The table of peace

The Table of Peace is where kindergarten children are invited to negotiate and sit quietly in dialogue, for just a few minutes, and reflect on the words above the schoolroom table that read: “Tayo na sa mesa ng kapayapaan upang alitan ay pakawalan. Ang gusto mo at gusto ko pag-usapan, upang magkasunduan.” By that table the tiniest toddlers of Marawi City, Lanao del Sur — Muslim and Christian — cry their hearts out because they feel aggrieved, which usually turns out be both parties. So who’s the innocent? Both of them as well.

To understand the “Table of Peace” concept that is meant to instill a model for future leadership based on camaraderie and understanding for all citizens of Lanao Sur, let’s go back to 1910 Dansalan (now Marawi City). Numerous Christians lived there and baptisms were performed by the Jesuits, who were later inspired to establish the Parish of Maria Axilladora in 1933.

Conditions in Dansalan were relatively peaceful according to Fr. Erwin Schoenstein. Tactful Muslim and Christian Filipino civil and military leaders worked harmoniously; thus in time they opened St. Mary’s School headed by Fr. Joseph Reith and run by the Religious of the Virgin Mary Sisters. Ironically, they forwarded a request to Mayor Domacao Alonto (who became a senator) to occupy a house in front of the municipal building — and quite diplomatically! The property in reality belonged to “them” — the Catholic Church — anyway. How cheap the building must have cost in 1943, with a cogon roof worth only P200. When the Jesuits left, The Columbian Fathers arrived with Fr. Richard Brangan. Turmoil begun, the G.I. roof was stripped by the Moros. The convent was completely destroyed and burned, but the posts remained. The table of peace was nonexistent.

In September of 1972 martial law was declared and in October Moro rebels captured Marawi City. The Catholic Church was closed. Christians were evacuated. Many Christians worked in Marawi during the day but returned to Iligan, Lanao del Norte in the evening for the 45-minute ride. Bewilderment and mistrust took the place of harmony between two sets of Filipino ethnic affiliations. That wasn’t meant to be!

The Catholic Nuns, Sr. Delia Coronel, International Christian Mission and two Franciscan Missionaries of Mary Sisters, Sisters Gertrude and Constancia were kidnapped late one evening and taken to the Municipality of Lumbayanague in 1978. Sr. Constancia was sent home by the kidnappers to relay the message of ransom. All the sisters were released after two weeks. The religious remained steadfast in their assignments.

The ‘80s were somewhat better years as two more Mercy sisters joined the group in Marawi City — Sr. Maria Elena Benigre and Sr. Socorro Largo. In late February 1985, hundreds of heavily armed men entered the Mindanao State University. Graduation was just days away. Students cried for automatic promotion. Then in 1986 armed men tried to kidnap the Carmelite Sisters at six in the morning. They stayed in the chapel praying the Memorare, holding hands and refusing to move. Eventually the captors left when they heard the car of the chaplain arrive.

For security reasons, the fair-skinned priests Msgr. Desmond Hartford, SSC and Fr. Bernard Maes moved out of Marawi in 1997. Likewise, the nuns left for safer grounds. The tabernacle of Purakan Chapel in Balabagan, a municipality of Lanao del Sur, was stolen.

There had to be Muslim-Christian dialogue to heal wounds. So, on Nov. 20, 1991, the Fourth National Muslim-Christian Dialogue resumed. But the table of peace must have lacked one seat. Suddenly the Protestant church was burned and there was a threat likewise on the Catholic church in Marawi. A meeting in the municipality of Malabang with full-time prelature workers and the clergy conceived a Prelature Vision in the “Dialogues of Life and Faith,” and Bishop Tudtud endorsed it. The church in Marawi would henceforth not be for conversion but for interfaith purposes: to share a life with different faiths through dialogue in spite of the insecurity and risk of the Marawi Prelature that was powerlessness in the economic, social, political and cultural aspects of life in Lanao Sur. Their strength, they said, emanated from the spiritual power of witnessing Christ and His love, dependent on the protection and acceptance of the Muslim majority. Healing had to be on both sides — Christians and Muslims relieved from each other’s oppression, injustice and violence — both political victims. The nuns continued their visitation to the hospital, prison and families. There were hardly days without hearing gunshots.

From those past events a suggestion was put forth, the Table of Peace for kindergarten children leaders of the future. The table I saw sat four. Conceived by Fr. Teresito Soganub of Cotabato, Pastor of St. Mary’s Prelature, the table commanders are either Sister Minda Peñaredondo, Sister Maliza Ruedas or their head Sister Ana. All three are the only remaining nuns of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Chaplaincy in Lanao del Sur and wear civilian clothes. When they go out of their little rooms they put on their veils. In Iligan and Cagayan de Oro they wear their habits.

You’ll find three- to seven-year-olds standing by the Table of Peace, ready before any fistfights between Muslims and Christians can begin — fights that could cause dads and moms to join the fray! The sign above table contains an appeal — “Magkaibigan tayo muli” — because the children are taught that “dialogue is a way of building bridges and breaking down walls, while Muslims and Christians share in God’s love.” Fr. Teresito, with a longish goatee looking more like an imam than a Catholic priest, smiles in his residence which is also an office, a Bible school with an adjoining chapel where 300 students go to Mass every day and on Sundays 2,000 (out of 4,000-plus students) attend at the Mindanao State University Gym.

At Mindanao State University, tuition is P85 only for one semester of five months with total units of 10 to 21. A student who pays P450 to P850 can cover college requirements for extracurricular activities he wishes to join. If a student passes all 21 units, he becomes a scholar. The professors at Mindanao State University are to be admired: they research, teach and remain forever as professors. Lawyers, ustadzes, doctors of education and economics — what have you — all of them I’ve spoke with about the drug menace, forecasts on federalism, peace, oil, ARMM aspirations, from an academic and political point of view. Likewise the American participation in Mindanao, terrorism, the MI and MN… We could keep going on for days with these analysts, deep thinkers like former Moro National Liberation Front Commander Mayor Omar Solitario and his allies were it not for hot meals that awaited us as we breathed the clean cool air of peace.