An interview with Bishop-elect Broderick S. Pabillo

" The biggest challenge is how I can remain in touch with the poor
and live poor as a bishop."

On August 19, 2006, Fr. Broderick Socuaco Pabillo will be ordained bishop in his remote parish of St. Ezekiel de Moreno in Macarascas, Palawan, which is about an hour and half from the capital Puerto Princesa. The 52-year old bishop has been appointed auxiliary to Manila Archbishop Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales, along with Auxiliary Bishop Bernardino Cortez, and will be formally installed in the Archdiocese of Manila on September 12, 2006. In a recent interview with the Archdiocesan Office of Communication, he talks about what he will leave behind and the new challenges that await him in his new role.

Q:You appointment and forthcoming installation as Auxiliary Bishop of Manila takes you back to the Archdiocese of Manila, to a highly-urbanized setting that will expectedly be vastly different from the situation in your parish in the Apostolic Vicariate of Palawan. How did you receive the news of your appointment as Bishop and how have you prepared for this new assignment?

A: These past months, I have been trying to reconcile myself to the new assignment, while at the same time trying to put in order the programs I will leave behind in my former assignment in the parish of St. Ezekiel Moreno in Macarascas, Palawan.

Q:How was your immediate reaction to the appointment? What was your feeling?

A: It was a feeling of surprise. I admit I did have an inkling of these developments, because there had been some earlier talks already. But about being Auxiliary Bishop ofManila – that I had no inkling at all. Yun ang mas nakakasorpresa at mas nakakatakot.

Q:But Manila is not new to you. You spent many years in the ministry in Manila before you decided to serve in Palawan.

A: Precisely. Although strictly speaking, I was not working in the Manila area, but in Parañaque, and it was not primarily a parochial ministry. Except for one year during which I served as assistant parish priest of San Ildefonso parish in Makati, when I was a very young priest, all my time had been in the seminary of the Salesians in Better Living, Parañaque. Of course, as seminarians, and later as professors and formators – I was teaching Scriptures – we used to help in the neighboring parishes on Sundays. So I was familiar with the situation in the parishes.

Q:What brought about your move to Palawan – and the choice you made to leave the religious congregation for a diocesan ministry?

A: When I made the decision and asked to go to serve in a poor diocese or a poor local Church, I checked the Philippine Church Directory to find out which dioceses or areas were most in need of priests. There were about five dioceses whose bishops I wrote to, and eventually I landed in Palawan. What happened was that Bishop Pedro Arigo, the Bishop-Prelate of Palawan was vacationing in his hometown in Cavite around that time, so I went to see him personally and he was willing to receive me in the Prelature.

Q:You mentioned that you already had some pastoral experience even as a religious, but the shift from seminary formation to parish work must have meant considerable change. Was it what you expected?

A: In a way, no, it was not what I expected. Because although I had an idea of what a poor parish is, it was essentially a perspective of a “poor parish” in Manila. The reality of a "poor parish” in a rural setting was totally new to me. The Bishop sent me to a newly-established parish that had absolutely nothing to begin with. Well, the parish had been created, there was a parcel of land for the parish church, but that was all. There was no structure – no church, no convent, no living quarters. I was to start, literally, from scratch. We did not even have electricity! We had electricity only last January. We did have a generator, which was only acquired a year after I arrived, so we had power only for about two or three hours a night. That was a major change and a major challenge.

It’s different in the urban areas. In an urban poor parish, at least the structures are already in place, and transportation is available so mobility is not a problem. And there are so many people in such a small area – unlike in the province where houses and families are so distant, wala kang mapuntahan, wala kang libangan, kaya mas malakas yung kalungkutan.

Q:So, how did you to proceed to build from scratch? Seven years since then, what are you now leaving behind in the parish?

A: Well, little by little, we were able to build the church structure and build the community. As I said, when I accepted the assignment, there was already a two-hectare lot on which to construct the church, but nothing more. I had a small chapel and a kubo with just enough room for a bed -- that’s how I lived for the first two years. I was not overly concerned about immediately constructing a parish church. I wanted to build the community first. But after two years, it was the parishioners themselves who decided that they needed a church and a center. Since I had no experience with construction projects, I thought it would be difficult. We raised funds, but more significantly, what happened was that the people themselves got involved in the construction, bayanihan style. An architect from Puerto Princesa offered his services for free, and the parishioners worked together on the construction and finishing. It was beautiful – the fruit of the efforts and creativity of the people.

Q: How many parishioners were there, and how did you go about building the community?

A: ByManila standards, it is a small parish, with a population of only about 7,000, but spread over such a vast area. There are scattered communities of about 10 to 50 families, and it is impossible to gather so many of them at time. At the start, my plan was to celebrate Mass everyday at the centro or the town proper. But I realized that if I continued to do that, I would be able to reach only about 100 families or so who could come to the church. What about the rest of the parishioners? So I made it a point to celebrate Mass each day in a different place, with a different community. And it’s not easy moving around. In the beginning, I did not have any vehicle so I had to make do with what was available. There is only one trip a day by jeepney to most of the areas of the parish. I would take that, and then have to wait for the trip back the next day. Or else go by banca. I did that for about a year, until the Bishop was able to provide me with a motorcycle. I learned to ride, and that made me more mobile.

Q:How did you find the people of Palawan?

A: Palaweños are innately good. But a prevalent problem is vice – inom, sigarilyo, sugal. It is a problem that is difficult to uproot, but we have already begun the process to address it. There is a great need for evangelization, for catechesis. Before I came, when they belonged to the bigger parish, they were visited by a priest, a Mass was celebrated for them, only once a year. There are many baptized Catholics, but not much more beyond that. They have not been married in church, they have not been confirmed, and they know very little of the faith. In many instances, I had to teach them even the Sign of the Cross. In such a situation, it is no wonder that other religions and sects have thrived. This means, the people are simply looking for pastoral guidance and care – yung magtuturo at mag-aalaga sa kanila. When we became more active as a community, when we began to get organized, we were somehow able to stop the flow to other religions and sects.

Q:You’ve also opened a school in the parish.

A: Yes, it is a Distance Learning School, and we started this about four years ago. Again, it was not in our original plan, because the initial concept was just to set up a dormitory to provide safe lodging for students enrolled in the public high school. Only three of the eight barangays in town have barangay high schools, so most of the youths who proceed to high school have to live in boarding houses away from home, where they are vulnerable and exposed to so many negative influences. The idea was to offer them a place where they would be safe and supervised. In the first year, we accepted only girls. This was based on the theory that it is the women who shape the community. Develop the women, and you subsequently develop the family, and eventually the community.

But after the first year, in the course of our supervision, we discovered that although they were going to school, they were not learning anything. Laging walang klase, walang mga assignments. Fortunately, we found out about the Distance Learning or home study program of the Angelicum School of the Dominicans in Quezon City. They have a special program for the poor, and we were able to avail of that. Under this program, they send us modules for the students, and we have volunteers who guide and tutor them. Twice a year, a teacher from the Angelicum comes to administer the tests to determine if they have advanced in their lessons. So far, we have been very successful in this home study program. We started with 14 girls, and now we have 63 students in all, 23 boys and 40 girls. We had our first graduation last March, and now we are sending these first four graduates to college in Manila.

Q:How have you been able to sustain the school?

A: Providence. In the beginning, our basic problem was food, the daily meals of the students. We survived on donations, hingi-hingi – and on the stipends I received. Fortunately, last year we received some funds from “Pondo ng Pinoy”. For maintenance of the dormitory, it is the students themselves who are responsible. We have started some farming in a small garden plot but it is not yet very productive.

Q:Who will take over all of these programs when you come to Manila?

A: There are two Salesian sisters who are already working in the parish. They will manage the dormitory. As for the parish, Bishop Arigo has asked the Oblates of St. Joseph to come and they have agreed to send a community and make the parish their mission territory.

Q:But what about the people you will be leaving?

A: They feel sad, and they fear losing the programs we had started. But as I have been telling since the very beginning, these are not my programs but yours. If you want them to continue, you can tell the parish priest who takes over to continue it. But if you do not involve yourselves, you will surely lose the programs.

Q:Does that mean everything is in place for your coming to Manila? Are you ready for Manila?

A: I will have to feel my way around first, and talk to people. The Cardinal has already informed me that he will put me in charge of social services. But what that means concretely, I do not know for sure yet.

Q:What, for you, is the role of a bishop, specifically, here in Archdiocese of Manila.

A: I do not know yet, but hopefully, that is what my observation and talking to people will show me. So my resolution, when I come here in September, is to visit places, talk to people, see what is being done, and what more needs to be done.

Q:Share with us your vocation story. When did it become clear to you that you would be a priest?

A: Actually, it was not that clear. Although I am from Negros, I grew up in Naga City because my father was working there at the time. After I finished elementary at the St. Joseph School, a Chinese Catholic school in Naga, my parents suggested that I go back to our province, to take up high school at Don Bosco in Victorias. Because my family remained in Bicol, I had to stay in a dormitory. It was there that the Don Bosco priests and brothers probably noticed me, and they invited me to enter the seminary, which is in Pampanga. They asked my father’s permission and by second year high school, I was enrolled at the seminary in San Fernando. And that was it.

Q:And after ordination, you took up further studies in Scriptures.

A: Yes, but that was not my choice. After Theology, I was raring to work, to begin my ministry. So it was a big disappointment to me when, after ordination, I was told that I would have to go to Rome to study the Bible. They needed to develop professors because that was the time we were starting the Theologate. I really did not have any special interest in the Bible, but I guess they needed someone to study and eventually teach Scriptures, and they decided that someone was me.

Q:You say that after ordination you were raring to go out and work. But of course you knew that belonging to a religious congregation, you don’t really get to do much pastoral work.

A: Yes, I knew that. Even more so when they sent me for further studies, because that was to prepare me for a seminary assignment. And really, in the beginning, I was content in the seminary. But reflecting on the idea of the church of the poor, I realized that to be that, we should really come down and help the poor. And it should start in the seminary, organizing the seminarians and taking them down to the reality and experience of the poor.

Q:Had you been thinking – or feeling – this for a long time?

A: It’s always been with me. Probably I got it from my father, because he had a very strong sense of justice and concern for the poor. In the seminary – and even when I was in the Novitiate – we were always talking about the vow of poverty, being poor. We were talking about it, being taught about it, learning about it – but we were not practicing it. Perhaps it was because our formators were Italians and their standard of poverty is vastly different from that of Filipinos. I felt nakaangat pa tayo. We speak about poverty, but we mean two things – one is “religious poverty”, which is vastly different from “the poverty of the poor”. And why? Because nakaangat tayo sa kanila.

Q:So you’re saying in effect that you were not practicing poverty?

A: If we were, it was most certainly not the poverty of the place. So much so that we believe we are poor, but the people don’t see that we are poor. Because the poverty that they live is different. They say, “Father, iba yung buhay natin e. Iba yung standard natin.” Even in the seminary, when I was there, sometimes on weekends we would help in the parishes. It felt good to work among the poor, among the young. But after Sunday evening, when you returned to the seminary, you always had something to go back to. Different. You had a clean place, enough food, a comfortable bed. The poor people you worked with remain where they are, in their situation poverty, in their life of poverty. So how can you say it is the same kind of poverty? What I was looking for, what I wanted, was to live among them. To learn from the poor how to be poor. You have to learn this from them, and you can learn fast if you are immersed in them and in their situation. That was what I asked for.

Q:Was there no concrete program to address this situation, this need?

A: We did have a program of immersion – that was kind of an “in” thing for a while, but it did not really catch on. As I saw it, the problem is the structure. Even if you offer an immersion program for seminarians, if the school structure itself does not support it, the experience will be lost. I believe that the structure is not neutral, the structure conveys values. So, in a way, that was my problem. My problem is the problem of religious life. It has developed in such a way that has made it detached from the situation of the people. Hindi pa tayo nakababa sa mga tao. My dream is for the initiative to begin with the seminarians, to provide them with the right formation. Pero hindi talaga magawa. Because even the seminarians themselves, some of them actually come from poor communities. They enter the seminary, where the standards and norms are different, and they cannot go back. Nakaangat na rin.

Q:Did you – do you – want to change this? Can one man change it?

A: Perhaps I have mellowed down a bit. I have grown older. Before, I was dreaming of that, and fighting for it – to change the situation. But I have come to realize that it is the entire structure that must be overhauled. And since struktura yan, hindi mo mapapabagsak yan. So I decided that I would just leave the structure be, and just change what I can, which is myself and my situation. I will live it on my own, precisely because I want to experience that for myself. Paano bang mamuhay sa mga mahihirap, paano bang makatulong sa mga mahihirap? That is why in my parish in Palawan, I did not build a concrete church and convent. It is not much different from the look of the houses of the people around it. Of course in the long run it may be more expensive, because as they say, poverty is expensive. It is expensive to be poor; but that’s part of the price you have to pay.

Q:Can something be done to address this desire among other seminarians or priests – or even for them to have this same kind of desire that you had to serve the poor?

A: I believe there are many among our seminarians and priests who have this same desire. The problem is that either they don’t have the courage to live it out or they are not allowed to do it. I am fortunate – and grateful – that I was allowed this leeway and granted this opportunity.

Q:Is your having been appointed bishop going to change any of these?

A: For me this is going to be another challenge. My guiding light has always been focused on three things: the Bible, prayer and the poor. These things will not change; I don’t want these to change. There is no problem with the Bible – I can read and study the Bible anywhere. Same with Prayer – I can pray anywhere, in any situation. The biggest challenge is how I can remain in touch with the poor and live poor as a bishop. That is what I want to discover – how this can be done as a bishop, and in Manila. So you see, that is why one needs the Bible and prayer. You cannot take that away. If you are not strengthened by that, the poor will eat you up. You could lose your identity, either becoming one with them or becoming so angry that you will be drawn into conflict.

I do not know yet what work or ministry will be given to me. What I do know is that I do not want to get trapped in the traditional work of a bishop – the administrative side of meetings and ceremonial functions, which can eat up all your time.

Q:What have you chosen as your motto?

A:“FidesinCaritate” – live the faith in love.