Remembering heroism aboard MV Cassandra

Sister, a sister calling

A master, her master and mine!—

And the inboard seas run swirling and hawling;

The rash smart sloggering brine

Blinds her; but she that weather sees one thing, one;

Has one fetch in her: she rears herself to divine

Ears, and the call of the tall nun

To the men in the tops and the tackle rode over the storm’s brawling.

Those lines are from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “The Wreck of the Deutschland” (first published in 1918), a very long and difficult poem dedicated to the German Franciscan nuns who died in a shipwreck during a storm that lashed at the North Sea. The nuns left Germany because of anti-Catholicism.

With the sinking of Sulpicio Lines’ Princess of the Stars during the weekend at the height of typhoon Frank, we are, once again, in a recall mode. A list of past sea disasters and staggering numbers of dead are again brought out for us to behold and shudder at.



But it is the sinking of the MV Cassandra in Nov. 1983 that stands out in my mind. Four of the hundreds who perished were known to me personally. When I learned that they were lost at sea, and later declared as among the fatalities, it was as if a huge deadly wave swept over me.

Sisters Mary Consuelo Chuidian, Mary Concepcion Conti, Mary Virginia Gonzaga and Mary Catherine Loreto—all belonging the Religious of the Good Shepherd, a congregation close to my heart—were among the human rights workers who boarded the MV Cassandra from Agusan del Norte. They were going to Cebu for a conference. The interisland ferry was overloaded and the weather was bad.

In the morning, upon seeing that water had gone inside the ship, the nuns alerted the passengers. The boat listed and then began to sink. The nuns lost no time and handed out life jackets to their fellow passengers and led them to the life rafts. They thought little of their own safety. Survivors would later recall seeing the nuns holding children, hoping to save them.

There were about 400 people on board MV Cassandra. More than 200 perished.

The four nuns were active in human rights work and in ministries among the poor. Chuidian, 46, documented military atrocities and fought the excesses of the Marcos regime. Conti, 46, was into education among indigenous communities. Gonzaga supported workers and interfaith dialogue. Loreto, 39, worked with political detainees and their families.

When the call came, they were ready. They were shepherds to the end. They were the “tall nuns” of which Hopkins wrote.

In 1999, the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation honored the four sisters by adding their names to the growing list of heroes and martyrs and engraved them on the black granite wall at the Bantayog site in Quezon City. There a soaring Castrillo bronze monument of a defiant mother raising a fallen son stands tall as a reminder of the dark days of martial rule.

The citation partly read: “They left the safety and comfort of home and convent to work as rural missionaries among poor farmers, indigenous peoples and Muslims in remote areas of Mindanao, thus becoming active witnesses to the Church’s mission to serve the poor, deprived and oppressed at the height of State repression of the Church; they put their individual talents at the service of country and people.”

In February the University of Santo Tomas honored the four sisters with the San Antonino Pierozzi Posthumous Award which is given to non-Thomasians who have rendered extraordinary and exemplary services for others.

I remembered them last weekend as typhoon Frank devastated huge portions of the country. Another big ship has sunk, bringing down to the depths more than 700 people. Another tragedy that could have been avoided.

The few survivors remember little of the moments after the captain ordered the passengers to abandon ship. Did his order come too late? Things happened so fast and before the passengers knew it the ship had keeled over and turned upside down. Those who had jumped into the raging sea before the ship went bottoms up had a greater chance of surviving.

The heroism these survivors remember was their own—how they held close to and looked after one another while they were tossed at sea about before landing on shore.

Juana Tejada case: Here are the latest developments on the dying Filipino caregiver who could be sent away from Canada, that is, after she had toiled hard looking after the health of Canadians.

June 21. Juana appeared as guest of University of the Philippines Alumni Association (UPAA) Toronto "Kapihan". She told the gathering that she hoped her case would result in better treatment of other caregivers in the future.

June 20. The Canadian government advised Juana that she would be issued an Interim Federal Health coverage, valid until Dec. 10, 2008. On the bigger question of her permanent residence, she was told that a decision will be made on either (a) a need for further submissions from Juana, or (b) a decision on whether to grant her request.

The permanent residence application remains pending at this time.

June 20. Filpino-Canadians Mila and Oswald Magno (spearheaders of the campaign for Juana) issued a statement to UPAA colleagues that government action offers little comfort to Tejada. The threat of deportation still hangs over her head. They urged more petitions and interventions for Juana.

June 20. CBC TV/Radio announces Harper government's decision to let Juana stay until her appeal is heard. Juana granted health coverage until Dec. 10, 2008

To view the latest on the case and to sign the petition on Juana’s behalf and write your own comments (and read other comments as well), log on to http://juana-tejada.weebly.com/

Dying Filipino caregiver in Canada is being kicked out

In my column last week on “Caregiver” the movie, I ended by saying the movie should have a sequel. Well, it’s that column piece that is having a sequel. And this is for Filipino caregiver Juana Tejada. Juana de la Cruz, the EveryOFW.

I now step aside to project the myriad voices raised on her behalf. First, let me quote portions of a stinging column piece (“Our nanny state, save for nannies,” June 11) written by Joe Fiorito for Canada’s The Star.

“Corey Glass may get to stay. He is the American deserter—call him a war resister; better still, call him a conscientious objector—who came to our country to avoid the war in Iraq.

“All parties in the House of Commons approved a motion last week urging the government to allow him and others like him to remain in Canada as permanent residents. The vote was 137-110 in favor. If the motion is not binding, it has moral force.



“He came here to save his life.

“At the same time we are kicking Juana Tejada out of Toronto and we are sending her home to die.

“Juana is from the Philippines. She came to earn a living looking after other people’s kids. She did not sneak across the border. She came to be a citizen. She followed all the rules.

“And then she got cancer.

“She must go. He might stay. There was no motion in Parliament for her. Why the hell not? Is it race? Is it class? Is it gender?

“There are perhaps 100 war resisters living in Canada at the moment. Their numbers are too small to be of import, but their presence illustrates a principle: we keep an open door. Remember Vietnam? ...

“We ought never to forget that nannies enrich our lives with their hard work. They raise our kids. They enable our lives of privilege. They are the working women who carry other women on their backs…

“We offered Juana a path to citizenship if she would wipe the snotty noses of our brats. But some dim bureaucrat—in Alberta of all places, where they have the least understanding of what life is like here, and now—has decided that Juana’s illness ‘might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health and social services.’…

“She came here in 2003. She came to work. Never mind her dues, she paid her taxes. It is as simple as that. Here is another principle: we are Canadian; we do what’s reasonable.

“Juana would have earned permanent resident status when her three years were up. She did not choose to get cancer in 2006. We are giving her no choice. We are sending her home to die…”

You can read Fiorito’s entire piece by logging on to www.juana-tejada.info. The petition letter addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper is there for anyone to sign. I was the 801st signer. There is space for your own personal message.

I personally know one of the persons behind the petition. My US-based schoolmate Mila Alvarez-Magno and her husband Oswald are trying to gather as many signatures as could be gathered before Aug. 8, the day Juana is to be sent home. Here are excerpts from the letter:

Dear Prime Minister Harper:

We, the undersigned, respectfully file this petition on behalf of cancer-stricken Juana Tejada, a Filipina caregiver, who has been ordered to leave the country by August 8 and whose application for permanent residency has been refused on the ground that her illness might pose excessive burden on the health care system.

We regard the deportation order against Tejada as no less than a death sentence, and a cruel and inhumane decision. It tarnishes Canada’s excellent international reputation as a humane and compassionate nation…

Like the thousands who hope for a better life in Canada … Tejada answered Canada’s call for caregivers and has served in Canada since 2003, separated from her husband and six siblings. She worked hard in a low-paying job that demanded more than the usual number of working hours that other working Canadians enjoy, to earn her right to become a permanent resident. But for her medical condition, she would have been assured of permanent residency, able to sponsor her family, after the required three years of service as a caregiver under Canada’s Live-In Caregiver Program. Her cancer is a disease she did not choose to have. She might even have contracted the disease in this country. During all the three years when she was able, Tejada, in her small way, had supported the health-care system that she now desperately needs to care for her.

She is no burden to the health care system. She is being looked after by generous and compassionate doctors who are providing their services for free. She is buying her medications with the financial support of friends, neighbors, and members of her community.

Even granting that there is a cost to the system, surely, it cannot be said that in order to save a few thousand dollars in health care costs in this isolated case, Canada is prepared to suffer the ignominy of sending Tejada back to her homeland, the Philippines, a country with no socialized health care system, to die.

Caregivers like Tejada provide valuable home care services to thousands of Canadian families. They enable Canadians who use their services to lead productive lives, and to maximize their contributions to society. Unlike the thousands of refugees Canada is known to accept and protect from potential harm or death, Tejada has served this country and paid her taxes dutifully. She has more reasons to seek humanitarian protection and care from Canada than most refugees…

Canada’s greatness as a country rests, not on the stone-cold and literal application of its laws, but on the humane application of such laws and the wisdom of its national leaders in doing what is morally right….

* * *

‘Caregiver’

Today, the 110th anniversary of our independence, it behooves us to remember the millions of Filipinos toiling in foreign lands so that their loved ones back home could have a better life. Who would have imagined 110 years ago that there would be a diaspora and that Filipino workers—professionals, skilled, unskilled—would populate every nook and cranny of this world?

So much Filipino blood, sweat and tears have been shed on foreign shores. Someday, we hope to see a reversal of fortune and Filipinos will be on the top of the heap in their adopted countries and on top of the world back home.

The other day I watched Chito Rono’s “Caregiver” (from Star Cinema), the Sharon Cuneta starrer on the life and work of a Filipino caregiver and other caregivers in London. I could nitpick on a few things but on the whole, the movie was a great tribute to the overseas Filipino workers (OFW), the caregivers in particular. I definitely recommend it for viewing and I hope many Filipinos abroad would get to watch it.



I must say, I had a lump in my throat the whole time. “Caregiver” was not meant to be a melodrama but it could be a four-hankie movie especially for those who could identify directly with it, whether they are caregivers themselves or families of OFWs who experience what it is like to be left behind and know about the sacrifices of their next of kin abroad.

I thought Cuneta as caregiver Sara Gonzales really did so well. Cuneta may have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth and went to expensive schools but as an actress she was able to pull it off on the labor intensive front, wiping the bottoms of her elderly Caucasian elderly wards, without looking misplaced or miscast.

The story revolves around Sara, a school teacher. While preparing for her trip abroad (she attends a school for caregivers) she learns that she is being considered to head the English department. She is after all, a very thorough, conscientious teacher. She is also trying to deal with her only son who is beginning to act up. She is set to join her husband Teddy (John Estrada) in London. Teddy is a nurse.

About one-third of the movie deals with Sara’s pre-departure. It establishes the complications and difficulties of leaving one’s fulfilling but not financially rewarding job, leaving one’s supportive family network and relocating abroad. At least Sara has a husband waiting for her in London.

But London is not a bed of roses. Even living with her husband Teddy does not make things easier. He is pasaway, (a pain in the neck) to say the least, he has demons to conquer and he is trying to cope with a job situation that does not do much for his self-esteem. Sara accidentally finds out early on that Teddy is not working as a nurse but as a hospital attendant who does the garbage.

But so what. Even their friend Joseph, a doctor, has become a nurse, and takes orders from a white doctor who almost kills a patient if not for Joseph’s his intervention. (But Joseph is fired for insubordination and embarrassing his superior.)

The first days at the old folks’ home is right away “breath-taking” for Sara. She cleans an old woman who has soiled her diapers while fellow caregiver Karen (Rica Peralejo) tells her to grit her teeth. The old woman who is standing with her bare bottom toward Sara asks feebly, “Are you talking about me?” Their answer: “No, we’re talking about pounds. Pounds, pounds.”

Soon Sara gets shifted to Mr. Morgan, grumpy old man who, because of Sara’s care, gets to show his great heart. She reads him Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the Durbervilles”, she gets to interact with Mr. Morgan’s family (the appreciative son, the suspicious daughter), she goes with him to spend a week in his countryside home and gets served by a caboodle of servants.

But things are not well in her own home front with Teddy. The couple still have no savings for “show money” so they could get their son to join them. Teddy’s been spending uselessly, he’s been drinking, he goes into a rage at the slightest provocation. He is difficult. He wants to go home to the Philippines. And then what? Sara asks.

Sara and Teddy’s interaction with OFWs in London provides a glimpse into how Filipinos try to keep the Filipino fires burning. The regular Holy Masses, the small gatherings, the singing. I particularly liked that episode with Gary Granada singing “Saranggola sa Ulan.” (Hey, Gary, that composition’s great.)

The saranggola (kite) here is symbolic of flight and freedom. Sara has a moving kite-flying episode in the countryside with her “grumpy old friend” Mr. Morgan before he takes his final flight. Of course, he leaves Sara something—the first edition of “Tess of the Durbervilles” which is worth a fortune and, more importantly, a letter in his own beautiful handwriting.

Well, there is Sean, the Dennis the Menace Filipino version who is problematic (Sara catches him shoplifting), and whom Sara becomes fond of. Sean reminds her of her own son back home. There’s a lot more to this kid, his mom and stepfather if their story is pursued. But that is another story.

The big problem is Teddy. He goes AWOL, he mopes, drinks, wastes away while Sara continues to work. In order to save on rent the couple opens their flat to a Filipina OFW. It seems OFWs could always count on fellow OFWs to make things bearable.

Okay, Sara and Teddy decide to go home to the Philippines. On their way to the airport there is something of a denouement. May sumambulat. Here is the moment of truth. Who goes home and who does not? This is not the most ideal movie ending for me, but that should not be the end of the story.

This movie needs a sequel. Happy Independence Day.

“Poor” grade for government’s asset reform

“Poor.” This was the dismal grade for the implementation of asset reform laws intended to benefit farmers, indigenous communities, the fisherfolk and the urban poor.

In this season when the country is suffering from a crisis in food security, comes the information that those who belong to the mentioned sectors, with the exception of the urban poor, are mostly food producers. Asset reform in these sectors has been slow. No wonder!

The Philippine Asset Reform Report Card (PARRC) Project gave the dismal grade of “poor” after conducting a survey that involved “the largest samples studied to date of beneficiaries in the four asset reform programs.” The Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Area (Phildhrra) spearheaded the survey project.

Here is the State of the Nation for you. The survey hopes to put asset reform in the nation’s development agenda. I hope government officials in the executive and legislative branches would take a long, hard look at the survey results. They know how to interpret facts and figures and read the signs of the times. (A number of them also know how to be makapal and act as endorsers in product ads and advocacies. These ads may have worked for name and face recall but none of these politicians will get my vote.)



Described as comprehensive and the largest of its kind, the survey involved 1,851 agrarian reform beneficiaries in 32 provinces, 468 beneficiaries of various socialized housing programs in 19 provinces, 108 holders of CADCs and CADTs in 29 provinces and 92 coastal municipalities.

Former head of the National Economic Development Authority (and Inquirer columnist) Dr. Cielito Habito, research team leader, presented the PARCC to various NGOs, donor agencies, members of the academe, representatives from government and the media last week.

The PARRC Project defines asset reform as “(redistribution of) resource endowments to designated marginalized sectors though a process that awards a tenurial instrument to target beneficiaries that provides them ownership or security of tenure over the subject asset.”

Agrarian reform. The PARCC Project findings show that less than half (44.3%) of agrarian reform beneficiaries ARBs were able to access credit. Only 7% said the government provided credit.

More than half (52.3%) do not have access to post-harvest facilities (threshers, driers, haulers, warehouses, etc.). Government provision of post harvest facilities is 37.9%.

13.7% of those surveyed said they experienced legal or physical harassment from one or more sectors.

Ancestral domain. Extractive operations such as mining and logging are the most prevalent in indigenous communities and such operations are present in more than one-third (39.8%) of ancestral domains.

Majority of the extractive activities (72.1%) operate without the consent of the communities. Processing of tenurial instruments are delayed. Three to five years is what it takes from the application of certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) to its issuance, and another six months for the awarding. It takes at least four years to convert a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC) to a CADT.

The good news is that access to infrastructures and extension services is high, said 73.1% of total respondents.

Fisherfolk. They are perhaps one of the most neglected sectors. 78.3% of respondents said they did not have adequate housing even if the Fisheries Code mandates that government provide them with settlements.

More than half of the respondents (52.3%) said commercial fishing vessels encroached on municipal waters

Only one-third (32.6%) said they have access to post-harvest facilities (fishports, ice plants, cold storage, fish landing, fish processing plants).

Less than two-third of all respondents have access to credit. Government has provided only one-third of the credit.

Only 66.7% of local government units with coastal areas issued an ordinance setting the extent of their municipal waters.

Socialized housing. The community mortgage program (CMP) has had little to offer. Respondents complained of inadequate drainage and water supply systems, bad roads, absence of street lights, the slow pace of purchase commitment line approvals.

Despite presidential proclamations, a majority (56%) said they have yet to receive any certificate of lot entitlement; 87% are not yet paying any monthly amortization and almost 50% reported that their communities have no community development plans.

Slightly more than half (54%) of the beneficiaries have received Individual Notice of Lot Award; and only 23% have started to secure ownership of their land through payment of amortization.

Satisfaction, performance ratings. But despite the above, respondents still gave “positive net satisfaction ratings”. “Mababaw lang ang kaligayahan ng Pilipino” (It takes so little to make Filipinos happy), Habito quipped.

All of the respondents are supposed to be beneficiaries of asset reform programs through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, the Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1992, the Fisheries Code of 1988 and various socialized housing programs. These laws are intended to provide security of tenure, support services and legal protection to their beneficiaries.

In the performance department it was a different story. The rating was generally “poor to fair at best.”

The survey was done in partnership with the Koalisyon ng Katutubong Samahan ng Pilipinas, the John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues, People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform and NGOs for Fisheries Reform.