Tag: Iloilo

We were ambushed.

We were on our way back to camp Monte Claro in Miag-ao, Iloilo. We came from Barangay Paga, Municipality of Leon. We were on our fourth day of the medical, dental and surgical mission, and we rode our convoy with happy hearts just like before.

I was at the end of the military truck. I sat next to Lt. Clark Harold Pascua because we were talking about our culture; because he, just like me, is an Ilocano. Before that, I was taking videos, and I believe God told me to stop what I have been doing and look at His creations. So I focused my attention to the road instead, letting every detail of the trail sink in my mind. But then in between of all the graceful chatters and never ending stories of local places we came from, the sound of M16 suddenly filled the air.

The soldiers guarding our truck told us to dock, and it did not sink in my mind eventually, so I stayed sitting at the truck when everyone was on the floor hugging each other. Lt. Pascua hugged me and said, “Dapa na!” And so I did.

We were in a red area. We were in a kill zone. And I thought about my family; and how my life will just end drastically.

The two soldiers were shouting at each other, one saying to stop the truck, the other one to just push through. Next thing I know, the truck halt into a full stop. And the sound of firing guns continued. The moment it stopped, we were ordered to get out of the truck, and we fit ourselves at the side, next to the wheels of the truck, and prayed with the background music of guns, obviously.

I cried, being the cry baby that I was. But I drew strength from my companions who were praying, hugging each other, and just like me, crying. Lt. Pascua never left our side, even Kuya Edwin who came running from the Hillux (he is the driver of the OB van, by the way); they guarded us, looked for any danger until they ordered us to go at the other side of the truck again. A minute passed and a soldier said we should hurry up and go inside the nearest house. We stayed there until they told us it was safe already.

Alertness wise, we walked, with all the army in foursquare, their guns pointed at all sides of the trail, and I seek refuge to the people I was with. Maybe 50 meters away from the “safe area” they again told us to sit, and God is indeed so good for nothing bad happened.

The final story is, we were all okay. We were safe because God was with us.

This is the experience that I will never trade to anything.

I was from a sector of the University of the Philippines, and I was aware of them. I anticipated the fact that this medical mission, in cooperation with Philippine Army, was an adventure itself and unprecedented things may happen. But never did I expected that evil will reign at that moment, given the fact that we came from a mission and helped many people.

I love rendering service, and I will never get tired of reaching out to people. So this blog post is an open letter to the members of the group that did this to us:

People working in humanitarian organizations are still existing. We care about the lives of God’s people, we care about our lives, and we care about your lives. You said that you are fighting for your human rights, and when there are encounters and some of your men are “damaged,” you do everything to send back your rage. But you did not think about the welfare and human rights of the civilians during your ambush, and you only see threat to our soldiers who are guarding our country.

I am not mad of your propaganda, and I do not condemn your group because I don’t know what your good causes are, about your sentiments even. I am just infuriated that you sacrifice the lives of your people for the lives of innocent people, just to live with your principles. I do not have any hint of your community ideologies, nor the way you recruit people in your growing number of batallion, but whatever they are, please, just please, don’t inflict harm to people who only think of goodness to the humanity; missionaries who only want to address the medical needs of our fellowmen through outreach programs; people of God whose only cause is to spread His words to people who could not be reached by other governing bodies.

This is what we do. I hope you understand that, too.

This is an open letter because it came straight from the soldiers that we need to utilize the social media to let people know. That yes, ambush is still existing, and yes, most of the times, you’re the ones who push through these things.

This experience made me stronger. No one will ever stop me on rendering services to the people from the far-flung communities, and I know, people from the organization I work for feel it, too. God will always be with me, with us. Whatever the enemy does, the purpose of God will prevail.

The earth is indeed filled with His glory!

God bless the soldiers of our army.