The Subanens are an indigenous people whose ancestral homeland is in the mountains of northwest Mindanao, Philippines. Like other indigenous peoples in the Philippines, the Subanens have a spiritual bond with their habitat and relate to that habitat through their dance, music, and rituals. And, like other indigenous peoples, the Subanens learned to interact with their habitat in mutually enhancing ways.
Traditional Subanen livelihoods were interlinked with the bounty of their forested habitat. In past decades logging operations were allowed to enter and freely plunder the Subanens’ homeland. As a result of deforestation, the Subanen people quickly lost their bountiful habitat and needed to find new livelihoods. Many Subanens left their homeland to look for work in cities as laborers or domestics.
Early in 2017 Jemuel Rote, a 20-year-old Subanen, left home on a six-hour bus trip to Marawi City to work in a small grocery store. Marawi City is on the shores of Lake Lanao and is part of the homeland of the Maranao people. The Maranao People are Muslim and along with other Muslim peoples make up about one quarter of Mindanao’s 26 million people. Maranao shopkeepers have a reputation among Subanens for treating their workers well.
One month after Jemuel started work, a violent Jihadist group called “Maute” invaded Marawi City and held hostage the residents. What followed would be a five-month battle during which time the Philippine army surrounded the city and rained bombs on buildings where the Jihadists hid with their hostages.
For a few weeks, Jemuel along with three Subanen workmates avoided discovery by the Jihadists. They hid in a bakery which was near the grocery store where they worked. At the bakery, they survived by eating the bread and flour that was stored there. Eventually, a Jihadist patrol passed through their area looking for people hiding in houses and shops. Jemuel and his companions heard them coming so they quietly crept out the back entrance and hid behind a wall.
Without shelter, Jemuel and his companions decided to flee the city that night. They remained behind the wall until about 3 in the morning, then they crawled through dark, muddy streets to the edge of the city. They saw a rice field nearby where they could continue their escape, but they had to get there without being seen by the Jihadist patrols. Tragically a Jihadists patrol spotted them and opened fire. Jemuel’s companions were killed. Jemuel was shot in the leg but managed to reach the cover of the rice field.
Jemuel could not move because of his wounded leg. He survived in the rice field for six days by drinking the dirty water in an irrigation ditch. After six days soldiers of the Philippine army found Jemuel and took him to a nearby hospital where his infected leg was treated with antibiotics. After three months he was strong enough to return home, but his leg remained deeply infected.
After he got home, the Columban Sisters, who have been working with the Subanen people for more than 40 years, heard about Jemuel’s condition and got him into a large government hospital whose doctors soon realized that antibiotics were not helping his infected leg. To save his leg he needed a major operation that would remove two inches of his infected shin bone. With the help of Columban donors, Jemuel had the operation after which he spent six months in a leg brace while waiting for his leg bone to regenerate.
During his long convalescence, the Subanen crafters taught Jemuel the art of making their Christmas cards. Their cards show how Mary and Joseph had to flee into the desert to escape Herod’s soldiers who were sent to kill Jesus. Jemuel saw that, like himself, Mary and Joseph had narrowly escaped death.
It has been seven years since Jemuel’s traumatic experience in Marawi. He is now a skilled Subanen crafter and has benefitted — in body and spirit — by being in a supportive community in his homeland habitat. He hopes to get another operation soon to restore more movement to his leg.
Jemuel has kept in touch with the Maranao owner of the store where he worked. He knows that many Maranao families, at great risk to themselves, helped their Christian and Subanen friends and workers escape from the Jihadists. Jemuel will never forget the night he and his three companions tried to escape. It was on his 21st birthday.
Columban Fr. Vinnie Busch lives and works in the Philippines.