Ateneo's Citation of Br. Carlito M. Gaspar, CSsR
BR CARLITO M GASPAR CSSR
Parangal Lingkod Sambayanan
Brother Carlito M Gaspar learned the value of diversity and concern for others early on. Growing up in Digos City, he came into regular contact from Jolo settling in eastern Mindanao. His parents set the example of caring for needy people by offering water to these thirsty travelers on their way to sell their goods at the Sunday market.
Br Karl’s commitment to indigenous people was further reinforced when, as an undergraduate at Ateneo de Davao, he was exposed to two new kinds of learning: a stimulating anthropology class and extended field visits to indigenous communities.
Hearing people’s stories of discrimination, land-grabbing, and violence perpetrated by powerful external forces, while at the same time appreciating the indigenous people’s love for life and their culture as they once knew it, Br Karl instinctively realized that this was where he wanted to be— with indigenous communities, helping them overcome the degradation and discrimination that seemed to be their lot, while nonetheless enabling them to retain their sense of identity and pride as a people. That was the beginning of his life as an activist.
The declaration of Martial Law interrupted his immersion in indigenous communities all over Mindanao. He was arrested along with his companions, released, but soon re-arrested and detained for 22 months. That time turned out to be both a frightening experience and a time of grace. Karl began to reflect upon his own journey in life, sensing that he wanted to live it as a religious but not yet. Those years in detention further convinced him that his human rights work, which included stopping development aggression, advocating Lumad rights, and enabling the Lumad to become their own advocates, must continue.
His release found him returning to indigenous communities. In due course, however, he recognized his need for expanded knowledge on sociocultural issues and for appropriate theoretical frameworks to understand the realities of poverty, inequality, and culture among the Lumad along with their resilience and capacity to take action. He, therefore, enrolled for a master’s degree at the Asian Social Institute in Manila. There, meeting like-minded fellow students backed up by an inspiring faculty gave him what he was seeking—intellectual tools and practical guidance in applying them to social action. Pivotal was his visit to the Kalinga of Chico River fame in the Cordilleras, then adamantly resisting government pressures to turn their ancestral domain into a dam that would displace the people and threaten their cultural survival. Inspired by the Kalinga resistance and determination to remain in their ancestral homeland, he returned to Davao eager to help indigenous communities there take control of their own ancestral settings.
Working with seasoned missionaries—the Maryknoll Fathers in Mati serving the Mandaya, the Passionist Fathers linked to the T’boli in Lake Sebu, and the Redemptorists in Mandaya and Manobo areas, among others—motivated him to connect with a more extensive and well-funded program. Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) welcomed him as its new regional manager, enabling him to travel widely in Mindanao and Sulu to do cultural generation work for several years with the Bajaw, Subanen, Taosug, and Yakan, among others. His decision to move once again into a clearly activist mode led him to leave PBSP and join the Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Conference Secretariat (MSPCS) located in the famed Susana Building in Davao City. There, in the exciting company of Protestant and Catholic clergy, nuns and lay activists working closely with indigenous communities and defending their rights, Br Karl helped document and counter the massive human rights violations happening under the guise of “development.”
Giving the greatest cause for concern was PANAMIN, the Presidential Assistant on National Minorities, led by the scion of one of the Philippines’ wealthiest and most influential families. Although billed as a non-stock non-profit corporation and allegedly created to protect the interests of Philippine cultural minorities, activists like Br Karl considered PANAMIN an instrument of the State. Members of the MSPCS who had come in direct contact with it in indigenous communities were convinced that its millionaire head had other intentions. Their suspicions encompassed establishing corporate farms, fuel-generating schemes, and other external mechanisms for financial gain that would take advantage of the people’s relative powerlessness, despoil their fertile upland settings, and ultimately crush them. The machinations of corrupt local politicians eager to take over the land likewise gave cause for concern. Civil society documenting and information dissemination thus accelerated, with Br Karl fostering and facilitating many of those efforts.
At some point, he decided it was time to take a break from direct action and gain the anthropological perspectives needed to strengthen his cultural sensitivity when working with indigenous communities. Getting a better grasp of land issues seemed most pertinent to his activities in Mindanao. The next portion of his journey, then, took him to the University of the Philippines in Diliman where he pursued a PhD in Philippine Studies, specializing in anthropology. Keenly aware that the State’s notion of private land did not fit indigenous concepts, he insisted on the recognition of indigenous concepts that saw land as collectively owned by the people as stewards of the earth. Moreover, their gods had allocated it to them to protect, nurture, and use well. Yet, the colonial past and ensuing socio-economic elite consolidation had enabled “the literate people in cities,” as he puts it, to claim ancestral lands as theirs to own. These usurpers know how to read and write, fill up forms and cultivate friends in the government, especially in the Bureau of Lands. All the while, maintained Br Karl, “our ancestors, with their Waray, Tagalog, Ilokano, Manobo, Mandaya, Maranaw, Tinggian, or whatever ethnic origins, lost much of their land, their ancestral domain.”
With the People Power Uprising of 1986, Br Karl, his NGO, and indigenous people’s organizations took advantage of the opportunity to place advocates into the Philippine Constitutional Convention that followed. Their lobbying efforts lodged several pro -indigenous people delegates in the body. These pushed for a third legal concept of land beyond the twofold public– private systems. Ancestral domain was thus integrated into the Philippine Constitution. Ten years later, the indefatigable supporters successfully lobbied to institutionalize the concept through the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA), or Republic Act No 8371 of 1997.
In the interim, Karl Gaspar embraced the long-postponed opportunity to enter the Redemptorist order, choosing to be a Brother rather than a priest. That would keep him in continuing close touch with the activities of his extensive networks of NGOs, faith- based organizations, and indigenous people’s organizations. In the ensuing years, they pursued Department of Environment and Natural Resources Administrative Order 2, the predecessor of the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC). That entailed doing the onsite research needed for the indigenous occupants to establish a legal claim to their ancestral land. The CADC called for everything from genealogies, rituals, resources, maps, governance systems, and much more. The mobilizing model set by these early efforts came into full play once IPRA was passed. With tenure legitimized through a CADC, the next step was to help those communities develop their land further to produce more food and income. This entailed an Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP).
Soon, IP communities were teaching other IP communities how to acquire their land and make it more prosperous. Coining the term “indi- genius,” combining “indigenous” and “genius,” Br Karl and social action groups proclaimed the value of Lumad indigenous knowledge, skills, and practices, not only in land management, but also in their approaches to health and well-being.
The next thrust was to enhance school curricula that embodied cultural regeneration while assuring compatibility with the national system as a parallel program. This called for better school buildings and modern technology in the classroom to form next-generation leaders. Many indigenous students completed college in the intervening years and returned to their communities as teachers, farmers, and cultural regeneration workers. Br Karl’s creativity, leadership, networking skills, drive, and the warmth of his personality inspired many others to continue the work under often difficult circumstances.
As Br Karl began to realize that he could no longer easily hike through mountain ranges or spend long periods in villages to help people voice their concerns, he decided that his mandate of service now called for turning the daily observations he wrote in his journal into manuscripts for publication. Because the Lumad rarely wrote about their lives, he felt he could do it for them with their agreement. A prolific writer, he started in 1986 with: How Long? Prison Reflections from the Philippines and continued with A People’s Option: To Struggle for Creation, 1990; Readings on Contemporary Mindanao Church Realities, 1994; Mapagpakamalinawon: A Reader for the Mindanawon Peace Advocate, 2002; To be Poor and Obscure: The Spiritual Sojourn of a Mindanawon, 2004; Manobo Dreams in Arakan: A People’s Struggle to Keep Their Homeland, 2011; Desperately Seeking God’s Saving Action: Yolanda Survivors’ Hope Beyond Heartbreaking Lamentations, 2014; Davao in the Preconquest Era and the Age of Colonization, 2015; O Susana! The Untold Stories of Martial Law in Davao, 2016; A Hundred Years of Gratitude, 2017; and the most recent , PANAGUTAY: Anthropology & Theology Interfacing in Mindanao Uplands (The Lumad Homeland), 2017.
This is Karl Gaspar—Redemptorist Brother, anthropologist, lecturer, writer, artist, peace builder, and facilitator extraordinaire. His outstanding commitment to serve Lumad communities, enabling them to live in a changing world while continuously renewing their culture, represents the best in public service. The Ateneo de Manila University is proud to confer on Brother Karl Gaspar the 2017 Parangal Lingkod Sambayanan for a life well-lived in service to the Lumad communities in Mindanao, and for urging us to recognize the importance of indigenous people in our midst, not only for their sake but for ours.
