A Tribute To Bishop Fortich at Diocese of Bacolod, Philippines, Bacolod City, Philippines 6100 PH - A Man of Peace

A grenade thrown inside Fortich's Residence, the Domus Dei

SLOW BOAT TO BACOLOD On a sailboat with about 30 others, the young Fortich sailed to Bacolod for his first assignment as Japanese submarines and patrol boats patrolled the sea. He arrived at the house of the Bishop of Bacolod at midnight and started his career as a young priest during the difficult war years. Fortich immediately became assistant priest of the San Sebastian Cathedral and remained so until 1949, when he was assigned parish priest of Binalbagan for a year and eight months. After that, he was recalled to Bacolod where he became parish priest of the Cathedral. He then became the right hand man of Bacolod Bishop Manuel Yap and was appointed vicar general of the Diocese of Bacolod on Dec. 31, 1952. MOVING THE CHURCH In the 1960's, he became the 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 also named national chaplain of the Barangay sang Virgen, after the organization begun in the Diocese of Bacolod spread practically throughout the country. In 1966, Bishop Yap became seriously ill and Fortich ran the Diocese of Bacolod. Yap died on Oct. 16, 1966, and on Feb. 24, Fortich was named the third bishop of the Diocese of Bacolod. Following the mandate of Pope Paul VI "to do something for the poor of Negros," Fortich's first episcopal act as bishop was to call on sugarcane planters to give just wages to their workers. He also stressed their right to organize unions. FORCES OF CHANGE His 1969 pastoral letter brought attention to the plight of the farm workers, especially the sacadas. "The church is organizing all available resources to initiate or release the forces of change," he said in the pastoral letter. He also explained that the appeal may sound revolutionary for some, but "it is not so; I merely reiterate the clear teaching of the Church and reflect the expectation and the right of every working man and woman in this diocese for a better life." Msgr. Victorino Rivas said "The message was unwelcome. To the rich, it was a betrayal of friendship. To the poor, it was unbecoming." The message lost him friends and supporters. Unfazed, Fortich created the Church Social Action Committee to make the diocese responsive to the needs of the time. It was headed by Fr. Luis Jalandoni, who has since left the priesthood and is now the spokesman of the National Democratic Front based in the Netherlands. STIRRING UP SOCIAL ACTION By the 1970's, the Diocese of Bacolod saw the flowering of social action programs - massive seminars on social awareness and education on justice, labor education and union organization, legal services, establishment of cooperatives for small farmers and settlers, urban poor settlement services, a man power employment agency, and livelihood projects. The poor in Negros found a new ally for their survival in the Church to whom they could turn to in time of trouble, Rivas said. Fortich then helped establish the Dacongcogon Sugar and Rice Milling Cooperative in southern Negros Occidental which in 1973 earned for him the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service. Faced with the very real danger of being called a communist, Fortich also went ahead and instituted the process of empowerment by adopting the Latin American experience of building Basic Christian Community (BCCs). Rivas said the BCCs, choosing the path of active non-violence, grew in militancy in opposing human rights violations, proposing land reform, and challenging the laws of the regime. "KUMANDER TONY" For such efforts Fortich was called "Ka Tony", a Communist manner of address, by those who became threatened by the empowerment of the poor. But he was consoled by Pope John Paul II who told him on his Ad Limina visit to Rome: "I know you are working for human rights and know that this work is risky for you and the Church. But the Church must continue working with the poor: otherwise she will lose them." Fr. Niall O'Brien said Fortich also put church property under land reform, started a legal aid scheme to help the poor, and set up a radio and television station. O'Brien said, "In those days the spacious old Bishop's Palace teemed with people of every sort. Fortich's office door was always wide open; groups of officials from this agency and that crowded to hear the words of encouragement from the bishop pushing them to try harder and to do something for the 'little' people. Social action groups seemed to be meeting in every corner of the palace and beggars found their way right into the bishop's room. Symposias, cooperatives, seminars, endless projects for social development were underway. Fortich had taken to heart Paul VI's slogan: Development in the new name for peace." "The bishop's own efforts at development work spurred us priests to all sort of projects," O'Brien said, "such as farming cooperatives, credit unions, fishing boat dispersals, and mechanic schools." OUTSPOKEN CHAMPION As the plight of the poor worsened with the sugar industry reeling from its plunder during the Marcos years, Fortich continued to be the outspoken champion of their rights. Fortich was quoted by the international media extensively and among those famous quotes was his description of Negros when he said, "We are sitting on a social volcano which could erupt anytime." It was in those days of growing poverty that the communist insurgency in Negros grew by leaps and bounds along with the militarization of the province. O'Brien said Fortich had the normal clerics' fear of Marxism, "at our monthly meetings, he would warn us about the dangers of Marxist analysis." One of his biggest triumphs was to get Pope John Paul II to make a side trip to Negros during his visit to the Philippines in 1981." I told Cardinal Sin the Pope does not just want to see the scenery at Mayon Volcano; he wants to see the problems of the people," Fortich said. Fortich said that during his visit to Bacolod the Pope delivered on of his most powerful messages in behalf of the poor. Pope John Paul II said, "Injustice reigns when the laws of economic growth and ever greater profit determine social relations, leaving in poverty and destitution those who have only the work of their hands to offer." He also warned that "the church will not hesitate to take up the cause of the poor and to become the voice of those who are not listened to when they speak up, not to demand charity, but to ask for justice." DISASTROUS PHONE CALL "It was a day that saw thousands delirious with joy, gather to see the Pope," O'Brien said. But O'Brien said that when the Pope left, the priests gathered at the Bishop's Palace to sing and celebrate but were interrupted by a phone call. "The bishop himself answered. We watched him take the receiver. His face was strangely serious. It was Armin Gustilo, the head of the Negros Planters Association. He was beside himself with rage: who, he wanted to know, put the Pope up to saying these things? If this was the way it was, there would be war in Negros. Visibly shaken, the bishop put down the phone and it took sometime to cajole him into telling us what was said," O'Brien recalled. For the Pope's strong message, Fortich was blamed. The rich and powerful who disliked him for his defense of the poor, charged that he wrote the speech of the Pope, O'Brien said. Fortich said he gave some inputs, but definitely did not write what the Pope said. "But then," Fortich added, "the work for the poor is always very hard and risky." He was also ridiculed by some for bringing to the attention of the world the starving and malnourished children of Negros in the early 1980's. The prelate worked to raise funds to help the children and the poor of Negros, and was accused of giving aid to communist rebels. "But time heals," he said. Those who were angry with him have returned in recent years to become his friends again. TRIALS, STRUGGLES, BLASTS Fortich, indeed, went through many trials in his struggle to help the poor. In 1983, three of his priests were charged with the murder of a town mayor based on trumped-up charges. The case was eventually dismissed. "The meaning of this trial… is that the church has been able to open the eyes of the masses to stand up for their rights and by no means will the masses now succumb to voices and to scare them,' he said then. In January 1985, the Bishop's Palace was burned while he was in Thailand. But Fortich whose sense of humor never seems to fail him had this to say, "My house was burned. Now I have a new business selling charcoal." Fortich, believing in the need for peaceful change, became national co-chairman of the National Ceasefire Committee to pursue provincial and regional peace talks with the New People's Army. It was also in the late 1980s that a strong anti-insurgency campaign was launched in Negros and rightist groups charged Fortich and his priests of being pro-communist. A little after midnight on April 28,1987, a jeep slowed down near the old priests home where Fortich lived since the Bishop's Palace had been burned down. A grenade was thrown on the landing near the door of Fortich's room leaving steel fragments everywhere. Fortich survived the incident and to this day has remained an outspoken advocate of human rights. For what was seen as his controversial and unwavering stand for the needy, Fortich was retired before being promoted to archbishop. "In the face of the ongoing armed conflict between the rebels and the government, he is the negotiator for peace. As a religious leader he preaches to change the inner person as well as to revolutionize history in the perspective of God's compassion for the poor. As a patriot, he stands against domestic and foreign policies that promote war, abuse of human rights, and segmental interest." This is how Monsignor Rivas described Fortich. Fortich has been vice president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, national director of the National Secretariat for Social Action, president of the Dacongcogon Sugar and Rice Milling Co. and Dacongcogon Producers Cooperative Marketing Association. HONORS, DEGREES He has also been given honorary doctorate degrees by the University of Negros Occidental Recoletos, St. Louis University in Baguio, Ateneo de Manila, and the University of the Philippines in Los Baños. De La Salle University also honored him with the Signum Meriti Medal for being a fearless and courageous spokesman in behalf of social justice, and the Concerned Women of the Philippines gave him the Human Rights Peace Award. In 1989 he was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Since Fortich retired as bishop of Bacolod in 1989, he had continued to speak in behalf of the poor in Japan, the United States, and Europe and has been called upon to negotiate with rebels for the release of prisoners of war or hostages, the most prominent of whom have been American Peace Corps Volunteer Timothy Swanson and Japanese Fumio Mizuno. MAN OF PEACE But to Fortich, his greatest achievement was that he had been close to the common man and has always defended the common man's human rights. Fortich carried out his mission to champion the rights of the poor at the most critical and dangerous time in the history of Negros. Asked when his mission's task would end, Fortich had said, "When the country attains peace, because that will mean that the needs of the poor will have been answered".*Carla P. Gomez

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