Spirituality Page

Last January 17-28, 2008, I visited the town where I grew up as a child. The town's name was New Bataan in Compostela Valley. When my family left there in 1992, the town was part of Davao del Norte province. But in 1998, local politicians were so enticed into power, they separated Compostela Valley from Davao del Norte.

Compostela Valley is composed of 13 tiny towns and one of these towns is New Bataan.

The early settlers of New Bataan were the Mandaya tribe. They were close to nature, and they cared their forests and rivers.

After the War, Christians from Luzon island migrated to Compostela Valley, and many of them populated in the barrio named Cabinuangan.

The number of Christians grew, and they civilized the Mandaya. This 'civilization' of the indigenous tribe was political of course. But the Mandayas refused. And so Christians, who were strangers in the land, slowly drove these Mandayas into the highlands. Christians occupied the lowlands.

And finally, in 1965, Christians created a Christian town. They changed the name of Cabinuangan into New Bataan. Bataan was a province in Luzon where these Christians came from.

When Christians populated the old Cabinuangan, they cut the trees and polluted the rivers and streams. They turned the rice fields into banana plantations. They used chemicals and pesticides in their banana plantations causing different illnesses and sicknesses to the inhabitants.

The Mandayas now have no place in the local politics of New Bataan.