ASIA/PHILIPPINES - Missionaries at risk: "Father Tentorio gave rights, education and awareness to the natives: this is why he was considered troublesome"

Cotabato (Agenzia Fides) - "He was a troublesome character, he offered his service to literacy and education, taught the natives their rights, increased their civil awareness, their responsibilities and possibilities. This kind of work was mainly reflected in land disputes that large mining companies and large landowners wanted to expropriate from the natives": with these words Fr. Angel Calvo, CMC, Claretian missionary in Mindanao for 30 years, explains to Fides that Fr. Fausto Tentorio - PIME missionary killed yesterday in Arakan under circumstances which are still not fully understood (see Fides 10/17/2011) - through his work concerning tribal development and awareness "had touched the interests of powerful people and lobbies" that may be the reasons that cost him his life. Fr.Tentorio, who Fr. Calvo personally knew, appreciated the work, "he is a symbol for Mindanao: the missionaries who, like him, work for justice and peace are at risk because they hinder the plans of the powerful".
The context in which the missionary lived is an island, Mindanao, rich in precious metals and resources in the subsoil, but also so vast as to trigger the race to large landed estate and extensive farming. These mining operations destroy the lifestyle of the indigenous people of Mindanao, as the human rights Organizations often denounce. To buy land, foreign companies do not hesitate to bribe tribal leaders or to endorse physical and psychological abuse on indigenous tribes. These companies also support the practice of recruiting groups of "paramilitary lumads" like "Almara Mindanao", used to threaten their own communities.
Complaints have also reached the Aquino government: in April last year a conference of over 100 tribal leaders from Mindanao denounced that big mines and other major industrialization, coal and agriculture projects on a large scale, "by giving profits to foreign firms, the environment, culture and the life of the Lumad is destroyed". The conference was also attended by the leaders of the Ata-Manobo and Manobo groups, recipients of Fr. Tintorio’s apostolate programs.
The Catholic Church and the missionaries in Mindanao, through the Commission of the apostolate to the Indians or the Commission "Justice and Peace", have always supported the claims of the lumads, recalling the existence of legislation tools such as the law on the protection of "protected areas" (National Integrated Protected Areas, NIPAS) and the Indigenous People's Rights Act, IPRA.
The term "Lumad" includes 18 ethno-linguistic groups in Mindanao, with a total population of three million people, 95% animists. Among the mining companies on the island, there is Xstrata in South Cotabato and Davao in the South, "Ventures Toronto" in North Zamboanga, and four mining companies in Caraga. Other criticized projects are the coal plant and the hydroelectric plant in the province of South Davao.
After the Act in 1995 (Philippinee Mining Act), in recent decades the national government has continued to make concessions to mainly foreign companies. In addition, immigrant settlers from other parts of the Philippines immigrants have moved en masse to Mindanao and work in the field of agriculture. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 18/10/2011)