Fr. Simon Westendorp, O.Carm. was born on November 19, 1936 in Hengevelde, Municipality of Haaksbergen, the Netherlands. He is a professed priest of the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance. He entered the Order on October 18, 1955 and was ordained on July 9, 1961. He left for the Philippines and arrived in August of 1965.
His first assignment was in New Escalante, Negros Occidental as assistant parish priest where he was involved in establishing a credit cooperative. He was later on appointed Rector in the Carmelite Minor Seminary.
In 1976, he volunteered to be assigned in Agusan del Sur where he became parish priest of San Francisco. When asked about his feelings and expectations about the future in the Philippine context, he gave this response: "Our feelings and expectations regarding the near future are closely linked with the people's struggles for liberation. Regarding religious life, we see no future unless we religious can integrate our selves in the struggle of laborers and farmers for liberation. It should become ever clearer that this is a question of faith. This should be basic to our spirituality."
Since 1970 he had involved himself to the causes of the barrio people who were threatened of falling prey to land-grabbing by some multi-national corporations.
In Agusan del Sur, he began to live in a slum area of the badly neglected town of Prosperidad. His struggle for the rights of the marginalized and his way of life deeply influenced his perspective and the way he looked at things.
At the time of his death, Fr. Simon had been in the country almost twenty years, fully integrating himself and working with peasants, farm workers and fishermen.
Sr. Antoinette Berentsen was born Henrica Berentsen on March 1935 in Beltrum, Eibergenin, the Netherlands. She entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Mary Magdalene Postel in Boxmeer on November 21, 1955. She arrived in the Philippines in August of 1973 and worked as a rural missionary in the provinces of Negros Occidental, Lanao and Agusan.
She was a member of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, an inter-congregational group committed to direct service of the poor and oppressed throughout the Philippines.
A portion of her speech she delivered before the Association of Major Religious Superiors in Holland on the occasion of the celebration of their Silver Jubilee on October 29, 1982 reads:
"Whether you are young or old, renewal of religious life does not begin with discussions about justice and peace, but starts where we take a stand regarding the real conflicts of our society. Justice and peace are not ideals but the fruit of a practical choice. If I look back from where I stand now, then I must say that I lost all my ideals from before. The only ground under my feet is the stern reality of the life of the people who are struggling for survival. Recently, I renewed my religious vows at the funeral of Diego, a young pastoral worker who was killed. I stood near his dead body and crying with anger and sorrow because of such brutal killing. I prayed: "My God, I want to go with these suffering people all the way in their struggle, whatever may happen to me."
Sr. Nenette as she was fondly called, had spent ten years of her life in the Philippines, passionately working in community-based health programs in rural areas.
Sr. Amparo Gilbuena, MSM is a professed religious of the Missionary Sisters of Mary. When she was principal of Diatagon Catholic High School, she and many MSM nuns were involved in the protest actions against Ferdinand Marcos in Tandag. True to the charism of her congregation, she did immerse as leaven in the communities of believers and has shown much compassion and solidarity with the poor and all of creation.
Sr. Josephine (Josefa) Medrano, FMA is a professed religious of the Daughters of Mary of the Assumption. She was finance officer of the multi-sectoral alliance, LIHUK at the time of the tragedy.
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Sr. Amparo Gilbuena, MSM
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Inocencio Ipong is a married layperson of the Archdiocese of Cebu. He was born on December 28, 1945 in Makilala, North Cotabato. He was the eldest of 5 children of parents who were migrants from Bohol. "Boy" as he was fondly called, was raised in a very religious Catholic home. He finished High School in the Minor Seminary at Noling, Cotabato City and continued on to study Philosophy at the Regional Seminary in Davao but has to take regency in his third year and transferred to the University of San Carlos in Cebu City where he graduated.
He felt drawn to the plight of the poor peasants in Visayas and Mindanao. Full of zeal to do something for them, he joined the youth organization Chi Rho, and later the Federation of Free Farmers. When Martial Law was declared, he began working as a lay assistant with the RMP, helping the nuns craft and shape its vision of a "free, just, peaceful and egalitarian society," among others. He traveled with the nuns all over the country and helped them organize the peasants and the Lumad communities. "Know your rights!" was one of his battle cries; he believed that by raising people's consciousness of their human rights can they be empowered to defend themselves against the oppression and exploitation of the dictatorship and its powerful cronies.
In 1982, he was abducted and illegally detained at the Metropolitan District Command Headquarters and at Camp Catitipan in Davao City. He was tortured to make him confess that he was a certain "Enciong" that has become wanted by the military. His family and co-workers looked for him for 10 days until he was finally found, and his release successfully negotiated.
It was while working with the RMP that Boy met his wife Angie, a school teacher from Cebu. They married in simple but beautiful and meaningful rites that was a "protest" to the usual expensive weddings. Three co-worker priests officiated at the wedding held in a seminar house, happily witnessed by family, close friends, RMP sisters and co-workers who brought their own food.
Boy's life served as an inspiration to many people. Sr. Consuelo Valera, ICM, a co-worker believes that his wide experience and deep grasp of the peasants' situation ably directed the RMP's task of social transformation. On its Silver Jubilee celebration in 1994, the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines awarded him posthumously for his untiring service and dedication to the masses. Boy's name is also inscribed in the granite "Wall of Remembrance" of the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani.
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