From Vatican II to PCP II to BEC Too:

Progressive Localization of a New State of Mind to a New State of Affairs1

The Second Vatican Council produced 16 documents, two of which (Gaudium et spes and Apostolicam
actuositatem) could be considered as the immediate great grandparents/precursors of offspring-documents born
in America, Africa, and Asia.
Latin America, a frontrunner in localizing Vatican II, produced its path-breaking Medellin documents;
Africa with its Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) documents,2 and;
Asia with the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference document Evangelization in Modern Day Asia.3 These
continental documents embodied Vatican II’s pastoral spirit of “updating” and went so far as producing h\brid
texts from the local ecclesial grounds of former European and American colonies. Such texts show not only
signs of post-colonial struggle but also the quality of sensitivity to local socio-cultural contexts—a hallmark of
pastorally-oriented post-Vatican II documents. Thus, whether coming from Latin America, Africa, or Asia,
pastoral documents are shaped to address issues relevant to local provenance—producing, in the process, the
grounded nature of their substance.

1
This is a partial report prepared by Dr. Ferdinand D. Dagmang and Ms. Rica D. Ancheta, for Research Project on PCP II
made possible through the generous support of missio-Munich.
Dr Ferdinand D. Dagmang is full professor at De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines.
Ms. Rica de los Reyes Ancheta is an assistant professor at De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines.
2
See, http://secam-sceam.org/index.php?pg=documents#.UaF74ZxfaSo.
3
Evangelization in Modern Day Asia: The First Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC):
Statement and Recommendations of the Assembly, Taipei, Taiwan, 22-27 April 1974, Hong Kong: Office of the Secretary-General,
FABC, 1974.
The following are compilations of the FABC documents from 1970-2006:
1) Gaudencio Rosales and C.G. Arevalo, eds. For All the Peoples of Asia, FABC Documents from 1970-1991, volume
1, Manila: Claretian Publications, 1997;
2) Franz-Josef Eilers, ed., For All the Peoples of Asia, FABC Documents from 1992-1996, volume 2, Manila: Claretian
Publications, 1997;
3) Franz-Josef Eilers, ed., For All the Peoples of Asia, FABC Documents from 1997 to 2001, volume 3, Manila:
Claretian Publications, 2002
4) Franz-Josef Eilers, ed., For All the Peoples of Asia, FABC Documents from 2002 to 2006, volume 4, Manila:
Claretian Publications, 2007.
FABC has nineteen (19) Bishops’ Conferences from the following countries: Bangladesh, East Timor, India – CBCI, India -
Syro-Malabar, India - Syro-Malankara, India - Latin Rite, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Laos-Cambodia, Malaysia-Singapore-
Brunei, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, ROC, Thailand, Vietnam.
FABC has nine (9) associate members, namely: Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, Novosibirsk (Russia), Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan ; http://www.fabc.org/mem.html / accessed 26 May 2013.
1
 The Church (or churches) in the Philippines came out with its own pertinent document—one of the
youngest of the family of pastorally-oriented documents—formed at the Second Plenary Council of the
Philippines in 1991. The document is now known as The Acts and Decrees of PCP II.
The PCP II document is a product of discussions among representatives from the church hierarchy,
religious congregations, the academe, pastoral councils, community organizers, women, and other actively
involved members of the local churches. They gathered together in 1991, twenty-six years after the last session
of the Second Vatican Council. This gathering gave birth to a document that reflected not only the initial
impetus of the Council but also its new state of mind which extended itself worldwide and engendered the
conception, birth, and growth of new state of ecclesial affairs in various Christian parts of the world.

PCP II Documents and the Church of the Poor Theme

On January 20 1991, the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines was formally convened. January 21 st
signaled the start of the enormous work, from presentation of drafts and position papers to a series of
clarifications, discussions and deliberations. The succeeding days that followed were devoted to longer debates,
deliberations, amendments, approval of amendments, resolutions, drafting of revised documents. Finally, on
Feb. 15th, the votation on and approval of the whole document ensued. On February 17th , after 29 days, PCP II
was formally closed.
The Acts and Decrees of the Second Plenary Council (PCP II) was completed 21 years ago at the San
Carlos Lay Formation Center. Among the delegates were 96 Bishops, 180 Vicar Generals and Episcopal Vicars,
21 Major Superiors of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, 12 Rectors/Presidents of
Catholic Universities and 24 Rectors of Ecclesiastical Faculties and Major Seminaries and Deans of Theology
and Canon Law, and 156 lay delegates. That totals to 489 participants. Lay representation was about 33% of the
delegates. There were 71 women delegates (12 nuns; 59 lay).
The Council was presided by Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legaspi OP, and actual sessions lasted for 26
days (excluding Jan. 20 opening ceremonies, Feb. 16th, Recognition Day, and Feb. 17, closing ceremonies). The
final Conciliar document consisted of 671 paragraphs and 132 decrees (prepared by the ad hoc committee for
the final drafting led by Bishops Quevedo, Bacani and Claver). It was overwhelmingly approved by the
delegates: 313 consultative votes and 85 deliberative votes.
In the homily delivered on the closing day of PCP II, Bishop Legaspi has these lines:
It can then, be said that the first converts of the Council are its members themselves; that the
first to be evangelized by the Council were its very own participants. In this way did Christ

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 prepare and shape us to become the first evangelizers of the message of the Council to our
people. (p.lxxxiii)

Further down his text he continued:

…the Council not only offers the Filipino a vision—but also a Church renewed.
The Church has firmly entered the path of renewal because her hierarchy has stressed its role
of service rather than of dominance. The Church is serious about renewal because she has
invited the laity for greater participation in Christ’s mission. The Church bears the marks of
renewal in her body, because she has taken upon herself the sufferings of victims. Above all,
the Church has become the sign of renewal in electing to be a Church of the poor. (p.lxxxv)

Bishop Teodoro Bacani, a prominent figure in the Council, wrote:

The Church of the Poor became in PCP-II one of the three key themes: Community of
Christ’s Disciples, Church of the Poor, and Renewed Integral Evangelization. This is very
clear from the Vision-Mission Statement for the Philippine Church formulated by the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, and from the National Pastoral Plan to
implement PCP-II. According to PCP-II, we come to true communion, to being a community
of Christ’s disciples, by becoming a Church of the Poor. Unless we become a Church of the
Poor, communion, the innermost reality of the Church according to Vatican II will not be
achieved by us Filipinos in the way the Lord desires. That is why Renewed Integral
Evangelization must be geared towards human, temporal liberation, and seek social
transformation. Evangelization in the Philippines must be a service of and for the Church of
the Poor. The Church of the Poor is the centerpiece of the PCP-II vision for the Church in the
Philippines.4

The following is a concise statement about its vision of Church renewal concretized through the Basic
Ecclesial Communities:
Our vision of the Church as communion, participation, and mission, about the Church as
priestly, prophetic and kingly people, and as a Church of the Poor –a Church that is renewed
– is today finding expression in one ecclesial movement. This is the movement to foster
Basic Ecclesial Communities. (PCP II 137)

Those texts vibrate with joy and hope because the delegates have enshrined in the PCP II documents
their convictions that give witness to the BECs as concrete expression of the Church of the Poor.

Layers of Discourses in PCP II Documents

The whole PCP II document (composed of Acts, Conciliar Document, and Decrees) is a product of
consultations, deliberations, and consensus. However, we do not usually regard this as composed of various

4
Teodoro C. Bacani, Jr. “ ‘Church of the Poor’: The Church in the Philippines’ Reception of Vatican II,” East Asian Pastoral
Review, 42/1-2 (2005).
3
layers of ideas that gave it its final shape. It is not also easy to identify the various processes and stages of
discussions that would produce a one-whole package known later on as the PCP II documents.
The PCP II documents are statements loaded with multiple layers of other statements coming from
various sources. It has initiated and formalized the process of document formation. This reminds us about the
fact that the 489 Council participants educated one another and thus came up with a condensed patchwork-like
formulation based on discussion and consensus—showing the multiplicity of sources and interests. Incidentally,
even before the Council was convened, preparatory documents were already drafted by the various
commissions composed of CBCP member-bishops. These were sent to some ten thousand respondents who
gave their comments and ideas for the commissions to collate. Five successive drafts were prepared after the
consultations, until the Position Papers were ready for the Council. In this light, the PCP II documents reflect a
broader consultation than what the actual PCP II Council proceedings would suggest.
Knowing this background information could help reconstruct traces of experiences and traditions that
composed the PCP II statements. It is not unlike looking into the history of PCP II ideas. In this way, the
background check of resources would help track down some of its central ideas, its link to heterogeneous or
hybrid lifeworlds and practices, and its relevance to and impact on parish life. Discovering these sources may
further foster awareness about the historical, variegated, and progressively developing nature of documents or
doctrines.
A central idea that gives the PCP II documents its distinguishing stamp is that of the Church of the Poor.
It is its key idea but it has a long history and is based on multiple sources and platforms: the Sacred Scriptures,
Conciliar/Episcopal documents, Papal teaching, discussion groups, and local ecclesial knowledge/praxis.
Eventually, the vision of the Church of the Poor found its localization in the Basic Ecclesial Communities in the
Philippines; it is in the BEC where Church teachings are translated into reality.

Church of the Poor

The Church of the Poor became part of PCP II because of some foundational sources. Behind this
central idea is a whole universe of texts/contexts dealing with poverty, the poor, and the poor Christ.
Few expected that the ‘Church of the Poor’ theme would become the centerpiece of PCP II because
mainly, the delegates did not come from the poorer sectors of Philippine society. The theme did come out, but
only towards the second half of the 26-day sessions. One could say that the image of the Church of the Poor did
arise because many delegates were already informed by several Church proceedings and documents that have

4
touched the themes of option for the poor and poverty. (PCP II’s exact source is not clear; it could have come
from the drafts prepared by Bishop Quevedo, or Bishop Claver, or Bishop Bacani)
This theme of the Church and the poor was very much in the mind of Pope John XXIII. In his
radio message of 11 September 1962, just a month before the opening of Vatican II, Pope John
XXIII said, ‘Confronted with the underdeveloped countries, the church presents itself as it is and
wishes to be, as the church of all, and particularly as the Church of the Poor.’ These words
became the inspiration of a group, which came to be known as ‘The Group of the Church of the
Poor,’ or ‘the Belgian College Group’ after the place where they usually met. Their meetings
were under the patronage of Cardinals Giacomo Lercaro (Bologna) and Gerlier (Lyons) as well
as of Patriarch Maximos IV. One of their spokesmen was Archbishop Helder Camara of Brazil.
They sought to conscienticize the Council fathers about the need to pay special attention to the
needs of the poor and the developing countries.5

Despite the efforts of the Group of the Church of the Poor, no provisions about the Church of the Poor
came out of Vatican II documents. However, themes revolving around poverty and the poor Christ abound,
although not as highlighted as in PCP II. A very important paragraph is found in Lumen gentium, which clearly
expresses the influence of the Group of the Church of the Poor:
Just as Christ carried out the work of redemption in poverty and oppression, so the Church is
called to follow the same path if she is to communicate the fruits of salvation to men. Christ
Jesus, “though he was by nature God... emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave” (Phil 2:θ-
7), and “being rich, became poor” (2 Cor 8:9) for our sake. Likewise the Church, although she
needs human resources to carry out her mission, is not set up to seek earthly glory, but to
proclaim, and this by her own example, humility and self-denial. Christ was sent by the Father
“to bring good news to the poor... to heal the contrite of heart” (Lk 4:18), “to seek and to save
what was lost” (Lk 19:10). Similarly, the Church encompasses with her love all those who are
afflicted by human misery and she recognizes in those who are poor and who suffer, the image of
her poor and suffering founder. She does all in her power to relieve their need and in them she
strives to serve Christ. Christ, “holy, innocent and undefiled” (Heb 7:2) knew nothing of sin (2
Cor 5:21), but came only to expiate the sins of the people (cf. Heb 2:17). The Church, however,
clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows
constantly the path of penance and renewal. (Lumen gentium, no. 8)

There are other Vatican II documents that appropriate the themes of poverty and the poor: Gaudium et
spes 1, 63-86, Ad gentes 12 (Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity), Gravissimum educationis 9
(Declaration on Christian Education), Apostolicam actuositatem 8 (Decree on the Lay Apostolate), Perfectae
caritatis 13 (Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of Religious Life), Optatam totius 8 (Decree on the Training
of Priests), Christus dominus 13 (Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church). These documents,
however, lacks the prominence of a liberationist praxis and a sense of urgency that one could feel in the post-
Vatican II documents produced by Latin America’s Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano (CELAM).

5
Ibid.
5
 After the Vatican II Council, CELAM did its own version of aggiornamento or updating. The Latin
American documents (CELAM’s Medellin [19θ8] and Puebla [1979] documents) responded to the Latin
American Continent’s context of conflict, oppression, and poverty. As we all know, those documents dealt with
the central issues of poverty and option for the poor. On such themes, CELAM documents proved to be more
progressive (or aggressive) than Vatican II even if they have been inspired by the Vatican II documents
especially by LG, GS, and AG. It is no secret that the CELAM documents further inspired other regional
churches to produce their own versions of Vatican II. This was the time when the Latin American liberation
theology’s influence had already spread across continents. Yet that time, the Church of the Poor theme is no
longer new in the Asian region. The document issued by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC)
in 1970 already called for the Church to be a Church of the Poor and has been consistent in working towards
this vision (in its triple points of evangelization of cultures, religions, and the poor). In the Philippines, the
Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Conference spearheaded the thrust towards the building of progressive churches whose
rallying cry was “preferential option for the poor”. It was in Mindanao where the first BECs were organized by
foreign missionaries.
In the late 1960s, immediately after Vatican II, foreign missionaries in the frontier mission areas in
Mindanao and Negros formed the first BECs. The Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Conference (MSPC) which
was first held in 1971 and since then meets every 3 years was instrumental in propagating these BECs all
over Mindanao with the local clergy and lay pastoral workers continuing what the foreign missionaries
started. Some dioceses and parishes in Visayas and Luzon would soon adopt the formation of BECs as
their pastoral thrust. The first wave of BECs that emerged were formed under the martial law regime of
the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.6

Let us not forget that the Catholic Social Teachings corpus (from Rerum novarum to Sollicitudo rei
socialis) has called attention to the plight of the poor, especially the working class and this whole body of
teachings has been a very important influence on the workings of the minds of the PCP II delegates.
The whole Church of the Poor theme, originally expressed by John XXIII, has become a very important
key to the Catholic Church’s tradition which traces its very origin from Jesus himself who ministered to the
anawim (those who were put down by institutionalized religion/culture as well as by influential, powerful, and
moneyed people) of his time. He called his disciples to serve the neglected and the marginalized and proclaimed
the news that the Reign of God is in their midst. Today, the BECs witness to that good news that the Reign of
God is indeed among us.

6
Amado L. Picardal, “The Basic Ecclesial Communities in the Philippines: Recent Developments and Trends,”
http://cbcpbec.com/?p=397 / accessed 22 April 2012.
See R.J. May and Francisco Nemenzo, eds. The Philippines after Marcos, Beckenham, Kent: Croom Helm Ltd., 1985, 81ff.
6
 We thus have the foregoing instances reminding us that when we are appropriating the more global
forms of discourse like the Vatican II documents or the Compendium of the Catholic Social Teachings, there is
a duty to adapt them to local situations. Latin America did it in the face of their own challenges; the FABC
bishops localized their statements and came up with the triple points of evangelization; and most important is
that the PCP II delegates helped to bring focus on the call—to be the Church of the poor. We are thus, called to
become creative readers full of insights and innovations for our local listeners.
The more successful implementation of PCP II documents depended so much on those who were able to
profit from the inspiration of the theme of the Church of the Poor, muster courage and determination in facing
innumerable challenges and difficulties, recognize the creative potential of internal and external resources and
pathways, welcome collaborations from all sides of the local ecclesial grounds, and pursue the Basic Ecclesial
Communities thrust as the concrete expression of the Church of the Poor.
Thus, if we see local BECs promoted and organized as Churches of the Poor in Boac, Marinduque, or in
other local parishes, from Aparri to Jolo, let us remember that many of these did not start because of PCP II.
Nevertheless, PCP II, being rooted in the words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth who struggled to fight for the
well-being of the poor and has helped set priorities and directions to many dioceses/parishes in the Philippines.

Implementation: PCP II-imbued Church Life

PCP II was approved by Pope John Paul II on April 11, 1992 and promulgated on April 25, 1992,
through a Decree issued by Bernardin Cardinal Gantin, Prefect, Congregation for Bishops of the Vatican.
Interestingly, the text of the promulgation was punctuated by the following lines:
With this promulgation, the Council decrees become obligatory in all the dioceses of the
Philippines in accordance with Canon 8 # 2 of the Code of Canon Law. (italics supplied)

After this, a more concerted effort to implement its directives is reflected in the waves of initiatives by
the several Bishops. They spearheaded a more centralized crusade to make PCP II direct their vision for Church
renewal. Nothing short of a nationwide campaign was felt by parish priests and lay leaders to make PCP II
shape pastoral plans and activities in all the churches in the Philippines. It is clear, however, that successful
implementation does not just depend on the initiatives of ecclesiastical leaders. As this study would show,
various factors contributed to success; like a rural environment, an antecedent community life (its cohesiveness
based on kinship or barangay relations and imbued with centuries-old cultural traditions), availability of
community members, presence of committed lay leaders, easier transmission of traditions, and the like. Clearly,
ecclesiastical initiative is not the only condition for successful implementation. But even if it is more difficult to

7
apply PCP II (through BEC organizing) in highly urbanized settings (where traditions and cohesive community
relations cannot be assumed and private citizens are made un-available by everyday life defined by waged-work
and commerce), an institutional push would make a difference.
The formulation of Archdiocesan and Diocesan directives/guidelines/norms based on PCP II Acts and
Decrees marks the presence of an institutional guide or official directive for ecclesial organization,
administration, direction and general operations and activities. The Bishop’s role as leader, animator, and
overseer is so crucial especially in setting the tone of ecclesial life (cf. Bishop Evangelista of Boac,
Marinduque); that is, if he is imbued with PCP II principles, ecclesial life will stand on a solid PCP II platform
and stamped with clear PCP II direction. Nevertheless, the vision and mission of the Archdiocesan Center
cannot really move forward without the presence of various socio-cultural conditions that make implementation
more feasible. Thus, an organized clergy is expected to embody the spirit of PCP II and to help in its translation
into concrete programs/projects with the indispensable participation and cooperation of lay leaders/members of
the local churches.

PCP II and the Parish and Basic Ecclesial Communities

The new state of ecclesial affairs (with its PCP II-inspired vision-mission of building the Church of the
Poor through the BECs) has become evident at the level of the parish. This is not a reference to the filled
churches on Sundays which do not necessarily represent a living parish, but would rather show mass-going
individuals who, with their religious intentions/sentiments, are habituated to the Sunday mass—a case of
“believing and ritualizing without belonging to a living community”. On the other hand, the new state of
ecclesial affairs would refer to a mobilized community of faithful Christians who would not only go to mass but
who are also actively involved in organized activities and in other non-pietistic programs of the parish, like
those identified with the social ministry, education, and community organizing.
In the Philippines, the standard picture of a living parish consists of (1) a well-organized Parish Pastoral
Council (PPC) which is composed of the Parish priest(s), lay leaders, and other pastoral workers who may be
lay or those dedicated to the vowed religious life; (2) an effective pastoral plan, with its viable community
projects and programs, that involves a greater participation among the laity—exemplified in the formation of
Basic Ecclesial Communities; and 3) people’s belongingness—where people find themselves as friends,
consociates, or fellows in a world imbued with habits of solidarity and mutuality.
This is not to say that before PCP II there were no living parishes or BECs in the Philippines. There
were already BECs before 1991/PCP II, but these were not part of a more vigorous and systematic promotion

8
based on an official endorsement (mandated) coming from the highest ecclesiastical office. We may thus say
that the new state of ecclesial affairs also depends on a ground-up/down-top case (not top-down) of ecclesial
development, that is, from the grassroots clusters of the BECs up to the level of the Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines. This new state of affairs has been in the mold since the first wave of BEC
formation in some parts of Mindanao and Visayas in the late 1960s.
When the PCP II of 1991 endorsed the building of BECs as the concrete expression of the Church of the
Poor, it had in mind this stock of experience and knowledge engendered by the earlier generations of BECs.
This is one of the reasons why it is more difficult for church leaders who lack pastoral experience with or
exposure to BECs to adopt the PCP II view of the Church of the Poor. The BEC could not just be learned
through seminary training or expertise in theological sciences as formally taught in theological schools through
books. Active involvement in communities is the only way of promoting PCP II and building the Church of the
Poor through the BECs. It is through living-out a community life that the meaning of community as an
experience-event is fully understood. It is through tilling the land and planting crops and vegetables that one
truly knows the meaning of farming; through exploring the sea and catching fish that fishing is grasped in its
concrete form.

History/Histories of BEC
In the late 1960s, immediately after Vatican II, the first BECs are said to have been initiated by the
foreign missionaries7 who worked in the frontier mission areas in Mindanao and Negros. Following the
initiative of the foreign missionaries, the Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Conference (MSPC) became the main
proponent of BEC building. MSPC held its first conference in 1971 and since then have met every 3 years. It
later became instrumental in the spread of BECs all over Mindanao. Some dioceses and parishes in Visayas and
Luzon soon adopted the BEC model for their pastoral thrust. This is the so-called first wave of BEC building.
The first wave of BECs emerged during the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos. Many of such
BECs were organized by the BCC-CO program (Basic Christian Community-Community Organizing) which
integrated the community organizing work with every faith-based activity, like Bible study or prayer-meeting.
This would mean that people who are busy with liturgical and bible-study activities, they are at the same time
organized for other social ministries, like health promotion, economic-cooperative programs, and other issue-
oriented community work. Much of what transpired as non-pietistic or non-liturgical activities became
opportunities for the people’s urge to pay attention to their needs as well as to vent out their anger against the

7
See Amado L. Picardal, “Basic Ecclesial Communities in the Philippines: A Reception and Realization of the Vatican II
Vision of a Renewed Church,” http://cbcpbec.com/?p=277 / accessed 14 April 2012.
9
Marcos martial rule and other forces that contribute to perennial poverty, dependence, and oppression. Thus,
many of those who were identified with the so-called Left have found a venue that was relatively above-ground.
Members of the military, however, were quick to put into action its anti-communist disposition. They, along
with some Bishops, suspected that BECs were used as fronts for ideologically-orientated programs. There was
some truth to this suspicion since many of the active organizers, including some priests and nuns, were actually
very sympathetic to the cause of the Leftist rebels/ideologues. This does not mean, however, that they were
working for the CPP-NPA or the NDF. Some of the suspects were harassed by the military; others, especially
those coming from the BCC-CO programs, were arrested and summarily executed.
The Bishops were divided over this issue of Left-infiltration within the BEC/BCC. Most of them became
hostile to the formation of the BECs/BCCs; others, the minority of the so-called progressive Bishops, extended
their support for its formation. Nevertheless, BECs/BCCs continued to exist mainly through the local parish
priests who were also supported by faith-based organizations, like the NASSA, LUSSA, BCC-CO, BEC-
Service Office, Redemptorist Mission Teams, Diocesan Clergy team, Bukal ng Tipan, etc. Because of the
military threat and because of lack of episcopal blessing, many of the BECs had to tone down their non-
liturgical and non-bible-study activities. The social action components were either played down or abandoned
for the survival of the ecclesia in the parish.
The EDSA revolt happened in 1986 and with the fall of the Marcos regime came the restoration of
democracy. It was not a totally rosy picture for freedom and creativity, yet the change of political climate made
it easier for BEC-building initiatives to include in their programs the previously suspected socially-relevant
projects. Thus, campaigns against logging, mining, damming, and other infra-structural projects that affected
communities and nature became part of many BEC formation. Some BECs were also involved in the promotion
of peace in conflict areas in North Cotabato and Negros. Others have taken up programs that clearly addressed
the general situation of poverty among its members, like livelihood projects, cooperatives and sustainable
agriculture. This picture may lead us to believe that BECs have generally become more holistic in their
approach to faith expression. In fact, even as BECs have increased and became the standard form of ecclesial
formation in the Philippines, one may observe today that BEC building is implemented largely along the
liturgical, bible-study, and piety orientations at the cost of minimizing the performative and prophetic
components of faith-expression. The present study seeks to investigate this predominantly fiducial8 orientation
in the BECs.
In 1991, the PCP II was convened and its Acts and Decrees called for the formation of BECs in the
Philippines as a pastoral priority. This leads us to the so-called second wave (not third?, after EDSA second?) of

8
See Haughey
10
BEC building. This is characterized by a vigorous promotion of the BEC on the diocesan levels in many areas
in Luzon and Visayas. The Mindanao BECs have proliferated in the other areas untouched by the first BEC
wave. Those that previously existed have undergone revitalization and blessed with the desirable institutional
backing. Since then, BECs of various shapes and kinds have mushroomed especially in the rural or less
urbanized areas in the Philippines.
It is against this background that we must proceed and look into the ten local Churches (Boac, POLA,
Rosario, Cavite City, Jaro, Iloilo, etc.) chosen as areas of study on the impact of the PCP II on ecclesial life.
This evaluation on the influence of PCP II has concentrated on the development of the BECs considered as the
concrete expression of what PCP II has envisioned (to build) as the Church of the Poor.

Pre-PCP II parish programs—mainly the former BCC programs—have contributed to the success of
post-PCP II BEC formation and, thus, towards a more generalized implementation of PCP II. Those sites with
no previous BECs find it harder to follow PCP II (cf. Cavite sites).
The BEC is usually built on pre-existing communitarian activities and interactions that are expected to
be infused with the principles of Christian faith, hope, and love. We have two paired elements here that produce
another entity already called the BEC: the pre-existing culture/society and the Christian principles. The so-
called pre-existing culture/society is not as simple as the terms would suggest because we are not building the
BECs during the time of Magellan or the time of Aglipay when society and culture were relatively simple and
integrated (i.e., not complex and exploded into fragments); and the Christian principles of faith, hope, and love
do not have a monolithic meaning since these principles derived from Gospel stories have already been shaped
by different types of church or religious life in various places and times. It would suffice to say that, for our
own purpose, the BECs are built on local socio-cultural values and suffused with Christian principles—this
pairing characterizes the renewal of our Church today.
In the BECs, local culture/society and Gospel principles mutually support each other—meaning, the
Christian principles would remain abstract if taken apart from the culture of the people; and the culture of the
people would still remain in its “native” form without the Christian principles.
The BEC as a culture especially promotes the formation of individuals who become imbued with those
Gospel values that qualify it as the Church of the Poor. We may thus expect that the ordinary would become
special because of the presence of Jesus in the BEC. (Jesus is in your midst.) What the BECs provide are very
important religious-communitarian forms of interactions that clearly modify behavior, character, and identity
into Christian forms. In this sense, individuals absorb not only information through BEC interactions, but in fact

11
imbibe through such interactions a whole BEC culture that is rooted in a life inspired by the presence of Jesus
who ministers to the poor.

Concrete Implementation in Boac, Marinduque

Some would assume that the most important events/milestones that constitute history are those pushed
by political and economic powers and realized through the interplay of the conquerors or dominant citizens
(Great Men) and the vanquished or the dominated. Some great historical markers, like the pyramids of Egypt or
the Great Wall of China, or the Suez Canal, may be explained through the Great Men model of viewing
lifeworld histories. But a more complete and integrative picture may have to include the equally important
stories of geographical/natural resources that became part of the history of the building of structures, the
patterns of behavior and worldview of the slave-builders or workers, and the wider culture shared by the people
who took part, directly or indirectly, in the whole material processes of construction.
The Pharaoh’s vision of producing an eternal abode for himself did initiate the construction of the
pyramid. This alone, however, could not account for the totality of the pyramid’s history which should mention
the everyday activities involved in the gradual formation of the edifice: quarrying of stones, shaping of blocks,
transporting and arranging the blocks to produce the pyramidal shape, and so on and so forth. The so-called
great historical events/markers may only be given sense if we include the everyday material and manual
processes that are inarguably the main constructors of edifices and institutions. And such material and human
processes could be explained more fully if the geographical and material resources and the stories of ordinary
people are recognized for their historical significance.
Nevertheless, one could argue that the contributions of ordinary people and material resources are
grossly insignificant compared to the genius of Great Men which triggered every great event and marker of
history. They alone, continues the argument, provided that most important factor that would produce
incomparable measures of greatness like those evoked by the pyramids or the Great Wall of China, or the Taj
Majal. However, this could only be true 1) if we reduce history as just the stories of great men, or 2) if history is
defined solely as about stories of men viewed apart from their lifeworlds, and 3) that historical markers are
those carved out through the initiatives of great men. It is not difficult to convince ourselves that #1 and #2 are
reductionist approaches and could not give us the right pictures needed to produce more holistic historical
accounts. However, #3, which exemplifies the great-men-initiatives, seems to be an acceptable
hypothesis/assumption for historiography. This could probably stand without challenge if there were no
available counter-factual data. The Banaue Rice Terraces (which traditionally include the Rice Terrace Clusters

12
of Banaue, Mayoyao, Kiangan, Hungduan, and Ifugao) is one such counter-story: a story of a huge undertaking
which could not be attributed to the initiative of a single Great Man in the history of the Mountain Province
societies.
The Banaue Rice Terraces (Tagalog: Hagdan-hagdang Palayan ng Banawe) refer to the 2000-3000 year
old terraces that were carved out of the mountains of Ifugao in the Philippines by the indigenous people’s
ancestors. Built without the aid of machinery, it has been declared part of the World Heritage and popularly
known as the “eighth wonder” of the world. Some of these terraces reach an altitude of 1,η00 meters and cover
around 10,360 square kilometers of mountain areas. It is claimed that if the terraces were laid end to end, they
would encircle half the globe. From an engineer’s point of view, the construction of the rice terraces is one feat
that could not be explained by modern construction standards but by people’s cooperation, community vision,
local people’s determination, a culture of natural simplicity, and an enduring respect for nature even as its
power is harnessed for human cultivation.
The PCP II’s Church of the Poor as concretized in the BEC is very much like the story of the
construction of the Banaue Rice Terraces—something whose history could not be attributed to a “Pharaoh” or
an “Emperor,” but to the convergence of all efforts and resources; from those who took part (and to everything
needed) in its inception, development, and transformation. The picture of a community alive in its day-to-day
cooperative activities that spanned through scores of generation, producing an amazing feat of creative
construct is one picture that may reflect the ways of the BEC which is currently gaining numbers and spaces in
the building of the Church of the Poor in the various parishes of the Philippines. This is how we must study the
BEC—through a broad culturalist perspective (covering the material [e.g., work and natural resources] and non-
material culture [e.g., folk beliefs, rituals, and organizations]). This is not to remove Vatican II or PCP II out of
the picture—it is just the best way of taking stock of what actually constitutes the ecclesia in the parish. After
all, the ecclesia may not be reduced to its elite leaders.

13
 DIOCESE OF BOAC
Basic Christian/ Ecclesial Community (BCC/BEC) Program Update
(As of December 2012)
KEY RESULT AREAS ICP Poras Balim- Mogpog Bala- Cawit Gasan Buena- Mali- Sta. Mala- Matuya- Tapian Torri-
nacan vista bago Cruz bon tuya jos
bing

1.Giving financial support for BEC Program in

the parish –workers honorarium, leaders needs
& activities Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

2.About 70% of Parish Pastoral Council

(PPC) Members (15 in all) are Supportive
of BEC Program 5 out 13 15 out 1 out of 13 out 15/15 3/15 15/15 5/15 7/15 12/15 8/15 7/15 12/15
of 15 out of of 15 15 of 15
15

3.Parish BEC Speakers Bureau Members

( o du ti g t ai i gs fo BEC’s i the
barangay) 5 5 5 3 10 10 20 3 3 5 7 3 2 4

4.Parish Bible Facilitators Team Members

(Trainers of Barangay Bible Facilitators)
4 3 3 3 2 2 8 4 3 3 1 1 1 1

5.New BEC units (Expansion)-composed of

12 to 15 families
30 7 4 5 3 10 4 3 2 10 4 none none 5

6.Parish with BEC Program Plan (three –

year plan)
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

7.Employed part time Parish Workers

(from BEC Leaders) with honorarium
4 3 3 1 2 2 8 4 3 3 1 1 1 1

14
8. With Active PPC & PPC Service
Committee supporting BEC Program
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

9.Ade uate Nu e of BEC COV’s –

Community Organizing Volunteers
(Leaders with Advanced skills) 10 18 35 40 26 20 34 30 11 50 22 26 12 24

10.With full support of the Parish Priest Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

11.Participation in the Diocesan BEC

Activities (BEC anniversary etc.)
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

12.BEC Training of PPC & Priests PPC PPC PPC PPC PPC
Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer
only Yes Yes only Yes Yes Yes Partial Only Only Yes Yes Only Yes

13. Number of BCC Family Members 240 430 493 450 496 279 700 301 158 420 150 100 80 150

13. Total Number of SELF-RELIANT BEC

Units in the diocese (75 all)
2 2 2 13 6 7 11 5 2 6 5 3 4 7

15
 Not all BECs in the Philippines are created equal. Some are “more equal” than others. The figure above
shows Boac Diocese registering an exemplary number of BEC units and family members. The BEC population
per baptized Catholic population is 26,280 individuals. Boac BEC-experience may be considered a benchmark
in BEC building but this does not mean that Boac is superior to all other Philippine BECs; to highlight Boac’s
success in community-building does not say that its BEC program has successfully mobilized and organized all
the total 193,585 baptized Catholics, representing 89 percent of all 216,815 people in the territory. As a
benchmark, it is not the “gold-standard” but merely serves as a reference point in terms of success relative to
other Philippine parishes.
The case of Boac Parish (and Boac Diocese, for that matter) is instructive in terms of a more positive
response to PCP II’s vision of the Church of the Poor and its concrete expression in the BECs. In a sense, Boac
may be considered a benchmark for BEC building in the Philippines. Boac Diocese has been able to exploit and
maximize various contributory (fortifying, invigorating, augmenting) factors that led to its highly successful
BEC program. Such factors include: 1) Boac’s largely agricultural and less-urbanized character; 2) an assumed
pre-given “cultural community” among its parishioners; 3) its early entry into the BEC thrust; 4) it’s external
support (technical and logistics) from PBSP, PLMP, Bukal ng Tipan and missio-Germany, among others; 5) the
Bishops’ dedication to BEC building, from the initial BECs up to the present, θ) the local clergy rallying behind
the PCP II-inspired programs of the Bishop; 7) lay participation from the margins dovetailing with the center’s
more democratized approach to BEC building, and 8) the gendered character (predominantly women) of lay
participation. Other contributing factors or background components could still unfold as we proceed with the
analysis of the main elements that led to the shaping of BECs in the ten parishes. At the same time, limitations
or weaknesses may be discovered alongside this process of analysis.

Boac’s largely agricultural and less-urbanized character

Some words of caution: to claim that Boac BEC is a benchmark for BEC building in the Philippines
does not mean that Boac is superior to all other Philippine BECs; to highlight Boac’s success in community-
building does not say that its BEC program has successfully mobilized and organized all the total 193,585
baptized Catholics, representing 89 percent of all 216,815 people in the territory. As a benchmark, it is not the
“gold-standard” but merely serves as a reference point in terms of success relative to the other parishes under
study.
Boac is a largely-agricultural and less-urbanized area, which also means it exhibits 1) a less commercial
or less market-driven character of everyday life, 2) lesser opportunities for individualistic city pursuits, 3) more

16
spontaneous responses to community organizing, 4) less regimented time among its population, 5) less
distractions from the city’s consumer-centered culture, 6) less divisions and separations, and 7) continuity of
traditions/generations—children following their parents footsteps—even if this means tolerating poverty.

“Like any town proper in rural Philippines, the town proper of Boac seem to impose an automatic curfew on
itself. Stores and restaurants are closed by 6PM save for a few establishments like Mercury Drug and some sari-
sari stores. Streets are very peaceful except for some night owls playing with their skate boards or chit chatting
in the side streets. By 9PM, the town looks like midnight and everyone has already started dreaming.”
http://yanxandvanz.blogspot.com/2013/03/marinduque-part-2-glimpse-of-boac.html / accessed 1 June 2013

17
Casa Narvas, a heritage house.

18
Walls leading to Boac Cathedral

19
The biggest (and only) grocery store in Boac.

20
 1) a less commercial or market-driven character of everyday life,

The Diocese of Boac is composed of the whole island province of Marinduque—a 959.2 square
kilometers island province located 160 kilometers southeast of Manila.9 Marinduque is located between the
Bondoc Peninsula at the southeastern portion of Luzon, and Mindoro Island. The province is surrounded by four
bodies of water: Tayabas Bay to the north, Mompog Pass to the northeast, Tablas Strait to the west and
southwest, and the Sibuyan Sea to the south. The highest peak in Marinduque is Mount Malindig (formerly,
Mount Marlanga), a potentially active volcano with an elevation of 1157 meters. Its mountainous covering
occupies approximately half of the total land area. Coastal plain is found along the seacoast of the
municipalities of Boac, Gasan and Buenavista on the western side of the province with alluvial plains on the
western part of Mogpog to Buenavista and eastern portion of Sta. Cruz. To reach Marinduque, sea and air travel
options are available.
The common people’s rootedness and dependence on the plains, hills, mountains, and seas of Boac (the
physical world) account for the predominantly agrarian and maritime labor and the other forms of everyday life
that saturate society. People deal with nature, reap its bounty, and are determined by their cultural dispositions;
nature, on the other hand, opens up to human needs and wants as people are driven to work for their survival
and provisions for security or comfort.

9
This section is based on the data provided by UCANEWS: http://directory.ucanews.com/dioceses/philippines-boac/397 /
accessed 14 May 2013.
21
 The people’s shared beliefs, rituals, social organization, and habitual practices represent and reflect the
world that generated them. Thus, Boac’s ecology, the people’s economic pursuits and their traditional
barrio/village/barangay interactions have become the progenitor of a rural-provincial culture that actually pre-
dated the Spanish colonizers.

Maps showing Municipality of Boac’s small “commercial area” and absence of malls or
major fast-food outlets like McDonalds or Jollibee

22
 Boac was created a diocese in April 1977, separating it from the mother Diocese of Lucena in the
province of Quezon. It comprises the entire civil province of Marinduque. It is among the smallest provinces in
the country. The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Lipa.
The island of Marinduque belonged to the old Archdiocese of Manila until April 10, 1910 when Pope
Pius X created the Diocese of Lipa in Batangas, to which Marinduque was attached as a suffragan. When the
Diocese of Lucena was created on Aug. 20, 1950, Marinduque became part of it until it was created as an
independent diocese by virtue of an apostolic bull of Pope Paul VI issued in Rome on April 2, 1977, naming it
the Diocese of Boac.
On May 10, 1978, the papal bull was carried into effect in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
in Boac, in accordance with a document signed by Archbishop Bruno Torpigliani, D.D., Apostolic Nuncio to
the Philippines at the time. Bishop Rafael M. Lim, D.D., a native of Boac who was then Bishop of Laoag, was
appointed by Pope Paul VI as the first bishop of the new Diocese. He was solemnly installed on the same day
the diocese was canonically erected, May 10, 1978.
Bishop Rafael Montiano Lim (Jan. 26, 1978 to Sept. 10, 1998) is credited for starting the BEC program
of Boac, which used to follow the BCC-CO model of community organizing.10 On May 7, 2012, it celebrated its

10
“The BCC-CO is a network of BCC members and workers which provides education, research and publication and alliance
work on the building of BCCs. Chaired by Bishop Rafael Lim of Boac, it works independently of, but coordinates with, the Catholic
23
30th BEC anniversary of the formation and growth of BECs – locally referred to as Batayang Pamayanang
Kristiano (BPK).11
BEC building, however, is not just a result of episcopal choice, leadership, and commitment to service.
His efforts and the contributions of his successors (José Francisco Oliveros [Feb. 2, 2000 to May 14, 2004];
Bishop Reynaldo G. Evangelista [February 22, 2005-present]), with the assistance of the clergy and lay leaders,
may have gained tremendous help from Marinduque’s island-provincial-agricultural character. In other words,
the geographical location and culture of Marinduque has provided the local church a huge
backdrop/background support for all its efforts in building PCP II’s Church of the Poor.
Marinduque’s “isolation” from the urban and secularized centers of the National Capital Region (Metro
12
Manila ) may not be too favorable to economic progress and development; but its island-agricultural character
provides an environment congenial to Basic Ecclesial Community-building.
Less colonized by Manila, less dictated by an outside culture, less influenced by foreign ideas, less an
object of commercial interest despite Macopper…since it has somehow preserved its traditions in a more
congenial agrarian setting, it has also much necessary conditions to give to BEC .

Boac River in Barangay Tumapon

Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).” “Basic Christian Communities Say PCP II is Great Impetus,”
http://www.ucanews.com/story-archive/?post_name=/1993/05/03/basic-christian-communities-say-pcp-ii-is-great-
impetus&post_id=43258 / accessed 18 April 2012.
11
http://cbcpbec.com/?p=494 / accessed 18 May 2013.
In July 2004, Bishop Jose F. Oliveros delivered a report before the First National Congress for Clergy.
“The Diocese of Boac started its BEC program through organizing activities in 1982, using the BCC-CO
methodology/approach. This approach has three stages, namely: Awakening, Empowerment and Re-structuring. Every stage has
corresponding activities.
After twenty (20) years of organizing, the BCC program has resulted in the formation of one hundred forty one (141)
organized BCC units in 100 barrios/barangays throughout the province with 10-15 member families per unit. It has a total membership
of 5,000 family units as of the year 2002. To date, about 20% of the BCC units are considered as self- sufficient/governing while 40%
is in the sustaining level. On the other hand, 25% is in the initiating stage and remaining 15% has died down. For the integral faith
formation of the member families, the BCC has initiated six development programs, namely, economic, health, agricultural, political,
ecological and religious-cultural.” “Thee Filipino Clergy in a State of Mission: Inculturation / Integral Faith Formation,”
http://clergycongress2.org/?p=146
12
Composed of the Cities of Manila, Quezon, Caloocan, Pasay, Pasig, Makati, Mandaluyong, Marikina, VAlenzuaela,
Muntinlupa, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Malabon, Navotas, Taguig, San Juan, and the Municipality of Pateros.
24
 Nevertheless, even if Marinduque is largely devoted to farming and fishing, some business
establishments are found in the town/poblacion of Boac, the town capital of the province. These are mostly
small hotels, restaurants, bakeries, pharmacies, retail and sari-sari stores. In Gasan, makers and exporters of
handicrafts could be found. Based on the Total Business Name Registration, the number of business name
approved increase from 813 in 2007 to 997 in 2008 posting an increase of 22.63 percent. Most of these are
small- and medium-scale businesses that employ few personnel.
To date, Marinduque has no existing shopping malls but there are some buildings devoted to commerce.
Trans-national companies do not hold offices in the province hence the ratio of unemployment here is high
since majority of the establishments employ only one (1) to four (4) personnel.13
The two major economic activities of the island-province are farming and fishing.
Coconut and rice are its primary crops. Agriculture remains the biggest sector-employer of the province
providing 48.0% of employment. Of the total land area of 95,925 hectares, 58% or 53,587.05 hectares are
devoted to crops; 66.06% of this area (or 35,399.61 hectares) are coconut plantations. Palay paddies or rice
farms follow with some 10,056 hectares or 18% of the total cultivated area of the province. Of the 10,056
hectares devoted to palay, irrigated ricelands constitute about 18.5%, 58.3% are rainfed, and remaining 23.2%
use the upland (non-irrigated) method.14
Other agricultural products are corn, vegetables, rootcrops, banana, coffee, cacao, legumes, like mongo
and peanut, are planted to the remaining 29% of the total cultivated area of the island.
Poultry and livestock raising serve as a secondary source of farm-family income. Chicken, hogs, cattle,
goats and carabaos are traditionally raised. Other supplemental sources of family income come from charcoal-
making, honey culture or honey-gathering, and renting-out of local banca or small boats to tourists. Other minor
cottage industries include fish sauce production, cloth-weaving and crafts from bamboo, palm trees, and other
local wooden materials. Wild-pig hunting is also practiced by those who live near the mountains where very
few wild pigs could still be sighted.
Marinduque’s “isolation” from the urban and secularized centers of the National Capital Region (Metro
Manila15) may not be too favorable to economic progress and development; but its island-agricultural character
provides an environment that assists Basic Ecclesial Community-building.
Since there are neither Makati City businesses nor SM malls, there are no peak-hour traffic congestions,
no stiff competitions for bus or train rides, and public space is not swarmed by buy-and-sell or market

13
www.marinduque.gov.ph/economicprof.html accessed 16 May 2013.
14
http://www.darfu4b.da.gov.ph/marinduque.html / accessed 15 May 2013.
15
Composed of the Cities of Manila, Quezon, Caloocan, Pasay, Pasig, Makati, Mandaluyong, Marikina, VAlenzuaela,
Muntinlupa, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Malabon, Navotas, Taguig, San Juan, and the Municipality of Pateros.
25
transactions. Everyday-life, among the poor farmers and fishers, is still defined by a laid-back 4-8 hr. work, one
that is mostly determined by small- and medium-scale farming and fishing activities (not the mechanized mass
production types) that bring modest income to families. Thus, majority of the people of the Diocese, including
the townsfolk of the town of Boac, do not belong to the middle-class income groups whose capacities enable
pursuit of resources and goals that typically move towards sufficiency and autonomy, or towards affluence and
power.
Consequently, the poorer people, the majority of the Diocese, do not have the resources and capacities to
automatically become capable pursuers of careers in Metro Manila. Some of them may possess a future-oriented
mentality characteristic of individuals raised in modern urbanized and secularized modern cities; but due to the
island-provincial culture (one that is hundreds of years older than modern business culture), people are still
predominantly enlivened by the shared island-provincial social disposition constantly shaped by years of
dealing with the land and the sea. Most people of Marinduque belong to this farming and fishing lifeworld
characterized by an island-provincial ecology.
This is what we mean by the BEC being assisted by the culture of the island-province: that even before
Christianity has touched the shores of Marinduque, people are already imbued with the island-provincial culture
of hospitality, reciprocity, solidarity, informal camaraderies, inter-personal trust, and simplicity supported by a
material life which is neither considered destitute nor affluent—probably poor (but not entirely miserable) and
simple (neither complicated nor disposed to sophistication and consumerist behavior). Moreover, most of the
poor are not preoccupied with commodities which capture/captivate the middle class and the moneyed.
With regard to the notion of poverty/simplicity, it is interesting to cite a study that uses non-BEC
orientated measurements of poverty. Schreiner, a Westerner academician, concludes in his paper that one of
every three Filipinos is poor.16 He utilized some indicators of what he considered as standard non-poor
lifestyles: like eating meat, dining in a restaurant, owning items such as a TV set, cellphone, car, having a
medical insurance, bank deposits, investments, etc.—all items preferred and regularly consumed by the middle
class or the affluent. This is an obvious middle/affluent classist skewer to fix notions of poverty in terms of
absence of middle class material amenities/values. Besides, the search, pursuit, consumption, and accumulation
of such amenities may actually be a cause of social fragmentation, disintegration of the island-provincial values
of simplicity and the loss of shared practices of gratuitous mutual-help and solidarity that usually characterize
the lives of the poor in Marinduque.

16
Mark Schreiner, “A Simple Poverty Scorecard for the Philippines,” Philippine Journal of Development vol. 34/2 (2007):
43-70.
26
 The case of fenced houses in middle-class subdivisions is one illustration of how the more successful
citizens fence themselves inside their private properties, which effectively keep off neighbors from intruding
into their lives. In this sense, middle-class success could also mean keeping a middle-class kind of
neighborhood—where good neighbors are minding their own businesses. Neighborhood is thus a neighborhood
of fenced, self-sufficient, and isolated neighbors who, ironically, would inadvertently constrict the facilitation of
concourse, the most basic activity in a neighborhood. Inside their homes are found children who play by
themselves—sitting in front of their electronic gadgets that keep their eyes, ears, and fingers constantly
occupied. They are kept busy by the television where they explore the world by sitting down; they browse the
internet that keep them active without sweating it out; they interact with their friends through the so-called
social networking sites and keep themselves undisturbed by their neighbors’ preoccupations or nature’s forces.
They keep their bodies animated through the use of technologies available in the market and built environments,
like gyms or play rooms. By enclosing themselves inside their private or privatized lairs, middle-class citizens
exercise their rights, affirm their autonomy, and maximize their independence. They secure themselves inside
their gated homes, they hold on to their own resources, they guard their comfort zones against intruders or
unlawful trespassers. Thus, by keeping themselves tuned to individualized or privatized activities, they place
themselves in a comfortable distance far from the bigger group and from the ways of the poor and simple
people who would belong to a lifeworld defined by the shared social dispositions of the folks who regularly
negotiate the greeneries, traverse the various contours of the land, breathe through the briny air of the sea, and
find belongingness among themselves.
Poor farmers and fishers who consume sufficient amount of food (which may be more backyard-grown
vegetables than meat or smaller varieties of fish with minimal mercury content), who spend time with their
friends watching a shared “neighborhood” TV set or visit the local healer for a free hilot/indigenous massage
and counseling, or ride on a habal-habal17 motorcycle are really poor according to Schreiner’s standards.
However, by setting the middle-class lifestyle as defining the non-poor parameter, he clearly missed the point
that poverty is also relative to a society’s ways of pursuing what is contextually humane or a culture’s
perspective regarding what counts as human flourishing. Middle class standards of non-poverty/sufficiency may
refer to the presence of abundant material indicators which are appropriated and enjoyed by sovereign
individuals—a result of privatistic accumulation and individualistic consumption of goods and services. On the
other hand, the poor of Marinduque may clearly multiply the benefits derived from the otherwise limited supply

17
The verb habal means “to mount on top of a partner in an animal copulation”. Habal-habal motorcycle is a single
commercial motorcycle-transport with several mounted passengers taking a “linked” riding position—a transportation practice that
multiplies the number of passengers in a single motorcycle (3-8 and sometimes 10 passengers in motorcycles with side-seats
extensions). This is commonly practiced in less-developed/underdeveloped or poor places in the Philippines.
27
of things through their sharing and creativity in apportioning goods, thereby accumulating more cultural
health/capital than economic capital.
It is interesting to note that in urban settings, the poor are also known for their resilience coupled with
their creative use or consumption of discarded items: pagpag (verb: ipagpag, to shake off)—a practice of trash
collectors (or those who collect trash from fastfood chains like KFC or McDonalds) who “shake-off” dirt from
the food that they find in trash; street foods—barbecued pig and chicken entrails; old tires—recycled or reused
to create garden pots or weights to keep roofs from being blown away; spoiled/discarded food—boiled for
feeding pigs; ukay-ukay—rummaging in second-hand stores; repair practices of third-degree-damaged items—
repair of even the “unusable” umbrella, shoes, appliances, and the like.
For BEC building, the poor people’s socio-cultural dispositions may fit the requirements of community
formation. The people’s pre-given moral18 dispositions may dovetail with the expectations of community living
or neighborliness. In other words, in Boac diocese, some socio-cultural sediments that promote belongingness
and support community may already be in place. These refer to some of the shared practices of the poor.
For example, among the poorer members of a community, the practice of sharing of limited resources
(like fish catch shared to neighbors or the kakanin or native delicacies/food shared during meetings or BEC
gatherings) or sharing of adequate resources (time shared for a Bayanihan19 project or the attention given to a
sick neighbor) or the multiplication of number of beneficiaries in the sharing of a limited resource (cf. hand-me-
down clothes from the eldest to the youngest, habal-habal, or extending a small piece of meat or fish with
plenty of soup and other extenders) are a common occurrence. One does not have to search for or to bring about
the habits of reciprocity, sharing, and redistribution—these are not only habits of necessity inside the poor’s hut,
but have become habits of the poor’s heart. Some of them who become well-to-do’s do not easily forget such
habits, as they are also expected by custom to become the local benefactors.
Thus, gift-giving (especially the gift of one’s time or services), which is also an enduring practice among
traditional cultures,20 has proven to be a native ingredient that contributes to BEC success in Boac. This claim
does not mean, however, that Marinduque culture is perfect or thoroughly “anonymous-Christian” in character.

18
The concept of morals may refer to socio-cultural standards or culturally-normative practices. It refers 1) to the demands
for uprightness or good conduct of one's life and focuses on the concrete imperatives of a given moment or 2) to people's practices
insofar as these practices are fountainheads of righteous living. In such a case, practices, as emancipatory or liberating practices, are
constitutive of an ethos (shared convictions, customs, social standards of behavior, etc. [cf. Latin term for custom: mos-moris from
where morals is derived]), the reference of an ethical theory. Morals is rooted in its context—living community or group of persons
from where an ethos may spring. José Luis L. Aranguren speaks of êthos ( ος) as “el suelo firme, el fundamento de la práxis, la raíz
de la que brotan todos los actos humanos” (“the firm ground, the foundation of praxis, the root from which spring all human acts”). He
distinguished ος from ε ος, the former having a wider social character from where ε ος is derived as individual custom or habit.
The proper etymology of ethics, he says, is from the term ος, Etica, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1986, 21ff.
19
Bayanihan is a combination of two words, bayan (nation or town) and anihan (harvest)—it means neighbourhood work or
community work done voluntarily and without monetary compensation.
20
See Marcel Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, New York: Norton, 1967.
28
 The Filipino tradition-bound cultural resource is still part of the culture of many Filipinos (including
those coming from the other parishes studied). While this is true in those areas characterized by
agricultural/fishing activities, like Babak or some parts of Cavite, this traditional cultural capital is already
suffering from defeat or privatization, or marginalization largely due to the dominant commercial and urban
culture that encourages and nurtures individualistic notions of security, competition, future-progress orientation,
instrumental/utilitarian-mindedness, and autonomous-self-interested habits. The latter dispositions often stifle
the Gospel values which the Church of the Poor, through the BEC, proclaims (mutual support/sharing, humility,
simplicity, compassion, forgiveness, other-oriented openness and generosity). Such self-interest bound
dispositions may even pull children away from the island-provincial culture of the poor.
What we are saying is that Marinduque island-province society and culture has the moral-practical
resource for any community-building program. Tapping this resource for BEC is one major task for the
present—the past and the island-provincial milieu have handed-down that huge cultural resource which has
become available for today’s BEC building as localization of Vatican II.

29
 Land Classification
Total Land Area – 21,272 Hectares

Classification Area (Has.) Classification Area (Has.)

Cocal 10,831.70 Institutional 51.05
Forest 3,041.90 Orchard 38.29
Upland 2,261.21 Road Widening 14.89
Cogonal 1,935.75 Banana Land 8.51
Timberland 1,757.07 Commercial 8.51
Riceland 904.06 Calaan 4.25
Residential 114.87 Bamboo Land 2.13
Nipa Land 87.21 Corn Land 1.49
Abaca Land 82.96 Reclamation 1.28
Industrial 72.32 Fishpond 1.06
Upland (Rice) 51.05 Road Lot 0.19
Source: http://www.boac.gov.ph/lgu_page.htm / accessed 2 June 2013

The biggest share of fishing industry goes to the town of Sta. Cruz followed by Gasan, Torrijos, Boac,
Mogpog and Buenavista.
MARINDUQUE21

21
The following data are lifted from the Department of Agriculture website: http://www.darfu4b.da.gov.ph/marinduque.html
/ accessed 15 May 2013. See also http://www.marinduque.gov.ph/economicprof.html.
30
 CROP DISTRIBUTION by Municipality

/ 50% intercropped under coconut

2/ intercropped under coconut
3/planted after rice

Fishing
Based on 1998 figures, the local fishing industry netted about 8,161 metric tons, nearly 75% of which
were shipped outside the province. The biggest share of the catch comes from Sta. Cruz, followed by Gasan,
Torrijos, Boac, Mogpog, and Buenavista.
Marinduque's fishing fleet counts 14,577 fisherfolks with a total of 2,688 non-motorized bancas or
'parao',1,054 motorized bancas, and 74 commercial fishing boats. (1998)

FISHING AREAS by Municipality

31
FISHPOND & AREAS POTENTIAL FOR FISHPOND

MARINE RESERVE AREAS

FISHERY PRODUCTION by Municipality

FISH SUFFICIENCY LEVEL per Municipality

32
2) Lesser opportunities for city pursuits—grounded in the island-agrarian lifeworld
The first obvious observation about Boac’s lifeworld, and consequently its BECs, is that it is found at
the grassroots, that is at the socio-cultural island-agrarian base. It does not originate from the higher or more
centralized positions of power coming from the city. It springs from the ground where people of lower socio-
economic status usually reside. There, the basic sectors are found.22
The term Basic in the Basic Ecclesial Community may refer to people who live at the base of society.
They are the poor farmers, fishers, fruit gatherers, and vegetable gardeners from rural areas; they are also the
workers, the self-employed, the under-employed, and unemployed from the more populated areas. Of course,
the word Basic could also qualify the term Ecclesial to mean the core composition of an ecclesial organization.
So one may refer to the people composing the BEC as constituting the basic component of what is essentially a
group of people called to worship, teach, and serve.
In general, the BECs in Boac are composed of members coming from the grassroots and so one could
refer to the BEC as a grassroots-level organization that is composed of members who have lesser opportunities
for a city-kind of life. It is true that historically BECs have thrived among the grassroots population and that its
development and expansion are mainly driven by the active participation of people from below. Nevertheless,
some BECs have been organized recently in some upper-class subdivisions.23
So it is thus acceptable to speak of the BEC as both the fundamental ecclesial unit and a unit from the
grassroots communities. Moreover, when one speaks of grassroots, its meaning is still relative to a region—
grassroots in a typhoon-ravaged Bicol or Samar rural area may not really correspond to the grassroots of the
more fertile Pampanga rural area or to the destitute grassroots communities among the Mangyans of Mindoro.

22
In Republic Act 8425, or the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act, it was declared that the State should adopt an
area-based sectoral and focused intervention to poverty alleviation. Section 3 of RA 8425 defined the basic sectors as the
disadvantaged sectors of Philippine society, namely:
1. Farmer-peasant
2. Artisanal fisherfolk
3. Workers in the formal sector and migrant workers
4. Workers in the informal sector
5. Indigenous peoples and cultural communities
6. Women
7. Differently-abled persons
8. Senior citizens;
9. Victims of calamities and disasters;
10. Youth and students;
11. Children;
12. Urban poor;
13. Cooperatives; and
14. Non-government organizations
23
Amado L. Picardal, “The Basic Ecclesial Communities in the Philippines: Recent Developments and Trends,”
http://cbcpbec.com/?p=397 / accessed 10 April 2012
33
3) More spontaneous responses to community organizing,
As a people more disposed to neighborhood belongingness, the people of Boac are more inclined
towards community organizing like the BEC.
The second obvious characteristic of BEC is its communitarian character (not private-familial
character). Members of BECs gather around broader-public activities that promote cohesion, integration,
participation, mutual-help, solidarity, neighborly interaction, and cooperation—qualities already found, to some
extent, in the context of a neighborhood community. The Filipino values of pakikipagkapwa, kapitbahayan or
pakigsilinganay (neighborliness), malasakit (compassion), pagtutulungan (mutual support), and pagsa-salo-
salo or panag-ambitay (sharing) and pagpupunyagi or pakigbisog (common struggle) characterize the kind of
neighborhood communion observable among Boac farmers and fishers. As culture bearers, neighbors have
embodied and externalized those age-old values—the same values that they bring when they celebrate the
Liturgy of the Word; when they gather together to commemorate an important feast; when they meet to discuss
a problem like how to oppose the proposed operation of a mining company in their area; when they hold
meetings for their cooperatives, or; when they discuss their role in the coming local elections.
Simplicity further characterizes the kind of communion observed among the poor neighborhood. This is
visible in their gatherings and interaction—in general, no superfluity, no opportunity to compete for attention or
recognition, no ambitions or competitions over essential resources. One may be tempted to qualify these as
signs of virtue cultivated because of the BEC factor. This, in fact, could be the case; but, in reality, people’s
simplicity has been mainly imposed on them by their lowly socio-economic status. In their material limitations
and thus simplicity in lifestyle, we could observe some desirable traits which, if analysed, are really traits that
have been acquired. Such practical traits have become part of habitual dispositions in individuals who are
perennially exposed to economic or material deprivation.
Take, for example, the practice of neighborly sharing. It is to the poor’s advantage that they share
resources. Oftentimes, if they do this, they could actually survive cycles of economic crisis. A bowl of tinola
from the next barong-barong; a glass of diluted honey from the fruit gatherer; pork-chops from the hunting
group; free labor from the pool of skilled workers; generous care from the local healer; shares from the fisher’s
catch, or; the occasional free baby-sitting services of neighbors.
The practice of sharing among the poor is dramatized around meals where the habitual practice of
apportioning is caught by children to mean sharing the limited supply of lunch or supper. Among the wealthy,
this practice of sharing, that is, apportioning, is generally absent. Abundance of food served on the table means
no opportunity to practice distribution of limited resources. In fact, limited portions would occasion grumbling
and impolite comments from overfed children. On the other hand, a perennial lack of food on the poor’s table

34
would have to call for the necessary economics of poverty—thus apportioning must be practiced. Of course,
hunger and deprivation could also breed chronic pain, loneliness and depression, as well as characters like
Mando Mandurukot or members of Akyat-Bahay Gang, who, by the way, may not be unfamiliar to techniques
of sharing. But the infectious habit of sharing of limited resources may form the most desirable dispositions in
children like genuine appreciation of blessings, forebearance in suffering, compassion, and sacrifice in favor of
the weaker siblings. It is ironic and, at the same time, frustrating that lifestyles of abundance would breed more
the practices of accumulation than distribution. But we are living in a democratic world where rights to private
property and exclusive nuclear family life are protected by laws. We also enjoy the freedom from the coercion
of our neighbor’s gaze that is laced with appeals for mercy and assistance. In a sense, option for the poor is also
optional from the perspective of those who have the choice.
Scarcity in other material things could further give parents the opportunity to reinforce the values of
sharing and self-giving in children. The sharing of home space, clothes, shoes if they have one, and the limited
baon of camote or balanghoy or saging in rural areas; 5-10 pesos in urban areas—these are occasions for
internalizing the values attached to the practice of sharing. In fact, apportioning or sharing of limited resources
speaks of the poor’s whole universe of practices and meanings; especially for the poor in the rural areas or
hinterlands where even the promise of abundance is a rare occurrence. The poor are thus forced to share and
think in terms of sharing. When they get hold of some material blessings, distribution is the main framework
that guides practice. When they intend to do something concrete, sharing is what guides their plans. It is indeed
ironic that poverty becomes the condition for sharing and communion. Life for them becomes possible if there
is practice of sharing or distribution. This is the logic of the sharing practice among the poor if they have to
survive. It possesses the logic of a strategy for survival and not necessarily the logic of a Christian virtue. This
is not to diminish the value of salo-salo or panag-ambitay—this is to recognize the fact that virtues acquired are
not immune to the pitfalls of abundance. Stories are not lacking about increase in material blessings turning
people into grim scrooges or pathetic Doña Victorinas and Imeldas.
The question, What happens if the poor are given abundance, would they still remain simple? The
BEC’s role may have to play its “function” to really purify and perfect that spirit of simplicity in the poor and
prevent the outcropping of a Doña Victorina or an Imelda or the one-day millionaire syndrome among them. A
habitual disposition of sharing acquired because of poverty may have to be perfected to become a true Christian
virtue of sharing despite poverty of resources. In this sense, the positive dispositions found among the poor may
find a place in an ideal setting like the BEC as a real incubator and shaper of Christian values. This is not to
lessen the value of the poor’s disposition to practice pakikipagkapwa; this is to recognize the fact that positive

35
cultural values are conditions for the success of BECs. This is also to recognize that those values should find
fulfilment in the BEC.
The sharing of joy in community celebrations is another opportunity enjoyed by the poor when they are
in BEC interactional frames and scenarios for communion. On the other hand, many of us who are not into BEC
will think of sharing fun with members of the nuclear family or close relatives and friends. This kind of
closeness is, of course, restricted. We know that. The family goes to places for shared celebrations; to
commercialized fun areas like the Enchanted Kingdom, Mall of Asia, Yakimix, Boracay, and the like. When we
feel there should be satisfaction in our lonely existence, we go to Starbucks, Coffee Bean, or simply McCafe.
When we are dreadfully depressed and alone, we have our laptops, iPads, LED TVs, and cables, and enjoy
Noynoying; or submit ourselves to breast implants, liposuction and, blepharoplasty (modification of the eyelids).
Accumulation of fun and excitement characterize these pain-reducing activities for individuals and their
families. They seldom show communitarian sharing of joy that uplifts and sustains people in broader public
spaces where deprivation and scarcity actually provide background for their enjoyable communion.

4) Less Regimented Time among its Population

The emergence of capitalism highlights the flight of work and consumption, from rural communities to
the urban capitalist centers. This is the original and far-reaching industry-induced separation (an “original sin”)
upon which other forms of separation will appear or re-appear (other forms of “sin” like forcing children to
become “independent” and allowing them to depend on their “premature maturities”). Boac society has been
largely spared from the capitalist regimentation and its alienating consequences.
In urbanized settings, the early morning domestic scurrying for work and school reflects the daily pull of
jobsites to employees and prospective employees who must leave their abodes and get separated from their
loved ones for 10 to 16 hrs. This normalized pattern of leave-separation brings about a fundamental rupture on
families because of the regular engagements in places of learning or work. Even younger children will already
be exposed to this kind of life as they also hurry up for their day-care centers or schools; the high school or
college level children will approximate the schedule of their parents who wake up at five in the morning, leave
home at six a.m., and return home at six or seven or nine p.m. or even midnight. The primary and warm
relations at home will be breached until the household members gather in again for the renewal of affective
interactions through common rituals and activities. If this coming together and renewal of affective sharing are
wanting, we will have potential cases of breached relations and deficit intimacies becoming more recurrent or
even permanent. Today’s nuclear and single-parent families, which are perceived as “normal,” are features that

36
have come about because of the more fundamental breaching patterns caused by waged work. Intimacy-deficit
households will also become more “normal.”
Grocery or market visits have drawn consumers away from the earth or wilderness for their supplies of
food and other products (including health and beauty products). Employment and shopping do not only show
people’s integration into urban society’s socio-economic processes, but also exposure to possibilities of being
cut off from diverse life-giving or health-promoting activities (like unhurried common breakfast, shared meals,
shared leisure, contact with the soil through games or gardening, regular visits to elders, or enjoyment of other
non-utilitarian activities).
People become different persons when they leave their abodes for the workplace or the market. They
assume identities that abide by the rules and prescriptions of male-instituted rationalized systems. They become
employees or buyers whose freedom adapt to the templates of commerce. The moment people return to their
homes, they shift back to household or neighborly identities but never to regain that previous self untainted by
the business world’s second-nature formal calculations. Once they have signed contracts with employers,
sacrificed family presence with remote goals, exchanged their labor for wages, parted with the hard-earned
money for goods, and missed the presence of kin in common or mutual-help endeavors, people will become
more familiar with the requisites of rationalizing means for ends; for the more enticing extrinsic goods than the
intrinsic goods gained from the Lebenswelt.24 This will become the platform of the gradual change of treating
former ends (kinship solidarity) as mere means for survival.
As capitalism forms its typical productive forces, as it sets up its appropriate organization, as it
establishes venues for the circulation of goods, as it provides fields for workers and consumers, and as it
generates its distinctive legitimating ideas, capitalism eventually shapes a social order and its citizens whose
characters and virtues conform to work and spending requirements.
Employees or workers have to follow the paths and flows of the present socio-economic history. Even as
they are committed to their ambitions, they will have to suspend (as much as possible) their private lives while
they are inside the workplace. Ideally, for most workers within workplaces, the very personal desires have to be
unspoken; not to be expressed. In the process, one is somehow forced to sacrifice or postpone the satisfaction of
his affective needs opening up to affective scarcity.

24
For Alfred Schutz, Lebenswelt or lifeworld is “ ‘the world of lived experience,’ which is made up of the life experiences of
other people and how they impact upon us as individuals. The Lebenswelt consists of physical and social objects which are
experienced by us as already existing and already organized. We assume that the Lebenswelt was there before we were born; we take
it for granted and suspend doubt that things might be otherwise.” Shaun Best, A Beginners Guide to Social Theory (London: SAGE
Publications, 2003), p. 117. “The lifeworld is the phenomenological terrain of sedimented tradition, shared contexts, knowledge and
competencies—a complexity on which every communicative act depends.” Martin Morris, “Jürgen Habermas,” in Jon Simons, ed.,
Contemporary Critical Theorists: From Lacan to Said (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), p. 238.
37
 As capitalism eventually takes its fundamental shape, it gains its autonomy away from the spaces,
culture, and authorities that are identified with the feudal or simple agrarian-based societies. Nevertheless, its
history is also the unfolding of fields, processes, products, and procedures that produce alienations.
Some forms of alienation act insidiously and fundamentally into molding attitudes and behavior. They
drive people within capitalist fields towards greater involvement and conviction which further reinforce various
forms of separation from the Lebenswelt or the household. These forms of alienations have become part of our
state of affairs. Thus, they are present even without our awareness of them, even if we deny them, even if we
think otherwise.
Alienations do impinge upon consciousness and behavior. They can mold enduring dispositions. In this
sense, these alienations are internalized and become part of individual selves.
The “original sin” of fundamental rupture in the family should not be so alarming if the family members,
especially the young ones, belong to the temperamental category described by Thomas and Chess as “easy”:
“These infants approach objects with an engaging mood, are regular in rhythmicity, respond well to new
situations, and are typically cheerful. They comprise 40% of the population.”25 Some, however, are “slow to
warm up” (1η%) or “difficult” (10%)—that when exposed to unfamiliar situations or strange caregivers would
surely suffer stress, and further stress from the distressing inner storm brought about by the external rupture.
The Sturm und Drang phenomenon will thus be further dramatized in the lives of those who suffer from “storm
and stress.”
No matter how the present social transformations are assessed, the meaning of alienation should be read
against the broader context of what is dubbed as post-capitalist. Post-capitalism is a setting which, for some
theorists, is understood to be beyond the Marxian productionist form of alienation. It should be made clear,
however, that even previous to the Marxian idea of alienation, different forms of alienation have already been
linked to a non-capitalist era. Some of these forms may have been grafted into the capitalist structures; and thus,
acquired a character no longer identified with established traditions. For example, male domination in the feudal
age has found its modern expression within fields where male rule has been translated into the “rights of man.”
Positions of authority are still male-dominated as fields are the domains appropriate for males.
Indeed, alienation may have to be viewed against the backdrop of a more complex historical reality
where structures are determined by either consolidations or separations. There are previous traditional venues
and relationships which used to have their own brands of alienations but are then transformed and aggravated
by the dominance of capitalist core mainstays. As a consequence, alienating situations have been engendered.

25
A. Thomas and S. Chess, Temperament and Development (New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1977), as cited in Arden and Linford, Brain-
Based Therapy with Children and Adolescents, p. 28.
38
Such alienation occurs due to the capitalist processes of production and spending/consumption. Some of these
processes are about having (a) people deviate from traditions, (b) family members separate from one another,
(c) human beings assaulting nature, (d) people estranged from their neighbors, and (e) individual memory and
imagination manipulated away from what is substantive and real.
Therefore, alienation may be examined not only as an alienation within labor or market contexts but also
as alienations either because of spending/consumption and labor patterns or despite the non-existence of
capitalist labor or cash for the market of goods. Nowadays, generating value need not extract surplus value from
productive labor. Alienation can expand beyond assembly lines. Spending/consumption behavioral patterns or
objects of consumption now do engender fundamental forms of alienation. One example is the alienating
situation in the enjoyment/leisure-consumption behavior of affluent people of the West vis-à-vis the
survival/subsistence-consumption patterns of the poor in the former colonial enclaves in South America, Africa,
and Asia.

5) Less distractions from the city’s consumer-centered culture

In Boac’s island-agrarian lifeworld, the city’s consumer-centered culture is still a distant reality. People
in Boac have far less access to distractions brought about by the city’s multitude of commodities that trigger
every person’s desire to a feverish response.
In order to live in the city, people have to negotiate through the ways that define life in the city. People
must work and must have money in order to live like the “human being” that many of us would picture as
normal. This is not to say that human life in the countryside does not involve work or the buying of necessities.
The kind of work that we have in the city or in a business establishment is 8-5 or 9-6 work [some firms are able
to adjust their schedules to 12hrs/day x 4 days or 13hrs/day x 3 days]; and this work is paid strictly according to
contract; and it must conform to the rules of business. Farming or fishing in the countryside, in general, does not
require strict conformity to written rationalized rules or rules narrowed-down to the bottom-line of business or
bureaucratic politics. Instead they conform to so many unwritten or implicit Lebenswelt norms. Farm work or
traditional agricultural lifestyle has given shape to some forms of solidarities and these are sensitive to the many
implicit rules of traditional culture. In some parts of Batanes, where the Lebenswelt is surely not yet colonized
by the market system, one could still find some stores unattended where buyers just get the stuff they want and
may drop their payment into a designated box.26
Work in the city is generally defined by the explicit rules imposed by the workplace as well as by the
implicit rules of trade and commerce. In their everyday life, people cannot but be affected by such rules that

26
Alma Cruz-Miclat, “A Dream of Batanes,” Philippine Daily Inquirer 24/332 (October 28, 2009), p. A17.
39
they have made for themselves. To live like “the rest of humanity,” everyone must imbibe such rules. This
would ensure their continued employment and subsistence, as well as the continued operations of business and
commercial transactions of people. Even traditional-minded people exposed to the more traditional forms of life
at home and their neighborhood will have to conform to the non-traditional rules of modern work. People could
thus be exposed to various forms or levels of implicit contexts—the traditional and non-traditional or mixed
environments.
Everyone must have to prepare and train for the kind of life framed by industry and commercial
activities. Through schooling, people will further learn how to behave and conduct their lives. People will
eventually believe that in order to succeed in life, they have to be prepared for the way to success, that is,
through education or acquisition of skills for eventual employment. Thus, everyone must go to school for their
eventual entry into work. When they get their jobs their wages will pay for their needs which, of course, will
require money as medium of exchange.
People will, however, realize that once they get into work, get paid, buy goods and services, and pay for
their bills, they will feel more pressured in facing other concerns like relationship with their spouses, children,
relatives, neighbors, and friends. They will still have to worry about meeting the demands of such relations as
well as the demands of their culture or their traditions. While being pressured by the demands of the workplace,
they also have to attend to their loved ones and to supposedly warm neighborly relations.
The problem with meeting the requirements of work or employment is that it gets tangled with meeting
the requirements of many important relationships. Most of us who would not be able to meet the requirements
of relationships must choose work in rationalized setups and thus eventually sacrifice relational bonding; more
important values or heart-level principles (or affectional principles) could be sacrificed in favor of necessity or
first-order norms which already bear different principles that strategize behavior. Moreover, the more feminine
or womanly tendencies to establish bonds (cf. Gurian or Gilligan)27 will suffer from exclusion or subordination
under the strict rules of rationalized business goals; thereby making the market society unfriendly to imperatives
of intimacy. One by one, important bonds will be gradually dropped out in favor of waged or rationalized work:
bonds with the neighbors, with the extended family, with relatives, with parents, with siblings, with former
friends, with spouse, with children, and finally with oneself or even with God; consequently, generating
impingements.

27
Michael Gurian, The Wonder of Girls: Understanding the Hidden Nature of our Daughters (New York: Pocket Books, 2002);
Michael Gurian, The Wonder of Boys: What Parents, Mentors and educators Can Do to Shape Boys into Exceptional Men (New
York: Penguin Group, 1997); Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982).
40
 Thus, it is against the background of the collapse of traditional solidarities brought about by the
imperatives of a male-configured industry and commerce that the issue of belongingness may be also examined.
Impingements suffered by solidarity or belongingness may be understood here as brought about by preference
for rational (pragmatic) principles to manage a context more appropriately handled by or imbued with
affectional principles. In other words, to better understand the BEC, it is also important to look into the social
conditions that affected the traditional social bonds that previous generations have developed for themselves.
This process of looking at BECs and the collapse of previous solidarities will also involve looking into
some of the ways people have created to compensate for the loss of their previous bonds. In fact, we witness the
creation of some forms of association (newer forms of solidarities) that serve to compensate for the loss of
former ways of relating with one another. Unions have been formed in factories and offices, more formal
associations organized by neighbors, welfare organizations established by the state, churches, businesses, and
civil society. But we may ask, are all of these associations and their intended purpose to create favorable
conditions for life able to establish the conditions for belongingness or solidarity?
The answer may be both yes and no. Some are better able to establish the conditions; others could only
bring out so much. The rest are so specialized and thus limited in their promotion of conditions for life’s
flourishing around the many areas of life: family life, neighborhood relations, friendship, sexual intimacy,
fulfillment in work or career, and personal integration. Failure to meet the needs of people along these areas
means trouble. Problems like teenage pregnancy, separations, loneliness, depression, neurosis, schizophrenia,
diseases, to mention a few, are now better understood as related to issues of lack of intimacy and solidarity—not
just related to anomie or failure in social integration.28 Even our approaches to solving our problems, like
dealing with failures or sickness or death, are also defined by the way we conduct our life around work and
spending which have subordinated much of our traditions to extrinsic, pragmatic and utilitarian values.

6) Less divisions and separations

The industrial revolution has changed the Western world from basically rural and agricultural to a
largely urban and industrial society. Though it brought many material benefits to society, the said revolution has
created many problems that are still with us today. Among the numerous consequences are the (a) degraded and
depleted environment; (b) disenfranchised indigenous peoples of former colonies; (c) discriminated races; (d)
exploited laborers who endure separations, isolations, degradations and monotony in work; (e) the continued
disintegration of traditional loyalties and solidarities; and, (f) the shrinking or loss of wider social bonds.

28
See Flora Rheta Schreiber, Sybil (New York: Warner Books, 1973) See also Ian P. Albery and Marcus Munafò, Key
Concepts in Health Psychology (Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore: SAGE Publications, 2008).
41
 Nevertheless, the more traditional/simple population of Boac still produce their own goods for
consumption. They have the freedom, no matter how limited, to determine what is necessary and what is
something they can live without. The simplicity of their material culture has not only determined their needs but
also their imagination to create things beyond what is necessary. Boac’s fleet of farmers and fishers have been
habituated to their work and lifestyles; these do not require much separations from their families and
neighborhood. Nevertheless, although traditional culture still survive in Boac’s rural areas, few landowners
control huge properties. Thousands are landless and remain as tenants in order to survive.29
Time for many famers and fishers is still non-reducible to definite schedules dictated by the operations
of industrial machinery. The working day of a farmer, for example, is not fixed to 8 or 12 hours. It could have
been 4 or 14; depending on factors like the season or volume of seedlings for planting. Time pressure is not a
big factor and there are lesser stressors compared to the monotonous, specialized, and strictly programmed
activities inside the factories.30
The farmers and fishers are exposed to less demanding and less oikos-departing work, workspace, and
work relations. An environment more similar to a family setup than a factory is maintained by virtue of the
household or neighborhood which still promotes closeness and informality.
Nevertheless, the traditional rural/agricultural life may be eventually penetrated by the activities and
products of private merchants-industrialists.31 But most famers and fishers have not migrated to production set-
ups in urban settings. The city’s need for highly-skilled urban workers has deterred the less-educated farmers
and fishers from city migration.
The traditions of the past, which are still alive in the ways of the farmers and fishers may not have
tangled with the new ways of the private individual-led free enterprise set-ups. These traditional culture bearers
do not have to adapt to the ways of entrepreneurs.

7) Continuity of traditions/generations

29
See J.P. McAndrew, Urban Usurpation: From Friar Estates to Industrial Estates in a Philippine Hinterland (Quezon City,
Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994); J. Putzel, Captive Land: The Politics of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines
(London/New York: Catholic Institute for International Relations/Monthly Review Press, 1992).
30
Cf. E.S. Riemer and J.C. Fout, European Women: A Documentary History 1789-1945. (New York: Schocken Books, 1980), pp.
1-56; Elton Mayo, The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization (Boston: Division of Research, Graduate School of Business
Administration, Harvard University, c1945), pp. 3ff.; I. Pinchbeck, Women and Workers and the Industrial Revolution (New York:
Crofts, 1932); Émile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society, trans. W.D. Halls. Contemporary Social Theory. General ed.,
Anthony Giddens (London: Macmillan Education, 1984).
31
R. Critchfield, The Villagers: Changed Values, Altered Lives. The Closing of the Urban-Rural Gap (New York: Anchor Books,
1994).
42
 Culture is handed-down from one generation to the next. If the present island-agrarian conditions would
continue, today’s traditions may still be that kind of solid tradition that succeeding generations of Boac people
will learn and share among themselves.
People learn many things; but, most of the time, how they have learned them is not part of their learning.
What they have unconsciously learned from culture, for instance, they just repeat or reproduce unconsciously in
their behavior. Such learned things are registered as memories, lodged in every person’s brain.32 These
memories enable people to effortlessly deal with everyday life and in the various ways of interaction or
survival.
People know the proper time to eat, the proper time to sleep, the proper time to keep silent and to make
noise; they also know the proper places to eat, to sleep, to entertain visitors, to urinate or defecate. However,
there is no vivid remembrance as to how they have learned them or who exactly taught them. Such “learnings”
have been acquired unconsciously, or subconsciously, or through ordinary routines done day in and day out.
Most of these are imbibed through the examples or body language of primary relations; most of these are
retained and repeated automatically in the presence and with the acknowledgment of secondary relations.
Thus Boac culture will be generally transmitted through the process of socialization among farmers and
fishers. It is via the island-agrarian forms of social relations, through the acknowledged agents of socialization
(farmers and fishers), that cultural structures are communicated and instilled in cognition and bodily
dispositions of every Boac child. Typical behaviors of individuals who possess recognized roles provide
everyday behaviors for younger members of society to subconsciously imitate and ultimately internalize;
forming part of the young generation’s self-system. The formation of character takes into account the objective
nature of structures as well as the subjective role of individuals who take active part in creating and re-creating
their identities within limits imposed by structures. The subjective processing of input cannot however avoid the
recognized circularity of understanding. Socialization will always pay homage to the primacy, in terms of its
massivity and power, of objective structures.33 From this point of view, in Boac reality, Boac values are caught
by members of Boac society, embedded in their flesh.
This process of socialization, however, may take place within a framework of hybrid factors of both
traditional and modern ways of relations and interactions—if such modern factors are present and influential. In
the midst of modern influences, some age-old structures like the extended family structures are still observable.
Boac people’s solid traditions have not yet been liquefied by the pressures of the highly urbanized city’s
frenetic time and hybrid spaces.

32
See James W. Kalat, Biological Psychology (Singapore: Wadsworth, 2005), pp. 355ff.
33
Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (Garden City,
N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967).
43
Everyday life of BEC participants
One cannot make a simple generalization about what constitutes everyday life for local church
parishioners. There are so many social, cultural, and economic factors that make life so complex nowadays.
Such factors also produce multiple expressions or variations in the contours of life and movement in every
living parish.
Variations would result even with just the use of profiling variables such as social classification and
distribution based on gender, class, age, education, socio-econonic status, or demographics. In fact, we could
adopt these variables for the present study of the ten parishes to produce a compelling picture about a parish;
but this approach would not be able to show the wider or longitudinal developmental canvas that will clearly
show the pattern of every parishioner’s involvement or non-involvement in the BEC. The mapping out of action
on behalf of a living tradition or personal involvement as a show of commitment to God may need more data
about the interplay of the individual and a lifeworld34 that is not reduced to statistical categories. This will be
made clearer as we adopt a more culturalist way of studying a living parish; one that involves a historical view
of every parish, its culture, and its economy—all the while, viewing such facets from a material-culturalist
perspective à la Fernand Braudel’s methodology.

Everyday Life: Its Authority

We recognize the authority of the PCP II documents. Indeed, BEC formation has increased dramatically
because of its authority. But if we see some parishes, like those mentioned above, lagging behind in BEC
formation despite PCP II, we have to ask this question: What is that authority (or where is the source of that
authority) that directs and orients these “unsuccessful” parishes? We will not be able to get an answer if we look
for another set of papers exactly like the PCP II documents. We will not be able to get an answer if we look for
committed leaders who will implement similar documents as authoritative as PCP II documents.
Yet, we really have a very authoritative source of directions and orientations in the way life has been
determined by commerce, preserved by politics and protected by its wealth of laws and other legal principles.
Concretely, life around Cebu City Metropolitan Parish (or San Pedro Parish or Quiapo Parish) depends
on the presence of business centers, employees, and the business culture that binds and animates them. Such a
setting is embedded in centuries-old transactions founded on business fundamentals like private property, self-
34
For Alfred Schutz, Lebenswelt or lifeworld is “ ‘the world of lived experience,’ which is made up of the life experiences of
other people and how they impact upon us as individuals. The Lebenswelt consists of physical and social objects which are
experienced by us as already existing and already organized. We assume that the Lebenswelt was there before we were born; we take
it for granted and suspend doubt that things might be otherwise.” Shaun Best, A Beginners Guide to Social Theory (London: SAGE
Publications, 2003), p. 117. “The lifeworld is the phenomenological terrain of sedimented tradition, shared contexts, knowledge and
competencies—a complexity on which every communicative act depends.” Martin Morris, “Jürgen Habermas,” in Jon Simons, ed.,
Contemporary Critical Theorists: From Lacan to Said (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), p. 238.
44
interest, and the legal principles that support them. Every individual activity would thus be framed by broader
activities that take for granted formal contracts, business permits, business deals, profit-making, waged-work,
self-interested money-making practices such as investments, loans and savings in banks, and the like.
Individuals are in the middle of public spaces where each one is left to his own business—minding his own
business.
Imagine how you can organize BECs out of people who are constantly gripped by waged-work,
business, and commercial routines? From where do we get individuals who will compose BECs as communities
of fellowship and solidarity, when everyone around this area would be more submissive to the “authority” of
commercial life? When the directions and orientations of individuals and families in the private confines of their
homes are pushed by the frenzy of business strategies or market techniques, we can only expect that the values
associated with love, warmth of the home and neighborly solidarity will be, in general, subordinated or limited
to intimacies (when “mwah-mwaah tsup-tsup” gestures are shared only by close friends and not among
members of a wider social circle). (We shall further develop this idea of subordinated values identified with the
traditional family life and neigborhood fellowship in another section of this paper.)
So when we see that not all kinds of institutional documents and decrees would produce the same effects
on communities as PCP II would impress its authority on the formation of BECs, we must remember that
implementation is not just based or does not just depend on statements or discursive principles. There should be
those other very important (indispensable) conditions of possibility that “authorize” the dynamic reception and
concrete realization of PCP II. For BEC formation, a good number of committed Christians and neighborly
settings could provide those necessary conditions. For the BECs to become the Church of the Poor, the poor
communities could provide the good number of committed Christians as well as settings that are still imbued
with the more traditional values of malasakit and pakikipagkapwa-tao.
To a certain extent, the Parish of Our Lady of the Abandoned (POLA) in Mandaluyong has seen the
formation of its own BECs despite the urban location. The difference is that in POLA, one may still experience
a sense of neighborhood. But then, again, neighborhood in many areas like subdivisions could only be under a
Homeowners’ Association and not organized into BEC. These Homeowners’ Associations actually function as
associations for the gated and walled family home-enclaves and not for cohesive neighborly homeowners. To a
great extent, subdivisions are animated by the middle class dwellers who are enlisted as employees and whose
time is earmarked for offices separate from homes. Moreover, middle class walls of self-sufficiency and
autonomy would mark boundaries of homes. Invisible signs reinforce those walls: “Private Property,” “No

45
Trespassing,” or “No Entry.” Their locked gates are also loaded with the message: “Do Not Disturb” and “You
are not Welcome.”35

A pre-given “cultural community” among its parishioners

As already mentioned, even before the organizing work for BEC in BOAC diocese started, most people
are already living in some forms of community—neighborhood- or kinship-based, barangay-based (whose
members may belong to a clan), or ethnic-based—which are enlivened by an island-provincial culture. The pre-
BEC Christian people’s lives revolving around the primary occupations of farming and fishing have been
shaped by years of shared repetitive activities around labor/production, reproduction, worship, and other forms
of socialization. The material-geographical resources and opportunities found in and determined by the island-
province setting have generated a culture—the patterned and enduring ways of dealing with nature and people,
pathways for pursuits and opportunities, beliefs, rituals, social organizations, and other shared practices that
have endured the test of time. The handing down of such culture, with all its beliefs, customs, social
dispositions, and traditions, has ensured the reproduction and continuity of a kind of life that still informs and
enlivens the common people and those who work to organize BECs. Lay people who come from the ranks of
Marinduqueños have brought themselves and their enduring habits or dispositions to their churches. Being
anchored in the social dispositions alive in Marinduque’s communities, the personal dispositions of BECs
members eventually mark the character of such BECs.
Bishop Oliveros (former bishop of Boac) gives the following observation:

Marinduque, which comprises the Diocese of Boac, is an island province steeped in tradition as
well as cultural values and practices. The whole cycle of the life of Christ from birth thru his
Passion to His Resurrection is portrayed and interspersed with local practices and customs drawn
from the cultural values of the native population throughout the years. The season of Advent and
Christmas is characterized by the practice of the Panuluyan, which is a dramatization of the story
of Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay while waiting for the birth of Jesus. The cultural
value enhanced here is the positive as well as the negative side of hospitality, of which we
Filipinos are well known.36

35
We have laws and decrees like the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 (Republic Act No. 8749) and the Ecological Solid
Waste Management Act of 2000 (Republic Act No. 9003) —but very few communities would follow their directives. If only all the
leaders of government agencies, cities, and barangays, would have committed leaders like those members of the clergy and lay leaders
who organize and animate the BECs, environmental protection could reach dramatic levels of implementation. In fact, it would be
good to see what BECs would accomplish if they adopt the decrees of Republic Act No. 8749 and Republic Act No. 9003.
36
Bishop Jose F. Oliveros, “The Filipino Clergy in a State of Mission: Inculturation / Integral Faith Formation,”
http://clergycongress2.org/?p=146 / accessed 20 October 2013.
46
 Marinduque’s culture, one that is saturated with shared ethos, common barangay memories, collective
conscience,37 and enduring social dispositions or habitus,38 is the glue that binds people as one community.
Habitus refers to both the social habitus of a certain group of people and the personal habitus of an
individual. In general terms, habitus refers to the generalized and habitual schemes of thought, appreciation and
action. It points to the habitual dispositions of a society which every individual would internalize and become
part of oneself as second-nature ability. Their predispositions or determined typical ways of looking or viewing
at things, ways of evaluating taste or values, ways of approaching an event or problem through action, prefigure
everything that a group or a person may think, appreciate or do. Within the simple communities of Boac
diocese, a predominantly traditional shared habitus still thrive. In the urban settings of Cebu City or
Mandaluyong, Manila, a more disjointed and multiple forms are found where an individual’s habitus may
mirror a complex environment—one that is multilinear, full of nodes or fields, links, pathways, and networks. It
is not only this urban complexity and the disjointed/exploded forms of dispositions that have rendered
community-building in urbanized settings more difficult—it is also the absence of conditions found in an
agrarian lifeworld similar to Boac.
The kind of work and the pursuits and opportunities offered by a market society (a society founded on
commerce, division of labor, self-interest, and money-making) such as Metro Manila would drive people to
shape themselves into workers (with qualifications, skills, and earning capacity) and consumers (with the
capacity to pay and disposition to pursue individual opportunities, ambitions, and pleasures).
The kind of work in the offices or production sites require a more systematic or formal kind of
organization and cooperation. This kind of organization or cooperation is, however, not one that characterizes
the “organized” character of a neighborhood community or a clan or an ethnic group or a BEC. It is one that is
consciously adopted to assemble together, mobilize, and deploy a set or group of skilled workers for
production/services and away from their kith and kin, neighborhood, and nature 8-16 hours a day (Overseas

37
“The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society forms a determinate system with a life
of its own. It can be termed the collective or common consciousness.” Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labour in Society, trans.
W.D. Halls (London: The McMillan Press Ltd., 1984), pp. 38-39.
In French, the word conscience refers to “conscience” and “consciousness.” It thus covers both the moral beliefs/sentiments
and cognitive beliefs/sentiments shared by individuals in a society. See Karen E. Fields, “Translator’s Introduction,” in Emile
Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (New York: The Free Press, 1995), pp. xlvii ff.
38
See Jonathan Fletcher, Violence and Civilization: An Introduction to the Work of Norbert Elias (Cambridge: Polity Press,
1997); Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process: The History of Manners and State Formation and Civilization, trans. Edmund Jephcott
(London: Blackwell Pub., 1994) and Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1977); see also also Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (London: Routledge, 1984), pp. 170ff.
The concept of habitus was “introduced by Marcel Mauss as “body techniques” (techniques du corps) and further developed
by Norbert Elias in the 1930s, habitus can sometimes be understood as those aspects of culture that are anchored in the body or daily
practices of individuals, groups, societies, and nations. It includes the totality of learned habits, bodily skills, styles, tastes, and other
non-discursive knowledges that might be said to “go without saying” for a specific group—in that way it can be said to operate
beneath the level of ideology.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitus/, accessed June 14, 2006.
47
Workers are practically absent from their families most of the time). The offices and production units also keep
urbanites away from the land or the sea. Most of the time, the smell, sound, sight, and touch of nature have
become foreign to city dwellers and their children. The wilderness or the rugged mountain terrain is something
that most of them could not even imagine.
On the other hand, Boac’s traditional farmers and fishers leave home for their daily work but their
activities are not the result of a formally organized office or production site. Their movements may also be a
product of routine, but these are neither bundy-clocked nor earmarked for the malls. Theirs are routines of a
lifeworld, widely-shared and more informal than the regimented office, production, and commercial work inside
built ecologies.
The kinds of workers in offices, production, or commercial sites are not those kinds who face, on a daily
basis, the resources and opportunities of the land and the sea—farmers and fishers who leave their homes for
work but are still bound by customs and social dispositions that do not render them absent from their families or
neighborhood for 8-16 hrs/day. Even if they are separated from their kin for a time, they are not separated from
the customs and traditions that bind them together 24/7. Moreover, their relationship with nature is less
demystified than those of the urbanites who may relate to the mountain as mountain climbers, nature
photographers, scientists, miners, tourists, or nature lovers; to the ocean, as yachters, scuba divers,
oceanographers, sport fishers, big-time fishers or as oil explorers. A form of mystical relationship with nature
(this may mean a more intimate communion) is exhibited by those farmers and fishers who live in and feel part
of their natural ecology. Their communion with nature as the ground of life is not destroyed by their farming or
fishing labor even if this would entail some amount of exploitation. The belief in nature deities or powers in the
waters or in the trees would attest to this more intimate kind of relationship with the natural world. On the other
hand, a demystified consciousness could behave as an autonomous power that dominates and treats nature more
as means or a tool for some extrinsic end, like treating the earth as a source of minerals for a functional gadget,
trees for subdivision houses, fish for export to Japan, mountain for a resort or ocean for National Geographic
exploration. Moreover, miners (and other commercial users of nature) do not just treat the earth as an
exploitable source of mineral deposits but also treat it as a sink—for their toxic by-products and trash.39 Miners
and other urbanites who deal with nature mainly as an exploitable and functional means do not have a mystical
relationship with the earth at all. Even nature lovers who treat nature as a source of delight may not have a basic
relationship of dependence that generates an organic relationship with the earth as the ground of life. Miners
and nature lovers have a common starting point: they are both self-interested and consume the earth for their

39
Re Marinduque mining and people’s organizations.
48
own purpose—as such, they validate an anthropocentric orientation.40 While the nature lover may not be an
economic utilitarian like the miner, s/he is still a utilitarian—a ludic-orientated utilitarian who probably cares
more for nature than for people. Although this position may arguably be pro-people in the long run, the poor
may find it difficult to grasp the long-term import of its logic. Nature lovers (and animal lovers too) are not
necessarily imbued with the virtues of charity and compassion—values that the poor understand—the same
values that the BEC exhorts and propagates.41 The social component-benefits that the BEC promotes may bring
more promise to the poor and could be more congenial to their longings and dispositions.

Early entry into the BCC/BEC thrust

Another factor that would contribute to the success of PCP II implementation is the site’s early exposure
to the BEC thrust. Boac, again, meets this norm.
After Marinduque was created as a separate diocese in January 1978, Bishop Rafael M. Lim took the
initiative to do a pastoral visit of the twelve parishes. He did this from June to July of the same year. His
exposure to the life of the common people gave him first-hand data which he brought to the first annual retreat
of the clergy held in Novaliches, Quezon City on August 21-29. It was during this clergy meeting that a
diocesan thrust of “re-Christianization” of Marinduque crystallized. The priests also realized that they had to
undergo their own parish exposure à la Bishop Lim’s pastoral visit.
Thus, “re-Christianization” of the people also meant the clergy’s education/re-education about
Marinduque life. This initial step required them to be with the common people. This is known as the “baryo
babad apostolate”—immersion in the barrios as an apostolate. Through this step, the priests who would become
the leaders of their parishes did make important realizations about their parishioners and their role as the
communities’ servants and animators. With the able guidance of Bishop Lim, they were able to define their
mission but not before making their assessment about the problems that they themselves discovered through
immersion in the people’s lifeworld. This immersion did expose them to the various problems that they had to
face.
In an academic thesis that dealt with the history of the BEC of Marinduque, we have an enumeration of
the following problems supposedly identified by the clergy: “Lack of unity and people’s participation…unfair
treatment of the poor by the rich…vices were the dominant problems. The low level of awareness and fatalism
(bahala na attitutde), ningas-cogon, individualism, family centeredness, utang na loob and others were

40
Cf. various orientation towards the natural environment.
41
See R. C. Zaehner, Mysticism Sacred and Profane (???: Oxford University Press, ???). We could direct this question to
Zaehner: Can we expect more charity and compassion coming from a demystified urbanite?
49
considered barriers to development and organization (The Luzon BCC-CO Retrospect & Prospect, 198θ).”42
This general assessment lacks the back-up of base-line data and some concepts are even loosely applied (like,
individualism and family centeredness), giving us less accurate picture about those problems. Nevertheless, it
gives us some insight about what the clergy wanted to accomplish: to hurdle the impediments of development
and organization.
It was at this juncture that the Social Action Commission (SAC) of the Diocese of Boac was created. It
became the conduit for the delivery of services to parishes and, later, as the main arm in the implementation of
the BCC-CO program. SAC’s first director was Msgr. Senen M. Malapad. The BCC-CO is a network of BCC
members and workers which provides education, research and publication and alliance work on the building of
BCCs. It was chaired by Bishop Rafael Lim who steered it as an autonomous body in coordination with the
Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
Various events have coalesced to support the program initiated by Bishop Rafael Lim. A national
consultation on the BCC-CO was held in Cebu. This stressed the importance of community organizing if
ecclesial communities have to be established. In the 1979 Synod of Manila, the BCC-CO was adopted as the
primary pastoral thrust. Bishop Lim took a central role in promoting the BCC-CO program in Luzon. As head
of the BCC-CO Inter-Area Board of Luzon, he was able to influence other bishops and members of the religious
congregations on the BCC-CO pastoral approach.
Back in Marinduque, the pastoral program of the diocese took a more defined and systematic turn after
the clergy’s second annual gathering (August 21-30, 1979) and the pastoral workshop-management seminar of
September 17-21. The program explicitly adopted the BCC-CO pastoral approach with a more integrative
vision of re-Christianization through Total Human Development. This vision of Total Human Development
gave the pastoral thrust a move away from the pietistic and centrist approach to church life. From here, the
church center had to systematically adopt a perspective away from its usual distant posture and from its too
institutional and doctrinal concerns. It moved towards an appropriation of FABC’s concern to dialogue with the
poor with its vision of total human development.43 In consonance with its mission towards establishing the
Church of the Poor, FABC’s vision is itself a dramatic appropriation of Gaudium et spes 1: “The joys and
hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys
and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well.”

42
See G.N. Maquimot, Basic Christian Communities in the Diocese of Boac, Unpublished Master Thesis (Boac, Marinduque:
Marinduque State College, 2005).
43
The FABC documents have consistently brought up this vision of Total Human Development as the key to its mission in
the whole Asian region. See, James H. Kroeger, “The FABC Papers Comprehensive Index,” http://eapi.admu.edu.ph/content/fabc-
papers-comprehensive-index / 26 May 2013.
50
 Boac initially adopted the BCC-KRISKA approach which made the Bible sharing as the focal point of
BCC activities. Locals were trained for Bible studies and the art of Bible sharing. Later on, the KRISKA
approach gave way to the CO component for a more socially-orientated implementation of the diocesan thrust.
This does not mean that bible sharing was abandoned. It was kept and became part of an expanded arsenal of
community work which included conscientization and organizing to meet head-on the social problems that
confronted the diocese, such as land-grabbing, environmental degradation, election irregularities, landlessness,
eviction of informal settlers, poverty/destitution, and other pressing issues.
The years that followed witnessed the preparations for the more formal pace of organizing, including the
pre-requisite surveys, seminars, meetings, core group organizing and bible sharing. Thus, in 1982, the BCC-CO
was formally launched in the diocese of Boac. In 2002, there were 135 BCCs, with more than 5,000 individual
members. The program progressed further as it received more fresh and abundant shots of vigor from the PCP II
of 1991.
Before PCP II, the BCC-CO thrust of Boac was already a story that heralded success in the area of
building communities. This could not have come about without the initiative of the Bishop-Servant leader.

The Bishop-Servant Leader

The PCP II implementation depends on so many factors, but the animating and consolidating role of the
Bishop-leader is crucial to its eventual success. The case of Boac diocese is again instructive.
Boac was canonically erected on 10 May 1978. The Most Rev. Rafael M. Lim, a native of Boac, was
appointed on 26 January 1978 (Jan. 26, 1978 to Sept. 10, 1998) by Paul VI as the first Bishop of the new
Diocese. The Diocese of Boac is composed of 14 parishes and has 223 BECs with 26,280 members so far.
Through the guidance of the Most Rev. Rafael M. Lim, the first bishop of the diocese, a diocesan vision
was formulated in 1981: Marinduque, Simbahan ng mga Dukha na may Katarungan, Pag-big at Kapayapaan.
It was under Bishop Lim’s watch that the BCCs in Boac took form (Batayang Pamayanang Kristiyano—BPK).
He also headed the Luzon Basic Christian Community-Community Organizing (BCC-CO) which worked
independently but coordinated with the CBCP. Bishop Lim died in 1998. His successor, Bishop Jose F. Oliveros
(Feb. 2, 2000 to May 14, 2004) continued to work for the BCC program. He also convened the First Diocesan
Synod on 4-9 May 2003. This was participated by government and civil servants, together with the different
sectoral leaders from the local communities. The Boac Decrees reflected the diocesan vision to build the
“Church of the Poor, imbued with Justice, Love, and Peace” as it followed the vision of PCP II for church
renewal and concretize this through the building of the BECs, the showcase of the Church of the Poor.

51
 The next Bishop, Most Rev. Reynaldo G. Evangelista continued the BCC program (now better known as
BEC) of his predecessors as he further called for a Pastoral Assembly in September 2006 where a Diocesan
Pastoral Plan was unanimously approved based on the Synodal Decrees of 2003. It is to the credit of Bishop
Evangelista that the Pastoral Plan has also put more pressure on the clergy to really dedicate themselves to BEC
building, that is, renewing the Boac Church as Church of the Poor. Bishop Evangelista does not hide his
preference for parish priests devoted to BEC and his disdain for non-BEC-oriented priests who apply in his
diocese.
The Diocese of Boac started its BEC program through organizing activities in 1982, using the BCC-CO
methodology/approach. This approach has three stages, namely: Awakening, Empowerment and Re-
structuring. Every stage has corresponding activities.
After twenty (20) years of organizing, the BCC program has resulted in the formation of one hundred
forty one (141) organized BCC units in 100 barrios/barangays throughout the province with 10-15
member families per unit. It has a total membership of 5,000 family units as of the year 2002. To date,
about 20% of the BCC units are considered as self- sufficient/governing while 40% is in the sustaining
level. On the other hand, 25% is in the initiating stage and remaining 15% has died down. For the
integral faith formation of the member families, the BCC has initiated six development programs,
namely, economic, health, agricultural, political, ecological and religious-cultural.44

However, the presence of PCP II institutional documents and decrees would not automatically translate
into successful implementation even if pushed by ecclesiastical authorities. The high level of success in Boac is
not observable in other places. E.g. Cebu City Metropolitan Parish and Davao City’s San Pedro Parish or
Quiapo Church-Parish where BECs are, in fact, “almost foreign”. The only reason why we say BEC is “almost
foreign” in those places and not “foreign” is the existence of Archdiocesan Pastoral Plans that directs these
parishes to build their own BECs.

External support (technical and logistics) from PBSP, PLMP, Bukal ng Tipan and missio-Germany,
among others
Support from external groups are important especially for those sites which have a considerable number
of BECs and more advanced community programs. More creative ways of expanding participation among
households are sometimes inspired or supplied by such external groups, not to mention the human and material
resources that they contribute to the communities. Grants from missio-Germany, for example, contributed to
further the growth or expansion of BECs.

44
Bishop Jose F. Oliveros, “Three Filipino Clergy in a State of Mission: Inculturation / Integral Faith Formation,”
http://clergycongress2.org/?p=146 / accessed 22 April 2012.
52
 To be able to sustain the presence and participation of lay leaders, it is necessary to employ full-time
workers or to provide them with financial support for transportation or meal allowances. Many of them come
from low-income groups. To be able to serve the churches, they will also have to ensure the survival of their
family members. Some parishes (cf. Pagadian experience) have been able to raise some funds for their
community workers by reviving a “tithing system” among their parishioners. Meanwhile, the tithes-payers
would be able to enjoy exemption from baptism, confirmation, marriage, or funeral fees required by the parish.
Several external institutions provided the most-needed support for the programs of the diocese. They
either extended material or non-material assistance. Material assistance came in the form of funds which were
used for organizing work; technical or educational support comprised the non-material forms. Boac Diocese,
through the Diocesan Social Action Center (SAC), usually allocates 80% of the funds to operational expenses
and 20% to salaries of full-time community organizers. In 1982, community organizers received about
PhP600.00 every month; today community organizers receive PhP5,000.00-6,500.00 every month, depending
on their length of service to the diocese.
The Asia Partnership for Human Development (APHD)45 provided funds for peasant development
program. The financial assistance it poured on the diocese enabled the Church leaders to hire community
workers and engaged their training for organizing work. People with abilities for community work were
recruited and remunerated. Funds freed the talented farmers/fishers from the usual nagging worries about
regular family sustenance while involved in community work. Without the paid scheme in organizing work,
local human resources are encumbered by their daily pursuit of resources for survival. With the funds to pay for
their wages, they have become better disposed to full-time BEC work. This is a scheme which is not always
adopted by the Bishops/Priests in the other dioceses/parishes under study. In Boac’s CO approach, full-timers
among the locals was deemed necessary. It was clear that community organizing cannot be done by the clergy
without the dedicated work of some parishioners. Thus, making use of external funding, about 29 community
organizers were deployed in 57 barangays in the diocese.

45
APHD is an NGO-partnership of 22 Catholic development agencies from Asia, Europe North America, Australia and New
Zealand. It was established in 1973 as a “radical departure from the traditional concept of aid with its donor-recipient relationships.”
The basic objective of the APHD is partnership for the development of peoples so that they take responsibility for all aspects of their
lives.
The Vision-mission statement of APHD: Towards the building of a just and humane world, where peoples and structures
reflect the God`s reign of truth, justice, compassion, human dignity, freedom, peace and love. APHD, an association of Asian and non-
Asian Catholic agencies which are mandated by their respective national bishops` conferences to work for integral and sustainable
human development, seeks to be in solidarity with the poor, marginalised, and oppressed peoples of Asia in their efforts for
empowerment, development, and the promotion of their dignity and rights; and to create among its members a partnership committed
to sharing, learning and capacity building in the context of the Asian realities of poverty exploitation and exclusion, and the unfolding
challenges of globalisation.
53
 Subsequently, another funding was received from the French government through the Philippine
Business for Social Progress (PBSP).46 This made possible for an additional number of community organizers
(3) who were recruited, trained, and deployed to cover 9 more barangays.
External funding has freed organizers from necessities—it freed them for community work. LUSSA,
NASSA, AMA, Misereor, Austrian Catholic Women's Movement, CEBEMO, and Missio. Technical assistance
came from Bukal ng Tipan as well as from IPDI.

This story of external support is not just a simple story of grants seeking/bestowal but a case of realized
opportunities for national and international networking. The world today is not only globalized by capitalist
interests, fields and networks, but also by non-capitalist networks of players who make themselves available
and could be tapped for their willingness to share their time and resources for human development. As part of a
globalized world, benefactors, activists, philanthropists, NGOs, faith-based organizations, and other workers for
social change and amelioration have become reachable. By entering into this network, Boac Diocese, in effect,
has become part of a countless nodes, fields, and links of players whose interests may be congenial to BEC
building. In this sense, Boac is one of the winners in the story of non-capitalistic globalization.

Lay participation from the margins dovetailing with the center’s more democratized approach to BEC
building

The BEC movement profited from the presence of lay leaders who have committed themselves to
serve God through the churches. These present-day lay leaders have exhibited more religious inclinations
and, in many cases, spiritual experiences that led them towards Church involvement. The churches of the 1970s
up to early 1980s have gained leaders through the political booms among the radicalized sectors who have
dedicated their lives to the work of freedom and liberation from dictatorship, US imperialism, feudal powers,
and traditional politics.47 The many BEC leaders in the sites form a newer breed of Church workers who are not

46
“Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) is the largest corporate-led social development foundation in the
Philippines. Committed to poverty reduction, PBSP is the first of its kind in Asia leading the promotion and practice of corporate
social responsibility (CSR). More than 260 large, medium-scale and small businesses comprise PBSP. Together, PBSP members help
the poor rise above poverty and become self-reliant. PBSP operates nationwide, with programs in Education, Health, Sustainable
Livelihood, Micro Small and Medium Enterprise Development, and the Environment implemented with partners and communities as
empowered players in development. Since its inception in 1970, PBSP has benefited 4.5 million Filipinos and assisted over 6,200
social development projects through more than PHP 7 billion in grants and development loans. Leading the way in the practice of
corporate citizenship, PBSP has been influencing companies to integrate CSR into their core businesses, and advocating the
application of business solutions to poverty.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Business_for_Social_Progress / accessed 12
June 2013.
47
See Ibid.
54
necessarily immersed in socio-political issues, but are imbued with religious inspiration that could lead them to
involvement in critical issues in their communities (cf. BEC’s protests against mining of limestone by Bacnotan
in Samal, against human rights violation in Cotabato, or against logging in Bukidnon, or against illegal fishing
in Cavite).
It is interesting to see how the BECs started in the late 60s or early 70s in Mindanao as Basic Christian
Communities and later organized according to the Basic Christian Community-Community Organizing (BCC-
CO) methodology/approach. A salient feature of the BCC-CO approach is its organizing component that later
took inspiration from the organizing principles of Saul Alinsky and Paulo Freire. Alinsky, an American,
operated on the ideas of organizing conflict groups or militants among the poor and making them into
professional radicals. Freire, a Brazilian popular educator, relied on radicalizing the poor through an education
process called conscientization. Both of them, Alinsky and Freire, influenced the ways BCCs were organized
especially during the martial law period. The Churches could not escape the climate of conflict and repression
and be confronted by so-called subversive activities from below. The BCCs of yesteryears were caught in this
situation and have been more identified with the prophetic function of the Church which somehow skews the
expression of the triple role (triplex munus) of the Church as a worshipping, teaching, and serving community.
The BCC-CO approach was identified with the progressive church that created programs like education
and health, economic enterprises and cooperative development as entry points for organizing people to avoid
getting into trouble with the Marcos dictatorship. Even if the BCCs were organized along liturgical work,
employing Bible studies and other creative forms of worship, during the Martial Law years, it became a means
for Christian witnessing through socio-political work.
Today, we have BECs which are not necessarily radicalized or conscientized and organized around
socio-political issues despite some BECs rallying against logging and mining. The previous organizing sites like
the chapel or the barangay kiosk have become part of the organizing approaches of today’s BECs whose
members may no longer be attuned to the more conflictual origins or radicalism legacy of the BCCs.
Sr. Mila Velasco (+2007), a member of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, was the first coordinator
and supervisor of the BCC-CO Program implemented by Boac’s SAC. The CO component replaced the former
KRISKA approach of the diocese. The target groups of SAC were the farmers, fishers, and women. Under Sr.
Velasco’s supervision were the seven (7) full-time community organizers deployed to various parishes: Villaluz
Villaruel, Ernesta Paglinawan, George Sapunto, Adora Ricaplaza, Celedonia Rocha, Bernadita Lintot, and
Lydia Mauzar. They were the pioneers in community organizing and became indispensable to the expansion of
the BEC program which today accounts for more than 26,000 BEC individual members in the whole Boac
diocese.

55
 Volunteer (part-time) community organizers were recruited from the local parishes for their services;
they did not receive the compensation given to full-time community workers. As COs on the level of the parish,
they gave strength and presence to the coordinating and consolidating work done by the full-time paid COs. It is
to the local COs’ active involvement that the increase and maintenance of parish-level BEC awareness and
belongingness may be credited. They have successfully gathered people and organized them into BEC members
who regularly meet around bible sharing or prayer meeting sessions in various venues—from chapels to town
halls or BEC members’ homes.
The previously-existing neighborhood belongingness made the BEC organizing less-difficult. People
were not alien to the values of pagkakaisa (solidarity) and pagtutulungan (mutual-help). In many areas, it was a
matter of formally gathering them together for Church activities. As time went on, however, the KRISKA
approach proved to be inadequate to face the issues of ecological devastation (brought about by the operations
of Marcopper Mining Coprporation and Cosolidated Mining), land-grabbing, unemployment/underemployment
and widespread poverty. It was because of the urgency felt in the face of such social issues that the CO
approach became the diocese’s twin component for its BEC program.
The religiosity of the people and their friendly/neighborly attitude to the Church is another factor why
lay participation could be expected. The influence and reputation of the local Church as dispenser of divine
blessings and goodwill was also a taken-for-granted reality. Boakeños are quite a religious people and many of
their local traditional practices have become integral part of the symbols, rituals, and feasts of the local Church.
For example, the Annual Moriones Festival is held in Boac and surrounding areas of Marinduque Island
during the Lenten season. This celebration is considered as one of the most colorful festivities in Marinduque
and in the whole of the Philippines. The festivities reflect the buoyant aspect and cooperative character of
Boac’s society and culture. The Moriones Festival is one great drama of people’s encounter with Jesus and their
ritual-response to the crucifixion event and the mystery of sin and death. Another feast, the Kangga Festival, is
celebrated annually to coincide with San Isidro Labrador's feast day, May 15 in Mogpog. Kangga is a sled,
usually made of bamboo and drawn by a carabao (a Philippine buffalo); it is used by farmers to transport
products or tools. The festival features the carroza of San Isidro Labrador and a parade of decorated kangga
pulled by carabaos and filled with harvests while residents, who walk barefoot in farming attire, carry assorted
tools and bilao (a native tray woven from bamboo materials) filled with fresh vegetables and fruits.48 These
local celebrations represent some of the public aspects of the people’s faith expressions. These would show
their autonomous appropriation of some elements of Christianity and would give a deeper significance to the

48
http://directory.ucanews.com/dioceses/philippines-boac/397 / accessed 14 May 2013.
56
fact of lay participation. This popular appropriation will be further analysed using some of the insights of
Bakhtin via Rabelais.
Lay participation usually means a corollary and extension of clerical leadership. It refers to the presence
of active and involved lay faithful in the clergy-initiated parish programs or projects. In other words, the lay
people are customarily engaged or recruited by the priests-leaders to partake of their pastoral responsibilities. In
this sense, lay participation cannot be possible without the rational management by the clergy who, through
their leadership, becomes responsible for a centripetal form of parish management. This paints a picture of lay
involvement that extends the functions of clergy leadership. This depicts lay participation as coming from the
margins of the Church center—suggesting that lay people and their services are adjuncts to the clergy’s central
authority.
The presence of full-time COs and volunteer COs, religious celebrations, barangay-level faith activities
– may still bear the mark of clerical management, but because of the independent aspects of lay initiative,
autonomous neighborly belongingness, and the logic of cultural practice (away from the parish center’s super-
vision) lay participation may no longer be regarded as a mere portion and asset of clerical leadership.
COs are regarded as delegates from a central diocesan BEC thrust. Yet, as fellow Boakeños, they are
also linked to the communities that they serve. In that capacity, their perspectives and dispositions cannot be
separated from the Boakeño habits of neighborly belongingness and the logical course of the Boakeño cultural
beliefs, rituals, organizations, and practices—that is, the shared Boakeño culture inexorably directing the course
of everyday life of the common people. In a sense, COs straddle the world of clerical vision-mission and the
world of the common people. They may be regarded as the bridges that provide vital links between the
Diocesan center and the lifeworld of Boakeños.
In a survey done by Maquimot, a community worker of Boac, respondents from various parishes ranked
the degree of importance of various personnel responsible for the implementation of BCC-CO program,
organization of BCC units in different areas, planning, implementation and evaluation of various programs and
activities related to BCC building. The Director of SAC (Fr. Senen Malapad) received the most number of votes
from the people for his central role in BEC building; the BEC program coordinator (Adora R. Sapunto) took the
second place; the third place went to Bishop Rafael Lim; the fourth was given to the second Director of SAC
(Fr. Allan Malapad), and; the fifth place went to the vicarial coordinator (Ernesta M. Paglinawan). Out of the 50
personnel to be ranked, only 6 names came from the rank of the clergy. The rest, lay workers which include a
few members of religious congregations (5=3 nuns + 2 religious brothers), earned the nod of the respondents.
This perception of the respondents about the high level of importance given to the role of SAC Directors
and Bishop Rafael Lim does not take away the unmatched indispensability of lay leaders/community organizers

57
in BEC building. In fact, the Bishop and SAC Directors depend so much on their “bridges.” Without them,
community organizing could not have been implemented successfully down to the level of the parish and the
family. The Bishop and the SAC directors may be regarded as the generals of the army; but the coordinators are
the soldiers who struggle at the forefront and who take direct responsibility in bringing the BEC message of
hope to the people.
The autonomous neighborly belongingness lived and experienced by the people of every neighborhood
is vital in terms of the communitarian quality it brings to the BEC program. Being an internal component of the
people’s lifeworld, neighborly belongingness becomes part of the package of lay participation as lay members
bring themselves into the whole BEC program. Except for the Immaculate Concepcion Parish in Boac
poblacion/town center, where BECs are a mere 3 units, indices of community and belonging are high in most
areas of Marinduque even though the indices of income, housing, health, employment, education, and
environment are low. Thus, implicit to the notion of lay participation is its communitarian spirit grounded in a
broad and solid socio-cultural base. In that, every step taken, every contribution given, or every decision made
by members of the BEC is marked by the harmony, tonality, melody, rhythm, and texture of neighborly
belongingness that constitutes Marinduque’s island-agrarian culture. In this sense, lay participation must be
brought back to its implicit lifeline in popular culture than just with the rational administration of the Diocesan
center. The center may have provided the leadership impetus for ecclesial-organizational work, but Marinduque
island-agrarian society and culture have always been there for a more strategic harnessing. Boac’s diocesan
thrust of BCC-CO has precisely provided that harness towards a more ecclesial orientation and direction of
neighborly belongingness.

Hence, the logic of cultural practice must be remembered and recognized as an inevitable component of
what could transpire and result from every lay involvement in the BEC. If Boac culture contributes to
community and to the increase in inclusive solidarity, then there is every reason to recognize and promote its
importance. But if Boac culture brings more negative components into the BEC program, then steps must be
taken to check its direction. The ambivalent logic of culture may manifest in the way solidarity is either
understood as a broad practice of mutual help among neighbors or as a narrow practice of exclusive solidarity of
clan members or relatives. It is in this context that the Christological principles, built into the vision of the
Church of the Poor, should work to purify a culture that necessarily forms every BEC.
With the gains of community organizing shown by the progress of the vibrant Marinduque Social Action
Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MASAMCO; a merger of Pederasyon ng Marinduqueñong Magsasaka at
Mangingisda [PEMARSAKADA; a farmers and fishers group] and Mga Kababaihang Kapit-Bisig Tungo Sa

58
Katarungan [MAGKABALIKATAN; a women’s group]), lay participation has reached an incomparable level
in any BEC-inspired activity in Marinduque. To date, MASAMCO has more than 5,000 members with assets of
more than PhP 6 million. It has brought socio-economic benefits to its members, like loan assistance,
scholarship, senior citizens’ support, damayan program, technical education, and savings deposits services.

Conclusion

Vatican II’s influence is made concrete through the Basic Christian Communities whose formation has
become the standard approach to Church renewal in many parishes in the Philippines. The centralized
guidelines based on the PCP II documents have pushed parish life, with all its traditional rituals and activities,
its newly-organized ministries, programs, projects, and other practices, towards community organization, lay
participation and BEC formation.
Various generations of lay leaders and descendants in the more successful BEC-run parishes have
become living witnesses to the gradual transformation of their ecclesial communities and personalities towards
greater cohesion and solidarity.
The formation of BECs also characterizes the formation and identity of the Clergy in general, inasmuch
as they have to be prepared, trained, and disposed towards the realization of PCP II’s decrees.
The ideals/values of subsidiarity, decentralization, lay participation, solidarity with the poor, care for the
environment, respect for women, and the like, have become more manifest standards because of the BEC
structures that saturate and interlock Church institutions. Negative life-experiences and other critical issues
(lack of support system, presence of abusive husbands, threat of illegal logging, and the like) have been
addressed with far-reaching effects or deeper psychological impact because of the BEC.
Adults in BEC contexts would help bring up generations of BEC-sensitive children (from children who
learn about the BECs to children who are part of the BECs) since BECs provide the most appropriate settings
for learning, for acquiring new skills especially in socialization, for better emotional education, and for
acquiring orientation and capacities. In other words, the BECs are themselves veritable “primary classrooms”
where primary catechesis and religious education must start. What we have in our classrooms are mere
secondary educations (we call it schooling) because these are often detached from our students’ life-settings and
life-experiences. One might say, “But we always connect our lessons with real life situations.” That’s precisely
the point; that’s exactly the problem—we connect our lessons to real life situations. In the BECs, there is no
need for that effort to connect because a BEC is not separate from the life-world of people. The activities, the
organizational procedures, the celebrations, the meetings that deal with crises, etc.—these in themselves directly

59
deal with life and these teach people, especially children, the mechanics of life. Besides, most BECs are giving
formal lessons to children about the basics of our religion. What is working to the advantage of formal learning
in a BEC setting is that it is practiced in the context of a living community (not in the context of a college or
university) with its language, meanings, and activities meant for community living and not to prepare people for
work in business or employment in offices or institutions that must subordinate life-world principles to
commerce or legalities.
The basic and stable community that is the BEC becomes the life-platform for the dynamic creation of
culture of shared dispositions and activities with shared meanings. When one is immersed within BEC context
and in the presence of significant others, one learns all the time about how to be part of BEC culture on many
levels. Meals are special meals because these are shared by fellows; celebrations get extraordinary fraternal
orientations; issue-based collaborations are imbued with a prophetic spirit that go beyond the tactics of survival;
and discussions are animated by Gospel values that further enrich a sharing community. Of course, not
everyone would derive uniform meanings from one’s context. We have to realize though that when a context is
formed, such contexts, in turn, form their own constructors. Those who find themselves in a BEC which is a
tightly-knit group with community-constructed grids of traditional values (not modern/nuclear family values),
cannot help but be woven into the groups’ integrated network of interactional frames and scenarios for
communion such as prayer meetings, monthly bible studies, social work, and the like. In turn, such interactional
frames and scenarios would make up the indispensable conditions for the further development of successful
BECs.

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