‘Living in the midst of the people’

THE Missionaries of Jesus (MJ) were invited by the Most Reverend Guillermo Afable, DD, Local Ordinary of the Diocese of Digos, to work in the Malita Tagakaulo Mission (MATAMIS). The mission was established in 1988 by the PMÉ fathers of Quebec. The MJ arrived in the Malita Tagakaulo Mission on 15 June 2006.

Matamis: The story behind the name

Matamis means sweet in the Tagalog language in the island of Luzon. In this case, however, it is the name of a place up in the mountains of Davao del Sur. The name Matamis has a long story behind it that is closely intertwined with the story of a group of missionaries from Quebec, the Société des Missions-Étrangères or PMÉ.

In the early 1970s, after working for many years in Davao del Sur among the settlers from the northern islands of the Philippines, a number of PMÉ fathers had opted to work with the lumad communities of the region. A document entitled Kasaysayan sa Tribal Filipino Apostolate speaks of the PMÉ Thrust initiated in the 70s, which is described as the first evangelization to the lumad communities (ang 1ST EVANGELIZATION ngadto sa mga lumad).

This thrust started in 1971 among the Manobo of Jose Abad Santos with Pierre Samson, PMÉ at the helm, and among the Tagakaulo in Malita in 1977 headed by Gilles Bélanger, PMÉ. Pierre Fisette, PMÉ, also initiated it much later among the Tagakaulo in Sta. Maria in 1982.

Learning the language and culture of the lumad communities was considered very important in the PMÉ Thrust. It was the first thing the PMÉ and their collaborators did when the project began. In the beginning, Bélanger was based in the town of Malita located near the sea. He paid frequent visits to the Tagakaulo communities in the mountains, often trekking for hours or even days. According to the account of Francis Brunelle, PMÉ, a very important element of their missionary thrust was to “live in the midst of people, to mingle with them, follow their rhythm of life; learn to know them ‘from within.’” To accomplish this they had to move out of town and reside in the mountains. In 1983, Bélanger and Fisette tried to purchase a parcel of land from a certain Dumalican who had previously agreed to sell a portion of his land. The purchase, however, fell through when he did not show up on the day the transaction was supposed to take place. The two missionaries understood what the man may have been trying to communicate to them, “He has changed his mind and is ashamed to tell us.”

They looked elsewhere and much later were able to purchase land in a sitio of what is currently Barangay Demoloc. Included in the sale were “two small houses, dilapidated and abandoned.” Brunelle fails to mention the name of the owners but narrates that they had been involved in a shootout a few years earlier where someone was killed. “The people were afraid of revenge and they fled.”

During the years that followed, the two houses were repaired and, in October 1988, the occupants moved in. Things needed for the houses like chairs, tables, desks, pots, pans, dippers, plates, lamps and petrol, not to mention a sack of rice and a few kilos of dried fish, were hauled from Malita in a maroon jeep driven by a man Brunelle names in his account only as Luis. The trip was arduous. Luis left Malita at ten in the morning “climbing up a winding road buried under mud and flooded rivers” and arriving at his destination as the sun set behind the wet ridges. It took Luis around seven to eight hours to make a trip that today only takes about forty-five minutes by motorcycle or around an hour with a 4×4 pick-up truck. Brunelle adds, “The jeep is completely covered with mud.”[xi] Later on, when everyone was settled, a billboard was posted to inform people what the place was to be called: Malita Tagakaulu Misyon — its acronym: MATAMIS.

Many changes have taken place since the PMÉ first moved to MATAMIS in 1988. Missionaries of El Instituto de Misiones Estranjeras de Yarumal (MXY), or Misioneros Javerianos de Yarumal, from Colombia came to help in the first half of 2000. The former houses mentioned in Brunelle’s account have been replaced by sturdier structures.

The Missionaries of Jesus (MJ) arrived in June 2006 to take the place of the Yarumal missionaries upon the invitation of the good bishop of Digos, and remain up to the present.

Despite the many changes through the years, the name has remained the same. Today, the name no longer just refers to the mission station but has been extended to refer to the whole sitio where it is located, Matamis. The people have taken the name and have made it their own. (Fr. Joey Gánio Evangelista, MJ | More via tagakauloaku.webs.com)