On December 28, 2009, in faraway Monipuripara, Bangladesh, a saintly priest, once the parish priest of Compostela, Davao de Oro, died serving the Muslims and Hindus. He was 81. Born on June 20, 1928, in Racine, Michigan, USA, Fr. Douglas F. Venne, M.M., was the son...
Roughly eight kilometers from the city center, Tigatto used to be a Moro enclave as much as all other precolonial waterways around the gulf of Davao were. During the Spanish period, after it was reduced and turned into a Christian village, it hosted a number...
Until the arrival of the Jesuits in 1868, Christianization of areas north of the gulf of Davao was inexistent. Earlier, the Recollects penetrated regions in the eastern seaboard of Davao, but their efforts to convert indigenous tribes and Moros to the faith were limited. The first...
Organized in 1988, the National Movement for Free elections (NAMFREL), a Church-led initiative formed to expose any form of pressure and cheating in every nationwide Philippine political exercise, was not among the first to discover that fraudulent polls have long been allowed to prosper with...
Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and terrestrial sightings associated with ethereal events and celestial phenomena are a global subject that has drawn attention from the most conservative scientific community. Testimonies of alien abductions, sightings of flying machines, and reports of contact with strangers from the otherworld...
Though majority of the converts drawn by the missionaries to the fold of Christianity were tribesmen, there were also prominent Moro chiefs who supported the founding of reductions. In March 1895, Datu Nonong, the Moro chief of Hijo, conveyed to Fr. Saturnino Urios, SJ, his interest...
The missionaries’ contributions to social order in the Philippines are not far and between. In fact, the early Spanish padres who braved the wilderness of Davao Region, young as they were, were trendsetters, explorers, and intrepid adventurers. Against the odds and with a very limited...
The idea of opening a mission in the region can be traced to an August 10, 1949, letter written by Fr. Yvon Guerin, PME, a former student of Assumption Academy in Campbellton, New Brunswick, Canada, who arrived in Davao in November 1938. It was addressed...
Regarded as the oldest Filipino religious order, Beaterio de la Compania de Jesus (Religious of the Virgin Mary), was found in 1684 in Manila by Venerable Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo with the purpose ‘To seek the greater service and honor of God.’ It is...
Founded in the 1750s, Linas, the first settlement of what is now Governor Generoso, was established by Christian settlers from Cantilan, Surigao del Sur, and Bislig City. In a letter dated July 16, 1891, Jesuit missionary Fr. Juan B. Llopart described the small hamlet’s strategic...