C-T Silay( Philippines) spearheads Cardinal “Chito” Tagle’s Advocacy on “Huwag Kang Magnakaw” (7th Commandment: “Do not Steal”)

For many decades, the widespread and systemic corruption in all forms and in all levels of Philippine society has created a big population of poor and marginalized people despite the economic growth the country has achieved. Thus, fighting against corruption has been a continuing battle for many Filipinos whose love for their country has never waned.

Cardinal “Chito” Tagle of the Archdiocese of Manila started his campaign against corruption in 2014 by inviting Fr. Nonong Fajardo of the Congregation of the Mission to help him take part in rebuilding the nation. Fr. Nonong, a staunch champion of the poor, responded with passion and came up with the plan of countering corruption by giving talks as regards the 7^th Commandment “Huwag kang Magnakaw.” Since then, he has been going around the different places in the Philippines promoting this advocacy.

In response to the call of the beloved Cardinal Luis Antonio “Chito” Tagle, we, CT Silay, invited Fr. Nonong for a recollection on this advocacy and together with St. Theresita’s Academy of Silay City, Inc., the Talleres de Nazaret-Silay & the Lay Josephines-Silay, decided to actively participate in the rebuilding of our nation by struggling against corruption in all forms, TO RECLAIM the stolen dignity of the Filipino people.

We have started implementing our Community-Taller Plan of action namely: the wearing of “Indi Ka Magpangawat” T-shirt as our Friday uniform in the school along with all STA and Talleres employees; hanging of “INDI MAGPANGAWAT” Tarpaulins in STA, in the parish and in the highway; and presenting the advocacy to our parish priest to ask his permission that we may be able to talk about it to some parish organizations. Our parish priest responded by giving us a better suggestion, and this is what we have just done-to take over the priest’s presider role in the homily portion of the 8 Sunday masses.

Thanks be to God for the fruitful, joyful and inspiring day! That was last June 19, 2016. We spent our whole day in San Diego Parish supporting our reverend Srs. Naty and Annie, taking turns in giving the homily on Cardinal Antonio Luis “Chito” Tagle’s advocacy on the Seventh Commandment: “INDI KA MAGPANGAWAT,” in Hiligaynon language (Do not Steal, in English). We were in 8 masses, one anticipated Sunday Mass and 7 regular Sunday masses. Our parish priest, Fr. Dmitri Gatia of San Diego Pro-Cathedral, together with his 3 brother priests, have been very supportive all along the way.

The Sisters started their sharing by acknowledging first Fr. Dmitri and all the presiding priests for the opportunity given to them to share the advocacy with the parishioners. This was followed by an 8-minute video presentation on the Advocacy itself produced by Fr. Nonong Fajardo, CM, its author.

The Sisters then deepened the content of this advocacy by sharing the following highlights of Fr. Nonong’s talk and their own experience of the process.

Most of the time we associate stealing or corruption only with money or material things. Many of us may not be aware that corruption comes in other forms as cheating, taking advantage of, destroying the good name or reputation of the other, encroachment – claiming what does not belong to us, not giving what is due to the other, as well as, acts or deeds that are not in consonance with our Faith as Christians, as Catholics. “The advocacy is not just about political change, but moral and cultural as well.” A good deed has to be habitual – we have to do it again and again until it becomes a value, a culture…

We are wearing the T-shirt, “Indi Ka Magpangawat” ( Do Not Steal) – the 7^th Commandment of God, to remind ourselves that the CHANGE and TRANSFORMATION we have long desired for our beloved Philippines, should start with the SELF, with our respective families and our bigger community. Wearing this shirt is a way of evangelizing others even if we don’t say anything. .. There was a fish vendor who saw the T-shirt “Huwag Kang Magnakaw” worn by one of our workers in Talleres de Nazaret-Quezon City who approached her to buy meat. She told our worker; “please go to the other vendor because her weighing scale is accurate.” This shows us how powerful the Word of God is. The 3-letter word, “Indi ka Mapangawat” created an impact. This is how God works! He works in mysterious ways.

We strongly believe that the Word is like a two-edged sword that cuts and shakes us and so if taken seriously, CHANGE and TRANSFORMATION will surely take place.

We encourage you to wear this “Indi Ka Magpangawat” T-shirt and demand for TRUTH, HONESTY & INTEGRITY to prevail once again. The shirt should be in white, which signifies purity and unity.”

After each Mass, we sold Indi “Ka Magpangawat” T-shirts which ran out of stock and so we got some orders of the same.

It was also very providential that during the last mass, the elected youth leaders of the parish had their induction. They were inducted by the priest presider, fr. Ricky who is also their moderator. The youth president was the one who operated the laptop for the video presentation (Indi Ka Magpangawat) all throughout the eight masses. She expressed her belief in the advocacy and promised to share it with the young people in the parish.

There were two other venues where in the sisters were able to share the advocacy:

One was last June 18, 2016 at St. Theresita's Academy. During the formation part of the First Parents’ General Assembly of the School Year 2016-2017, Sr. Natividad Maravilla, SSJ, the School Directress, shared on the “Indi Ka Magpangawat” advocacy. The parents understood very well the message so much so that after Sr. Natividad’s sharing, one of the parents stood up expressing her gratitude to Sr. Naty and proposed to her that the advocacy be given to all the STA students.

The latest one was last June 26, 2016, during the monthly formation session of the people in Hacienda Maquina, the LJ and SSJ outreach area and part of Silay City. Many of the family workers were present. The Lay Josephines facilitated the flow of the activities.

A video presentation on Huwag Kan Magnakaw was played and deepened by Sr. Naty.

Then, the participants were encouraged to share in the big group about their experiences on the said topic. Some of them had been courageous and honest to share the truth of what they have done related to the 7th commandment “Indi Ka Magpangawat”. After the big group sharing, they were divided into groups of children, youth and parents in order to come up with concrete actions as their response to the challenges of the advocacy. The small group sharing was facilitated by the SSJs and LJs. Each group committed itself to start to do something like a change of attitude or behavior personally and as a family.