A mission as lay-missionary/Otto de Vries
As a lay missionary from the Diocese of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, I came to the Philippines in 1991 on the invitation of Bishop Labayen of the Prelature of Infanta. The appeal of the Bishop to live out the Church of the Poor inspired me on my mission to immerse in the everyday reality of the workers. As a member of Calama, I joined their group in Pasig.
For more than 20 years, I lived in an urban poor community in the City of Pasig. My experience among the urban poor and working class Filipinos opened my eyes to the reality of their plight. After completing a tagalog course and a course for welders, I worked as a welder and as a structural fitter for the first 10 years. I experienced the reality faced by workers earning hardly a minimum wage, as a contractual worker under a contract of less than six months without guarantee of renewal. For three years, I worked in the maintenance of a steel factory, first under an agency, and later on as a direct hire. My fellow workers attempted to build a union, but the factory closed.
After finishing a vocational course in electricity with the Salesian brothers of Don Bosco in Tondo in 2000, I worked as an electrician for various subcontractors and for almost 10 years for one electrical subcontractor in big construction projects. I experienced the harsh working conditions of workers in the construction industry. Basic labor rights such as the minimum wage, security of tenure and work safety are neglected. Moreover, the lack of tools and equipment make the work difficult and all the more dangerous. As we shared those experiences among ourselves, I was challenged to put those working conditions with the different subcontractors on paper, especially in one of the last projects I worked for. This research concretely showed the worsening working conditions with each layer of subcontracting. Several friends urged me to share this insight with the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research or EILER, as this institution is a well-established research NGO and known by many workers and trade unionists.
In the same period, I regularly visited a picket line of garment women workers. It made me realize the importance of workers solidarity and collective action in attaining their rights. The management had completely ignored the workers’ legitimate demands and closed down the factory. By immersing with the workers I realized how the exploitation in the garment industry was much worse.
Because of the strong solidarity among the workers, the picket protest lasted for a decade. Some of the workers eventually started a family in the picket. With tapped electricity, they had light in the picket and they were also able to cook. As an electrician, I helped with repairs. They won their case after six years, but they were not paid even a single centavo. Thereafter, several times the authorities demolished their picket, so the last 2 years only a plastic sheet remained of their picket. After the sixth attempt, we decided to leave. Before leaving, I, with two workers, had still our “last supper” of rice and sardines.
The picket also had several visits with a group of faithful who supported them and wanted to further understand the workers’ punto-de-vista. Support from the local parish depends much on the attitude of the priest. The priest of my parish, Msgr Pagulayan, was very open and visited the picket and talked to the workers to understand their plight.
Towards a Church of the Poor
It is vital for such mission to do this as a group, as Calama. We shared our experiences with one another and related these to the word of God, which deepened each ones’ motivation. We regularly shared our experiences with Bishop Labayen, whose pastoral guidance continued with his successors: bishops Tirona and Bernard Cortez of the Prelature.
Our main mission in the Church is the formation of seminarians and laity. We facilitated exposures for seminarians among the workers, in which they, without revealing their identity as seminarians, applied and worked as unskilled workers, confronting them with a reality where God seems to be absent. Father Joseph Buslon was so inspired by his immersion among the workers that he dedicated himself to help build a labor ministry after becoming a priest. Because of the dedication of laity to make a social investigation, the diocese of Novaliches learned of the condition of the workers which became the basis for developing its labor ministry.
In 1987, Calama, under the guidance of bishop Labayen, had written a contribution to the Synod on the Vocation and Mission of the Laity. In this contribution, diakonia, service of the church to society as task of the laity is emphasized to contribute to a more just society. In it, the Social Teachings of the Church is part of their, this formation as laity. Furthermore, local, regional and national fora on their Vocation and Mission have contributed to the sharing of experiences among the laity. I have been involved in this initiative since 2000. As a lay-group, we shared our experiences in society and church and deepened our understanding to express more our identity and contribution as lay.
In 2014, I had an accident that prevented me from continuing my work as an electrician. The next year, EILER reached out to me on the basis of my research on the working conditions of the subcontractors in construction and invited me to become a researcher. As I became more familiar with EILER as an ecumenical service institute for the workers, I gained a better appreciation of the importance of the Church’s link with the Labor movement, and so continued to live out my mission among the workers. When Father Ronald Macale became the parish priest of the St Joseph Shrine to which EILER belongs, our collaboration is revived. When he was formator at San Carlos seminary, we worked closely together in facilitating exposures for the seminarians among the workers.
After 30 years, this mission of solidarity among the workers and building the Church of the Poor is being put to a halt with the cancellation of my permanent visa. Without due process, and under malicious allegations, I was ordered to leave the Philippines which has been my home country for the last 30 years. Contrary to accusations of NICA, neither I nor EILER engage in or support acts of terrorism. On the contrary, EILER publishes research and educational modules based on facts and the concrete conditions of the workers, and is fighting for a just society. This is merely a ploy to sow fear on those advocating for basic rights and social justice, and to stop them from struggling.
Be that as it may, I’m very thankful to my fellow workers, those in the pickets lines, and many urban poor in their communities, who shared their punto-de-vista and solidarity with me. This solidarity for justice and human dignity as well as an expression of love for your neighbor, motivates to continue our struggle for a just society with them. Lastly, this has become a source of inspiration, as an expression of the presence of the Holy Spirit among the poor, for our mission to build the Church of the Poor.
April 2021
