Chapter 35 – Starts work on Urban Industrial Mission (UIM), a CPBC Pilot Project at ILCO, Hinobaan, Negros Occidental Tasked with Labor Education & Organizing
It was in mid -1977 when I was called by the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches to join the staff. I was assigned to head the pilot project on Urban Industrial Mission (UIM). It was a new program of CPBC, targeting urban and industrial workers for labor education and organizing. These project was based at the vicinity of Insular Lumber Company, Inc. (ILCO), in Bacuyangan, Hinobaan, Negros Occidental. Insular Lumber Company, Inc. (ILCO), was owned and ran by American businessmen. It has mostly Filipino staff and workers.
During that time, ILCO was the largest lumber company in South East Asia. It operated first in Fabrica, Sagay, Negros Occidental, since it’s founding after the end of the 2nd World War. It continued its operations in Northern Negros until almost all the timber lands in the whole area were cut down and devastated. Then, ILCO transferred operations to the mountains and forested areas of in southern Negros, with its main office at Bacuyangan, Hinobaan, about 200 kms., from Bacolod City. First class lumbers were produced at ILCO and sold to the United States and other European countries.
For several years ILCO operated in Hinobaan. And when all the forests trees were cut down in southern Negros, Insular Lumber Company, Inc., just disappeared. The company ceased its operations. The top leaders left. The second liners were left with the workers. The management left, without paying their employees’ separation fees. The many big equipments remained long damped in the vicinity. It was later, cut and sold as scrapped iron by ILCO former workers.
The decision of Rev. Edwin Lopez to start Urban Industrial Mission (UIM) was a response to the call of the hour. It was a search for another relevant ministry that will reached out to the labourers and workers in industrial settings. For many years, CPBC ministry reaches out to employees and farmers. There were no CPBC involvements in industrial setting. CPBC has never involved in a very important ministry, labor education and organizing and training for empowerment of laborers and workers.
These jobs were undertaken mostly by labour unions. But many labour unions that
time were considered “yellow unions”. These were unions that were organized, financed and managed by lumber, sugar and mining companies. These were organized to show they have a labor union and with Collective Bargainng Agreements (CBA), can negotiate fair terms with the company. The CPBC involvement was a venture to help provide Christian guidance in development of progressive labour unions in Negros and Panay.
During this time, the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), in Bacolod City was the most militant labour union in Negros Occidental, serving a wide clientele in the sugar industry of Negros island. Another militant labor union, the National Federation of Labor (NFL) was organized in Mindanao. It has branched to Negros Occidental with NFL having a CBA with Marinduque Mining Corporations in Sipalay Mines.
The first choice of Rev. Edwin Lopez to lead pilot UIM project at ILCO was Mr. Fred Bat-og and Mrs. Victoria Bat-og. She was a registered nurse. Fred Bat-og, was a progressive youth leader. He was chosen as he has skills in community organizing. Their family in North Negros were managing and operating more than 500 hundred hectares of sugar plantations. Fred Bat-og was the best person to head the pilot UIM project. But he decided, not to accept the CPBC offer. He had other priorities.
The UIM pilot project was funded by the Board of International Ministries (BIM) of the American Baptist Churches, USA. Rev. Lopez asked me to head the UIM pilot project. I accepted the offer. First, I like the challenge, a get involved in a new kind of Christian ministry. Secondly, UIM was a pilot project. And I thought, if it will succeed and will be expanded, I will be taken to serve in its wider works.
We started UIM pilot ministry with 3 full time staff and 1 part time worker. We took Pastor Billy Manuva, a graduate of CPU College of Theology. Assisting him was Miss Marjorie Bactan, a graduate of Convention Baptist Bible College. We opened the “People’s Center”, at the heart of the community of Bacuyangan village. Our task was to help enriched the lives of church and community members. We have Bible Studies and reflections, conscientization processes, labor education, community organizing, skills training, food processing and youth ministry.
Miss Nilda Jocson, also a CBBC graduate assisted with training on food preservations and sales. We have also started bamboo craft training for the youth. But during that time, the labourers and workers of ILCO were already organized and have a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with ILCO. I befriended the President of the Union and tried to learn whatever I could on the labour front. I join him, often when the Board has meetings.
The Parish Priest of Bacuyangan, an Irish, was a progressive priest. He was always on the go. He visited villages and organized the people. Their Bible Studies, which carries social analysis and conscientization, has opened the minds of many catholics on the evils of imperialism and feudalism. It have become a powerful force for change.
After working for few months and befriend many people in the communites, I learned that many young people have joined the NPA in the far flung villages of Hinobaan. Few years later, villages in Kabangkalan, Candoni, Sipalay and Hinobaan were the centers of the people’s revolutionary struggles in southern Negros. Young KM members and Communist Party cadres were working in the hinterlands of Hinobaan, often times reaching in the sitios of Bacuyangan village, in Hinobaan.
In Hinobaan, we started education and community organizing works near South Bend in Barangay Bacuyangan and in Bacuyangan Proper. We also started works in Barangay Bulwangan, Daeg, Pook, Sagke and Talakayan. We started education and organizing works with 5 to 10 people in the sitios. Gradually, more people participated in our education works, community organizing and skills training activities.
In Bacuyangan, our church work, led to the conversion of a family of 9 - the father and mother and their 7 children - who were members of the Iglesia ni Kristo, to the Baptist faith. But we feel, their conversion and joining us in the Baptist faith, was more of the father and mother’s discovery of the Baptist faith aided by our study during our educational program. A small Baptist congregation was started also in Bacuyangan, about 300 meters from the Bacuyangan Public Market.
In the Municipality of Sipalay, we started education and community organizing works in Barangay Cabadyangan, Canturay, Maricalum, Nabulao, Nauhang and in Sipalay Mines. We started education and organizing works with 5 to 10 people in the barangay. And gradually, more people participated in our education, community organizing and skills training works.
We were able to start church ministry in Sipalay Mines, enabling us later to help organized a church community within the periphery of Sipalay Mines.
In mid-1978, I was pulled out by Rev Lopez from Pilot UIM project. He asked me to assist him in the national office and helped develop and expand UIM pilot project into a national program. He assigned Rev. Harry Delgado to take my place in Hinobaan. Rev. Lopez involved me in the National Council of Churches of the Philippines (NCCP), with different trainings and exposures, preparing me for a wider involvement in the ministry of the Convention.
One of the trainings, was on labor education and organizing in Metro Manila, with Ms. Jorgette Honcolada, helped and assisted in my training and exposures. She was national officer of National Federation of Labor (NFL) and they have a labor union operating at Sipalay Mines, in southern Negros Occidental.
Another trainings I was involved, was the 5 -days seminar on Project Proposal writings under Rev. Henry Aguilan, UIM director of NCCP. About 35 participants from different denominations of NCCP nationwide attended. During the seminar, Rev Aguilan told us, that the Project Proposals we conceptualized and wrote and selected by the Committee will be sent to the World Council of Churches (WCC), in Geneva, Switzerland, for possible funding assistance.
We worked hard the last 4 days. Each of us was challenged to conceptualize a project proposal. I have looked hard into project proposals earlier. The project areas of operations, the target groups, a social investigations of the community. The new project I was conceptualizing was based in Duenas, Iloilo. It’s operation included the municipalities with sugar cane plantations, sugar workers and sugar mills – Calinog, Lambunao, Bingawan and Passi, in Iloilo and Tapas in Capiz.
We proposed a budget of P2,000,000 for three years. It has a component of 6 staffs. One staff with theological training. Another with agriculture expertize. Two with involvements on community works. We have an Office Secretary. I am the Project Coordinator. This was a project proposal we were writing while on training.
The Project Thrusts has Bible reflections & conscientization, education, social investigation, community organizing, livelihood training like pig dispersals and technology transfer and labor education and labor organizing. I signed it as Proponent. It was noted by Rev. Edwin Lopez, General Secretary. We submitted the proposal to Rev. Aguilan of NCCP. Five of my companios from CPBC also submitted their project proposals.
Six months after our project proposal seminar at NCCP, we received a letter from
WCC. Our UIM project proposal was approved by EZE, West Germany for funding. It was the first Project Proposal I have written and funded by EZE. I bowed my head in prayers.
For I saw God opening the future, a stronger ministry for CPBC in the coming years. Project Proposals was one avenue where church organizations, civil societies and Non-government organizations can reached international organizations with resources, both technical and financial, and be made partners in our new development works. God have taught us the skills that will open new opportunities in finding financial resources for our ministries.
We worked and started to make plans for the implementations of Urban Industrial Mission Project in Central Iloilo –Duenas, Passi, Calinog, Bingawan, Lambunao in Iloilo and in Tapas, Capiz.
And we made plans for the future. We explored new projects that we will undertake – in Aklan, Antique, Iloilo City, Southern Iloilo, Iloilo’s Central Coastlines, Upper South Negros, Central Negros, Northern Negros, Romblon & Mindoro, Northern Iloilo and Mindanao for the next 8 years. The New Frontier Ministries, development arms of the Convention, which we prayed for, was born. And we started to work for its realization the next 8- 10 years, starting 1978.
A big and wide ministry for the future that started with simple ideas. prayers and dream. We now made big plans, from a small pilot project, the Pilot-UIM project we started in the vicinities of Insular Lumber Companay, Inc., in Bacuyangan, Hinobaan, Negros Occidental two years ago. God was now opening new areas for us in the ministry of Christian lives and community developments.
No comments:
Post a Comment