(This article was initially published in the book "That We May Remember" on 1987.)
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The "Negros Nine" wearing their barong with custom-made embroidery inside the provincial jail. Photo from Poor Man's Priest: The Fr. Brian Gore Story |
“A vexatious case.” – Ferdinand Marcos
It
was the kind of welcome one would least expect. Fr. Brian Gore had just
returned to his parish in Oringao, Kabankalan, Negros Occidental from a
six-month vacation in his native Australia, when he was met with the bad news.
Soldiers have raided his convent that night and had abducted Ignacio Colago, a
member of his parish’s Kristiyanong
Katilingban (KK). There was barely time to protest or investigate because
the next day, the soldiers returned and arrested two more of his parish
workers.
Lt.
Mariano Galo, leader of the raid, alleged that they have uncovered subversive
materials, a fragmentation grenade, and five rounds of .45 caliber ammunition.
Despite his staunch denial, Fr. Gore was charged with “illegal possession of
explosives and ammunitions.”
Although no warrant of
arrest was served, right after the announcement things went from bad to worse.
Six days later the military accused him anew. Together
with six leaders of the KK, Fr. Gore was charged with “inciting to rebellion”.
The six lay leaders were Jesus Arzaga, Arnesto Tajones, Lydio Mangao, Conrado
Muhal, Peter Cualaes and Geronimo Perez.
Served
with warrants of arrest, the seven were sent to jail on October 18, 1982 accompanied
by their Prelate, Bishop Antonio Fortich. Some 600 priests, sisters and friends
kept vigil and slept the whole night outside the jail.
The
next day some 500 KK members silently marched from Oringao to Kabankalan with
streamers stating their message: “Hunger Fast for Justice”. In the afternoon of
the same day, 6,000 KK members braved the downpour and assembled for a Mass for
Justice under the acacia trees of Kabankalan plaza. From there, they held a
procession to where the seven were imprisoned. The same transpired the next day
but the seven remained locked-up the whole day.
October
21 marked the day of the hearing. The sala
(courtroom) was jammed with people. Finally, the good news: bail had been
granted to Fr. Gore and the six KK leaders.
However, it was a
short-lived calm before the storm. On November 4, a local daily announced
that the soldiers were again pressing
criminal charges against Father Gore, his fellow Columban priest, Niall
O’Brien, and the six lay leaders – this time for the ambush-slaying of
Kabankalan Mayor, Pablo Sola, and his four aides on March 10, 1982.
The
clergy did not know whether they should take this strange news seriously. It
was known all over Negros and to the military that the New People’s Army had
already claimed responsibility for Sola’s murder. Also on July 21 that year,
Colonel Mario Hidalgo of Task Force Kanlaon told the Visayan Daily Star that
the two guerillas they had captured had “admitted participating in the ambush”.
But
the military was bent on pursuing its own bluff. Claiming it had the affidavits
or witnesses to justify the criminal suit, Captain Galileo Mendoza of Task
Force Kanlaon filed multiple murder charges on February 25, 1983 with the
Kabankalan Regional Trial Court against the two Columban priests, the six lay
leaders and one diocesan priest, Fr. Vicente Dangan.
The case attracted
nationwide media coverage and the accused eventually came to be collectively
known as the “Negros Nine”.
The
military took time in arresting the Negros Nine. It was only on May 6, 1983
that military authorities decided to send a helicopter to Inapoy village to
pick up the two missionaries and the six lay leaders. The accused refused to go
by air, thus forcing the soldiers, led by Colone Francisco Agudon, to escort
them by land all the way to Kabankalan where Father Dangan joined them in jail.
Bacolod
Bishop, Antonio Fortich, though aware of the warrants of arrests for his
priests, did not expect them to be arrested that day. On the morning of that
day, he and Col. Agudon had agreed that the warrants should be served on May 8,
a Sunday, in Kabankalan where all the religious would join him in a
co-celebrated mass for the Negros Nine. Anticipating this rousing event, Agudon
reneged on his agreement with the Bishop.
A
day after the arrest, President Ferdinand Marcos intervened by ordering that
the three priests be put under house arrest. The defense lawyers, however,
wanted their release on bail. A petition seeking the nine’s provisional liberty
was then organized. But assistant provincial fiscal, Lindy Diola, blocked this
on May 16, 1983 and engaged the defense in sixteen more court sessions which
took two subsequent months in the sala
of Judge Emilio Legaspi.
The military presented
seven witnesses. Most of whom were members of the Civilian Home Defense Force
(CHDF), to support their claim that the Negros Nine carried out the
ambush-slaying of Sola. These witnesses claimed that on
March 10, 1982, the priests, after meeting three times to plan the murder, set
out for the ambush using the blue parish truck driven by Father Gore with
Father O’Brien by his side and 13 lay leaders, armed with M-16s, at the back.
In the village of Camansi, the ambush site, the two priests released the
“strike force”, commanded by Fr. Vicente Dangan, himself carrying an M-16, and
ordered the men to strike as a “blocking force” 100 meters farther.
But each witness’s
story always served to contradict the other’s version.
One testified that he was able to see the armed men at the back of the Fiera
because the vehicle’s flaps were folded up. Vicente Pancho, the military’s
“star witness” who said he was appointed to head the blocking force, stated
however, that the Fiera’s flaps were down. Pancho once worked with Father
O’Brien as a cook but was fired after six weeks, for stealing.
Thirty-year
old laborer, Lucio Raboy claimed to know Father Gore well but when asked to
identify the priest, he instead pointed at Father Michael Martin, also a Columbian
missioner but who had no resemblance at all to
Father Gore, save for being a Caucasian. Raboy
later confessed to the court that if he did not take the witness stand, Captain
Galilieo would implicate him in the murder case.
Another
witness, who also claimed to know Father O’Brien well, “because the Irish
priest had distinctive black spots on his face”, was given the opportunity to
examine Father O’Brien. The man could not find the spots. Still another told
the court that the priests’ motive for the ambush-slaying must have been “their
intention to take over the government of Kabankalan”. But when asked why they
did not take over after Sola’s death, the military witness answered that it was
because Father Gore went on a holiday!
In spite of what
appeared to be obvious lies given by the military witnesses, Judge Emilio
Legaspi would not grant bail to the petitioners right away.
The prosecution’s request for an extension was accommodated even after it
failed to comply with the specified 21-day submission period. The judge said he
needed more time to study the case, after which he extended the Christmas break
until January 1984.
Their house arrest was
a privilege the three priests felt uneasy about. They considered it “royal
treatment” compared to the sorry condition of their six co-accused who by then
were on their eighth month in prison.
“The
six find themselves in their present predicament precisely because they
followed the Christian call which we, their priests, had proclaimed to them”,
they said. “Frankly, the greatest agony of our last year had not been arrest,
internment, harassment, nor false accusations. It has been the fact that we
were separated from our co-workers at the very moment when solidarity with them
meant so much to us…,” the three priests explained.
In
a diplomatic coup of sorts, the Colonel offered them the air-conditioned
guesthouse reserved for military officers in Bacolod City instead of keeping
them in jail. Unless the Philippine President revoked his house arrest order,
Colonel Francisco Agudon insinuated that he could not jail the three.
It
was during their stay at the guesthouse that they heard of Judge Legaspi’s
lopsided decision of their petition for bail. Father Dangan, who was accused of
leading the ‘strike force’ in the ambush, was granted bail, the rest were not.
The petition for provision of liberty was also denied.
This
received a wave of protests from church circles. “The group was supposed to be
charged with conspiracy; therefore the act of the one is the act of all,” the
perplexed Bishop Fortich told the weekly, Veritas.
Father
Dangan refused to post the required P40,000 bail bond. And after instructing
their lawyers not to seek the judge’s reconsideration of their petition, they
left their air-conditioned room on January 26, 1984 in the guise of visiting
their six co-accused. As soon as they entered the lay leaders’ cell, they
refused to leave.
From
MalacaƱang came President Marcos’ announcement that he was revoking his house
arrest order, implying in effect that by virtue of the charges the priests were
facing, they deserved the imprisonment.
The case of the Negros
Nine attracted worldwide attention as it saw the government of President Marcos
on the one hand, and that of Australia and Ireland on the other, in a
diplomatic struggle. The church of Australia and Ireland
also extended their full support to their priests in Negros.
Australia’s
Foreign Minister, Bill Hayden, visited Manila and despite press statements that
he had other agenda than Father Brian Gore to discuss in MalacaƱang, it was
generally believed that he came to negotiate for the early dismissal of the
case. The Ministry of Justice, then under Ricardo Puno, offered the Negros Nine
pardon and the two Columban priests, deportation.
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Fr. Gore with Sr. Mariani Dimaranan, CFIC of TFDP |
The
Negros Nine detected the catch in the offer. If they gave way to Puno’s offer and accepted
the presidential pardon, it was tantamount to admitting the crime. Deportation
would not at all absolve them from the unjust charges. They rejected Puno’s
offer and let the court decide their fate.
With
this collective decision, defense lawyers Jose W. Diokno, Juan Hagad and
Francisco Cruz, immediately filed a motion for the dismissal of the case.
However, government prosecutor, Lindy Diola, reportedly upon instructions of
Minister Puno, opposed this motion. On May 22, Judge Legaspi decided once again
in favor of the prosecution although he reiterated his order to release Father
Vicente Dangan.
Knowing
that it did not have strong evidence to pin down the Negros Nine, a month later
the prosecution joined the defense in its second motion for the outright
dismissal of the case. This time, Judge
Legaspi concurred because, according to him, the prosecution failed to
establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.
Legaspi’s
decision aside, it was a popular belief that the termination of the Negros Nine
case was the result of many negotiations.
Father Niall O’Brien
believed that the Marcos government had yielded to international pressure.
The offer of pardon, he said, came when US President Ronald Reagan, on a state
visit to Ireland, heard the appeal of the Irish government to exert pressure on
Marcos. There was also the consideration of economic and military aid that
Marcos was to receive from Australia.
Father
Dangan, parish priest of Cabugao, also in Kabankalan, was in fact the slain
mayor Sola’s professor, which explains why Legaspi granted him bail first and
showed no hesitation to absolve him from the charges. His name appeared on the
charge sheet only during the formal filing of the murder charges, presumably after
he got involved in a quarrel with a group of powerful people over a land
problem.
Among the three
priests, Father Gore, who spent 13 of 14 years as a priest in Negros, was the
most likely target of military ire. Known for his justice and peace work in the
sugarland, Father Gore and his six lay leaders unwittingly challenged the
authority of the late mayor and the military when they organized farmers into
Basic Christian Communities (BCCs) known as Kristianong
Katilingban (KK). In the words of Conrado Muhal, 34,
married with two children and full-time KK organizer for Fr. Gore: “We are in
jail because the military fear and hate the KKs… In the villages, 100% of the
families attend the KK meetings. It makes them one with God and each other.
It’s the first program that combines all – the spiritual, economic and
political.”
After
the filing of the charges against Father Gore, the Commission on Immigration
and Deportation summoned him to Manila citing his alleged subversive
activities. He said he was not guilty of the charge.
But
trouble for Father Gore actually began many years ago. It started in 1979 when
a local landlord used a messianic cult leader, Alfredo Salvatorre, to murder a
parish lay leader, Lolito Olimpos, a member of the KK, so that he could grab
his seven hectares of land. Fr. Gore launched protests against Olimpos’ death
as well as against militarization, land grabbing, abusive village officials and
corrupt local tax collectors.
Reacting
to the upsurge of protests, Mayor Sola sought the help of the government which
responded by sending in Constabulary jungle fighters notorious for their
abuses. This forced the local church and the military to dialogue. The
townspeople say that Sola and the military officials were humiliated in that
CLMC dialogue when leaders of a crowd of an estimated 7,000 read to them a long
list of the people’s grievances.
Mayor
Sola would not let that event pass, and his vengeance was swift. Two parish lay
leaders were executed by the jungle fighters and seven farmers, who did not
even have KK connections, were buried alive right at the hacienda of Mayor
Sola. Farmers who witnessed the burial that night spread the news until it
reached the Columban priests in Kabankalan. Bishop Fortich pressured the higher
Constabulary officials to investigate the atrocities.
As
a result Mayor Sola was indicted for murder, granted bail several months later,
was ambushed by the NPA guerillas on March 10, 1982. The then shaky political
atmosphere combined with constant military reprisals against the local church,
provided the backdrop for the raid on Father Gore’s rectory.
As political prisoners,
the Negros Nine did not belong to a privileged class. To authorities, Father Gore
was prisoner number 30855, Father O’Brien, 30856 and Father Dangan, 30857.
Their cramped cell, with a small window ten feet from the floor, served as
their sleeping quarters, comfort room and kitchen.
Reeking
of urine, it brought them face to face with the harsh realities of prison life.
It was there that Father Gore received threats from intruding armed thugs, got
caught in the bloody fight afterwards, and fell unconscious.
But the support of
their friends was overwhelming. Father O’Brien said that they received
thousands of letters from abroad. Countless visitors would bring food,
parishioners would offer them prayers, hundreds were willing to testify on
their behalf and about 25,000 people signed a petition for their immediate
release.
It
was a “beautiful expression of human solidarity”, in the words of Father O’Brien,
and a “great education in the context of our struggle”, according to Father
Gore.
A
Filipina writer further observed: “Gore and O’Brien are lucky. They were given
special attention by Mr. Marcos, the highest official in the land. Had they
been ordinary Filipinos whose arrests could create no international stir, would
the same attention be given them? Would Mr. Marcos even think of proposing to
give them freedom? Would the government bend over backwards to ease up
irritants?”
Bishop Antonio Fortich,
who had consistently shown his support for the Negros Nine and the Kristiyanong Katilingban, concluded:
“Fidelity to our program of total human and Christian development has been
their only crime”.