A Tribute To Bishop Fortich at Diocese of Bacolod, Philippines, Bacolod City, Philippines 6100 PH - Nobel Prize Nominee

Nobel Prize nominee FORTICH was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 for championing the cause of the poor at the height of the Marcos dictatorship. Even after he retired in 1989, Fortich remained at the forefront of the fight against poverty in his province. Two years ago, even when he was ailing from complications from diabetes, he still joined a protest rally against moves to amend the Constitution. "The work for the poor is not excluded from the package of retirement," Fortich had said when he retired in 1989. Last year, when he turned 89, the prelate said: "I am happy. I have no regrets. I have seen the work I have done is bearing fruit, especially among the masses." He was the eldest child of Ignacio Fortich, a Spanish-Filipino, and Rosalia Yapsutco, a Chinese-Filipino. He was born on Aug. 11, 1913, at the Silliman University Hospital in Dumaguete City. The Fortich family owned land in Sibulan town in Negros Oriental that was planted to rice, corn and sugar. "My mother had a free clinic in the hacienda for the workers, and that gave me the idea that I wanted to serve the people when I grew up," Fortich had said. In 1933 Fortich went to Manila to study at the Jesuit-run San Jose Seminary. He was ordained priest on March 4, 1944. Fortich served the Bacolod diocese throughout his priestly life, broken by his one year and eight months assignment as parish priest of Binalbagan town in Negros Occidental in 1949. In the 1960s he became the charismatic leader of two church movements, the Barangay sang Virgen [Community of Family of the Virgin], which catered to the poor, and the Cursillo (A Short Course on Christianity). His involvement with these groups earned him the reputation of being a friend of the rich and poor. In 1966 he was named national chaplain of the Barangay sang Virgen, after it began to spread from the Diocese of Bacolod to virtually all over the country. Fortich was named bishop of Bacolod on Feb. 24, 1967 following the death of Bishop Immanuel Yap on Oct. 16, 1966. His first act was to call on sugar planters to give just wages to their workers. He stressed the workers' right to organize unions. A controversial pastoral letter he issued in 1969 brought attention to the plight of the sugar farm workers, especially the "sacada" seasonal workers. The message lost him friends and supporters. Unfazed, Fortich went on to create the Church Social Action Committee to make the diocese responsive to the needs of the time. By the 1970s, the diocese saw the flowering of social action programs and the poor in Negros found in the Catholic Church a new ally for their survival.

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