CHOPPED TO DEATH
By Romel Mansaloon
Lapangon Mission
School
Lapangon Mission School villagers, the once most feared
group of the Manobos for their being bloody warriors are now baptized SDA
believers. They now gather every morning
and evening for village worship. During
the last baptism, the vice-chief had his bolo (machete) baptized with him
symbolizing the end of using it for killing.
After the baptism, he gathered all the warriors with all their blood
stained bolos for a picture. After that,
the bolos will be good only for display and no longer kill.
A church was built to hose the whole village for
worship. It was planned that it would be
a two-story building. The second floor
would be two classrooms and the ground floor will house the church. We started the project with a budget from the
Thirteenth-Sabbath Offering for SULADS Jungle Chapels. Our SULADS Director, Daryl Famisaran, hired
an experienced carpenter to supervise the construction with the trust that he
would be of help and shine as he was also known as an SDA member.
He indeed helped a little in the construction but caused
much damage to the village people. This
approximately 60-year-old carpenter seemed to want to help and offered to send
a 10 year old girl to formal school in San Fernando.
He arranged with the parents, gave them some gifts off food
so that they would give the 10-year-old away.
He was successful and brought the girl with him to his home. The carpenter’s wife was also happy to have a
girl at home. They arranged to enroll
the girl to a nearby school. The wife
treated the gild as one of her grand children.
She bought school materials for her and was very happy with the girl. The girl always wore a smile showing her
dimples. She was just a happy little
tyke. She sings beautifully and the
neighbors gathered around to listen to her sing. She was loved by the children of the
neighborhood.
One day, however, they noticed that she was sad. She was no longer the same smiling, singing
little girl. Nobody knew what ordeal she
was going through. The wife noticed that
she wanted to go with her wherever she goes.
She did not want to be home while the wife went out. “You should stay home,” the wife would scold
her. “I have to meet appointments and
you need to stay home.” So the girl had
no choice but to stay home with the carpenter.
He beloved Lapangon home was too far away and she couldn’t go home
alone. School was to start in June but
it was only April.
The girl’s life was getting worse everyday. One day, she saw one of the lady student
missionaries in town. Clasping her hand,
she started to cry. She said, “Ma’am, I
want to go home. Please help me go
home,” she cried. “I need to go
home. I don’t want to stay with that old
carpenter anymore.”
Something must be the matter. Something must be wrong, the student
missionary was certain.
And so it was that the girl pleaded with the carpenter’s wife to visit home because she missed her folks. It was good that she consented and the carpenter accompanied her as the two of them went on that long eight-hour hike through the jungle. I was surprised to see the girl home in the mission school. Everybody noticed that she kept her distance from the carpenter. She kept telling everybody that she would not return with the carpenter. This seemed strange. At first she was happy that she could get a formal education and she was the one urging her parents to send her with the old carpenter. Now she was hiding so that she would not go back with him.
“Sir,” she started to cry.
I was sure there must be something very wrong. Why would she behave like this?
“Tell me, Girl. Tell
me. Don’t ever hid anything from me.”
“Yes, I promise I won’t tell them. Only tell me everything. OK?”
“Sir.” There were
sobs and a long pause. I waited. “That beast old man carpenter raped me.” She continued to sob. My heart broke. I joined her in tears. This girl had been my very good pupil. She is talented. She had been dreaming of going to college and
now she feels wretched. Telling her
parents would be bad because, according to their culture, she would be chopped
to death by her parents because now she had been contaminated with sin from the
lowland. The rapist should also be
chopped to death with her.
I was gritting my teeth.
I was angry. I went to Mountain
View College and told Sir Daryl, our Director of the SULADS, about it. We had the girl examined and the medical
examination revealed that indeed she had been penetrated and she was in very
bad shape. We filed the case and by now
the judge should have issued the arrest warrant for him. We will pursue the case to give due justice
to the girl.
Meanwhile, the people of Lapangon have sensed the big
problem. To the, justice is in their
hands using their bolos. It is well that
I had escaped from Lapangon with her and she is now in the Director’s
custody. To the villagers, any lowlander
including the SULADS student missionaries are their enemies until the problem
is solved. Innocent lowlanders who
wonder into the forest are prey to these deploying bloody head-hunters and
anytime the blood would flow again. This
would cause a big problem in the municipality.
The SULADS, who are always on their knees during smooth
times, are now doubling their praying time during this most trying hour. It was so timely that the missionaries were
on the campus of MVC for a two week long seminar when the incident took place
and there were safe. We could not send
the missionaries back because of this danger.
This would mean that five mission school in the area would have to be
closed.
Providentially, the chief, together with four other warriors
came to MVC to see our director to settle the matter. He said, “You educated us with the light of
truth. You don’t kill but we used to do
it. Now my bolo was already baptized
with me. But this big problem urges us
to kill again. This would include you
and your missionaries because you were the ones who sent that beast
carpenter. Now, I beg you, please don’t
let it happen that we will kill again.”
“I’m sorry, Chief, for the mess,” our director pleaded.
“My people especially the father of the girl are crying for
the blood of the rapist. We want him
killed according to our tribal law.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Sir Daryl assured him. “We will have him killed by our law to be
processed in court.”
“Yes, that is good by my people are crying to kill him now
or else many more will be included.”
“We need a peace offering.
Two pesos and one peso,” came the reply.
This meant Twenty thousand pesos and a carabao. Although it was a large amount, it was small
when we considered the lives of our missionaries. Our director was able to arrange for a
carabao peace offering only minus the Twenty thousand pesos. They agreed for a carabao and a sack of rice.
The carabao was brought to the village, tided to a post, and
the first one to strike the carabao with a bolo was the girl’s father. They were in a rage. Shouting with anger, each villager, with a
bolo, shopped the poor innocent animal to death.
“Maestro!” the chief shouted. “Here is a bolo, you chop your share.” So I made a chop at the carabao with the
bolo. Then the bolo was handed to my
partner and he also chopped the carabao.
Even the children took their turns at chopping up the beast. What a terrible sight!
The chief said the carabao represented the rapist beast
carpenter.
The incident is not over yet. The chief will come back to Sir Daryl to
ensure that the beast rapist is captured and killed and if not there will be a
bigger problem to solve.
When I saw that carabao chopped up, I saw in my mind’s eye,
the image of Jesus spilling His blood for me, for you, and for those Manobos in
Lapangon. Please continue to pray for
us.
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