Mindanao Lumads to confer indigenous name “Apô Edsila” on Pope Francis January 16, 2014

TACLOBAN CITY – Lumad leaders will confer on Pope Francis the title Apô (Elder) Edsila today (January 16) here in an event called “Gathering of the Poor” to be witnessed by Catholic sisters and Typhoon Yolanda survivors.
“We are bestowing on him the title Apô Edsila since he is worthy of high esteem with his love for us, indigenous peoples, and for his respect for the values and beliefs that we have held sacred since time immemorial,” says Dulphing Ogan, secretary general of the Mindanao-wide indigenous peoples’ group Kalumaran.

“Edsila means ‘light’, ‘sunrise,’ or ‘dawn of a new day’—- all signifying hope, newness, and change,” Ogan said. It is a term used by Higaonon and Talaandig tribes inhabiting the mountains around the Pulangi River in central Mindanao.

The honor will be solemnized by Ogan, a Blaan, and five other Lumad leaders coming from the Bagobo, Manobo, and Higaonon tribes through a ritual, along with around 50 Catholic nuns belonging to the Sisters’ Association in Mindanao (SAMIN) and a thousand Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) survivors belonging to People Surge. The Panubadtubad will be performed just before the sun sets today, eve of the Pontiff’s visit to Tacloban on January 17.
Ogan said “the Pope’s anticipated encyclical on climate change is a breath of fresh air for indigenous peoples because it will bring the issue of ancestral domains and the violation of our human rights from the margins to the center.”

He added that “the Pope’s indictment of the pitfalls of capitalism is an affirmation of our indigenous values of collectivism and stewardship of Mother Earth.”

Finding relevance in the Pope’s visit to Tacloban with their own issues, Ogan said “The Pope is visiting Tacloban as Haiyan’s ‘ground zero’ because we have defiled many ‘ancestral grounds’ through imperialist plunder such as largescale mining, plantation economies, and other extractive industries.”

“We look up to the Pope to usher in ‘newness’ and transformation in this global system that perpetuates greed, exploitation, and oppression— the very opposite of mercy and compassion,” Ogan said referring to the theme of the Papal Visit.

“Pope Francis, you are truly worthy to be called our Apô Edsila,” Ogan said.
Ogan says chicken blood will be offered to Magbabaya (the Supreme God of the Lumads) to signify the Mindanao indigenous peoples’ solidarity with the Pope.

He says that along with the offering is an incense “which seeks to drive all the bad spirits away that may bring harm to the people and the Pope and invite the good spirits to protect and guide him in all of his undertakings.”
Ogan says a betel nut, an “apog” (lime) and a seashell will also be offered “as symbols of the heart and compassion of the Lumads in defending and protecting their rights to self-determination and ancestral lands – the same compassion to the poor that the Pope has manifested.”

To go with these symbols is the partaking of a local wine “which stands for the courage and our shared determination as Lumads to carry on the struggle for a dignified and just life,” Ogan adds.
Bagobo chieftain Monico Cayog, 77, speaking in Visayan, added: “I see in Pope Francis the qualities of an elder who is down-to-earth and breaks barriers dividing his esteemed position and the realities of his people. These are characteristics of a true elder.”

Cayog added that “the Pope’s pro-poor and pro-environment principles are akin to an elder’s teachings and wisdom which is centered on people and the Earth.”