There are floods everywhere these days. But on July 8, there was a flood of the good kind.
That night, the ballroom of the Alabang Country Club (ACC) was awash with gratitude. Fr. Richard Landig represented the 300 poor parishes each receiving P40,000 annually from St. James COPA (Church of the Poor Apostolate) Foundation. The amount is not much but it goes a long way in spreading the Word, and making a difference in the lives of those who have very little in life.
COPA feted its donors who have been generously giving to its fund. The honoring started with a mass concelebrated by COPA’s Mission Partners, 16 bishops and 11 priests, at St. James the Great Parish church.
Fr. Landig, parish priest of Marinduque’s Parish of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, was chosen as one of this year’s three awardees for doing the most out of the P40,000 his parish got.
He spoke of how a whole town suffered the “worst mining and environmental disaster in Philippine history” and how, somehow, the church helped the people rebuild their lives.
Marcopper Mining Corp., for 27 years in Marinduque, provided for everyone’s needs. It employed the locals, housed them, gave them unlimited electricity, water, medical services, recreational facilities. It even flew patients to Makati Medical Center for free if the local hospital could not treat them. And Marcopper built them a chapel where they could hear daily Mass and receive the sacraments. The mining firm singlehandedly sustained the chapel, including the parish priest’s needs.
Then disaster struck. On Mar. 24, 1996, Marcopper spilled 220 million tons of toxic mining tailings into the Boac River, Mogpog and Palanan Bay. Government shut down the firm, and the future of the folks in that part of Marinduque went dark: stores, the bank, the airport, and recreational facilities were shuttered. But the chapel braved on even if some blamed the church for its stand against mining – and their misfortune.
The parish was left with nothing since there were no jobs and the parishioners never or hardly donated to the church because Marcopper was always there. How his parish survived, he could only speculate that the hand of God was always there.
In Fr. Landig’s parish convent, he has two children of BEC (Basic Ecclesial Community) members from remote barangays to help him do household chores. While he says Mass in the morning, the two kids cook breakfast, clean the convent, and feed the livestock.
Yes, the priest raises four pigs, some 60 chickens and has a vegetable garden. He roasts the pigs for special occasions such as Christmas and the annual BEC assembly. The simple folk, farmers mainly, who chose to continue to live in the mountain while most of the youth left for town or Manila, are so happy when their priest visits them. Fr. Landig reciprocates and throws them a feast from his little farm.
Fr. Landig is charged with the spiritual well-being of 987 Catholic families living in six barangays. To get to the barangays, he walks or rides a motorbike.
“The people are poor but they are generous with their time and talent,” he says. If a “bayanihan ng paglilinis” is called, they are there immediately. They walk or ride with others, dala ang itak at ibang gamit sa paglinis.”
The P40,000 yearly donation of COPA partly goes to the honoraria of four women community organizers.
Ate Gina, Ate Fe, Ate Merlita and Ate Emma, all ordinary housewives, get P1,000 a month, supervising 50 other volunteers and 20 BEC units for prayer meetings. Everyone has to make do with the meager resources. And where there is nothing, something counts.
COPA, with the generosity of its donors, is doing a yeoman’s job in an environment of widespread scarcity. Communities all over the country need help and COPA, like a parent, makes sure every one of her 300 children gets something.
After 27 years, the community has turned around and now supports the protection of nature and the environment. The BEC workers have even posted a tarpaulin in front of the parish church declaring the parish’s stand against mining.
Fr. Landig says there is still so much that needs to be done. And COPA cannot and must not drop the ball. He said: ”Huwag po kayong magsasawa. In behalf of the diocese and the other six parishes that you have been supporting in Marinduque, thank you, thank you, and thank you so much.”
