bay to encourage the Moros to convert. The unit later returned with the news that they were ready for baptism. Still, wanting to assure that the future Christians were ready, Fr. Llopart also dispatched another team to invite the Moro datus and captains to hear firsthand their voluntarily desire to be converted; upon return, the contingent brought along the Moro leaders and from them the priest got the assurance of their intention to embrace Catholicism.

Conspicuously absent during baptisms was Datu Tumaros, the chieftain of Sumlug (Lupon) and the key perosnalities as far as the mission was concerned. However, he showed up two days later at Binatagan and talked with the padre, promising to return in five days along with his wife and family to be baptized. Similarly, he informed Fr. Llopart ‘that those in the populous ranch of Sumlug, with all the datus and panditas [Muslim priests]’ were just waiting for the priest to visit and baptize them. Two Moro panditas were baptized during the occasion, one of whom presented the padre with a prayer book written in Maguindanao script.

The same success was also experienced by Fr. Saturnino Urios, S.J., parish priest of Davao, who made extensive conversions in Samal. His most prized convert was a foreigner who was a long-time resident of the island. In his December 12, 1894 letter, he wrote:

‘I must say something good about these Moros. Today [I was presented] with the conversion of a person of great weight. The convert is a sharif of Singapore, a resident here for the last three years, fully acting as such. He is a good-looking man, gray-haired, and he loves all of his Muslim flock. When they left him to become Christians, they dragged him to be one himself. The governor and his wife became the wedding sponsor, as the wife of this sharif… is a female sharif, in imitation of Mohammed who had many prophetesses. He has made a sincere profession of faith, has shown in every way that he had desires to be a Christian believing that in the religion of the Crucified he would find the road to salvation.’

Though far away from Mati, the event had its impact up to Mayo Bay where Fr. Llopart was assigned. In fact, two more Moro ranchers, on their own free will, yielded to the missionary and allowed themselves to be baptized. Two of the settlements organized by Fr. Llopart in the eastern seaboard were La Guia and Montserrat, near Sigaboy. But his successful mission had its litmus test in November 1895 with the uprising of a small band of unconverted Moros. He wrote about the incident in his January 2, 1896 letter from Sigaboy.

With the collapse of the uprising, the mutineers failed to achieve their objective. The baptized Moros stood by their new faith, saying it was their voluntary act on their part to be converted. The natives, meanwhile, did not get the reinforcements from Sumlug (Lupon) and other areas because the chieftains, including those who were converted, sided with the mission.

Outside the mission, the Mati command was also under threat of uprising. In Baganga and adjoining reductions, around 300 fugitive disciplinarios serving time in Mindanao were rumored to be roaming freely, creating chaos. Incidents attributed to them were the attack of Lianga, a town in Surigao del Sur, the killings of a missionary and a Spaniard, and other crimes. (15)