Chapter  8

        The  Gilopez Kabayao Violin Concert w/ MCEC  Choir  & the Struggle for  Justice

 

We also  dreamed  of  visiting  churches in Negros and holding musical  concerts.  Not all our plans were realized.  But we made one big efforts, that reached   most of Bago City  residents  and  and churches in the  City.  The news was  heard in most of Negros Island and  Panay.  

It was Maao Central Evangelical Church  partnership with  Dr. Gilopez Kabayao   & Mrs. Corazon Kabayao, pianist, to hold the  Gilopez Kabayao Violin Concert in Bago City Auditorium,  with  Maao Central Evangelical Church choir  singing   gospel songs, during  the two  intermissions numbers on the   Kabayao Violin Concert. 

The  Kabayao Violin Concerts gaves beautiful music –classical musics, kundimans, Filipino songs on Violin – where the audience  included  the Mayor, Vice Mayor  and  some City Councilors  of Bago City - entertaining  more than 3,000  residents of the city and villages.   Maao Central Evangelical Church choir sang gospel and spiritual songs  that  reached and    touched  hearts and souls of  Bago City residents.

The Kabayao Violin Concert and Maao Central Evangelical Church Choirs  were the great affairs in   Bago City that year.  About 2 months before,  I met Dr. Gilopez Kabayao in Baguio City.  We attended a Baptist Ministers Conference in   Baguio City. I think about 300 of us from Panay, Negros Occidental and Guimaras attended the conference.

It was during this conference that I met Dr. Gilopez Kabayao and Mrs. Corazon Kabayao.  They have just arrived from their violin cocerts  in the USA and Europe.  I think, the were away for about 2 years. They visited the Baptist ministers assembly. I saw them. I went to them. I introduced myself. We have some conversations. I told them, I am pastor of Maao Central Evangelical church and we hope to visit churches and do music concerts.

Dr. Gilopez Kabayao, I think was long out of Negros. He wants to see Negros again more. He asked me. “Pastor, what if we will have a Violin Concert in  your church? Will it helped  your church?  Will it help your ministry?” I told Dr. Kabayao, we will make this a joint effort –Central Maao Evangelical Church and the Dr. Gilopez Kabayao & Company. 

I thought, we will have the Kabayao Violin Concert at Maao Central Evangelical Church. The church will be full. We made a tentative date for the violin concert. I told Dr. Kabayao, I will communicate with him  in a week’s time after we left Baguio City

When I arrived from Baguio City, I talked with the church officers. We will  sponsor the Gilopez Kabayao Violin Concert  at Maao Central Evangelical Church. We have discussions. They supported  the plan. We brought the plan to the church that Sunday.  We decided to have the concert held at Bago City Auditorium. Then we can invite more friends and visitors with City Auditorium as venue. 

I gave a short message. The need  for our  surrender of our lives to Jesus Christ. He will gave us the right and true directions for our lives. I asked several thousands of our listeners to think   on the message  songs with the violin and the piano. I  asked  them to reflect deeply on the message of the choirs's  songs.  I asked them all to pray for our churches  ministry in the whole of Bago City. 

The Concert  was known all over Negros thru  “Hour of Discovery”  Radio program announcements.   DYHB  Radio also  reported the Kabayao Violin Concerts during  the mornings, noon and evening news reports.  Pete Rivera  gave a continuing report of the  the Kabayao Concert & on his daily news reports over MBC radio.  The news  informed  listeners  in Negros Occidental of Maao Central Evangelical Church Choirs partnership  Gilopez Kabayao Violin Concert, jointly reaching out to Bago City. It was one of the great events of the year.

   

I  also  tried to learn deeper the  works  of  Maao Sugar Central Labor Union, involving the workers and laborers  in the sugar industry.  Maao Central Labor Union, was considred a “yellow union”, as the President of the Labor Union, was the brother of the Manager of Maao Central Sugar Company.  But the leaders of  the  union, many of them members of our   church, tried hard to get   the best   benefits labor can get,  in the  Collective Bargaining  Agreement (CBA) that was   signed  with the sugar central management.

As Pastor to  MCEC,   I  helped Rev. Floripe Herradura of Maao Evangelical Church   organized new churches in Maao area.  In our time, Maao Evangelical Church  was able to build 4 village  congregations  in neighboring   sitios of  Maao in  Bago City.

With some young people in  village churches, we visited  the  foot of Mt. Canlaon.  There were church members  living at the foot of Mt. Canlaon.  They have community  churches there,  part of the ministry of Rev. Floripe Heradura. There, I learned some hunter’s technics   in  catching wild pigs, in the vast forest lands  at the northwestern   side of Mt. Canlaon. 

The bones of the wild  pigs  caught were cleaned and dried. They kept these for months.   And there were times,  mostly on the dry seasons, when foreigners who joined  mountain climbing in Canlaon, visit the village and buy bones, skeletons and scalps. The mountain climbers bought these wild pigs bones and  brought  when they returned to their countries  in  Europe, Ausrralia, USA and Canada. They  made these  a decorations in their homes. 

The seemingly useless bones of  wild pigs, on dry season, provide business  for  hunters at the foot of Canlaon.

It was also in the hill villages of Maao, with Rev. Herradura, that we met NPA cadres, both men and women.  They were young. Many of them from Negros Occidental.  A few came  from  Manila. They were helping build  the structures of the revolutionary movements in Central Negros.   They were fighting   for equality, freedom,  justice and liberation of the people from slavery and  oppression in the  sugar  industry.

There,  several  times,   we met and  go the same way, traversing the hills. They were going the distinations in the far flung village. I am going  to a village church, where I have preached before. I was  invited by a woman lay pastor,  to baptize 14  young people that   afternoon.

I shared with the young revolutionaries our dreams  as pastors.   They shared with us  their  lives and struggles.  We  were travelling the same road. The  road, a pathway on the mountain trail,  like where  Jesus Christ  traveled  the rocky paths of  Galilee  sharing his  faith and dreams with  young men and women of his time, under King Herod’s deadly  "martial  law" regime.

We were together in the journey. They were mostly members of Kabataang Makabayan in Negros Occidental colleges. I was older than them. I also joined  KM  in 1966 in Manila. We were  working together to build a new Philippines,  where  elites and  oligarchs  will not   be the ruling powers in   the new communities.  These were  dreams,  we were trying to build – equality, freedom, justice and liberation.

I shaked  hands with  the young revolutionaries when we parted. Our small village nipa church was on the slope of the mountain side, three hundred meters away. My young friends, were travelling further up the  hills.  They were building there dreams of a progressive society.  Silently,  I breathe  words of prayer for them. We parted. I told them, I do not knew if ever, I will met them again. 

But  in my heart, I felt,  our path will someday cross again.   They moved on, with  their task of educating  people for equality and justice.

I  went  that  afternoon  to the small chapel. There  14 young men and women, who followed Jesus were waiting for me. We will have a final study before we go that afternoon for  baptism.  I  believe, some of them will   join the liberation  struggle in the coming  years. 

  

It was during the last months of  my  ministry in Maao Central Evangelical Church that big workers strike at La Carlota Sugar Central, assisted by the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) in Bacolod City, happened. 

I joined  other  church pastors and  priests and  leaders –Aglipayans,  Catholics,  Baptists and other groups  giving  prayer supports to the workers in the Picket Lines of  La Carlota Sugar Central and  in the sugarcane fields.

We  joined  their struggles. We prayed for God’s protection  for  workers in the Picket Lines.  We joined the  sugarcane workers congregating  in different areas, some distance from the sugar central, ready to assist the picketers  when it will be needed. We stood with them and prayed with them. We prayed for the leaders of   NFSW  as they  led the strike in  the struggle for equality, better wages and justice.  We prayed for the management, that  their hearts will open and give the legal benefits tot he workers.

We   helped  strengthen  there  struggles.  We   prayed  for God’s guidance and protection.  It was a hard struggle. The workers were  fighting to give their families,  opportunity to live  better lives  and  better futures. The success of the workers’ strike will help make these  possible.