A Tribute to Pastor Alfredo Faurillo
A Pastor, a Human Rights Defender, and a Friend

It was sad to greet the New Year with the passing away of an old friend, a preacher and a long-time comrade in the struggle for human rights. Rev. Pastor Alfredo Sueno Faurillo succumbed to a fifth and final cardiac arrest on Dec. 31 at the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City.  But he left us with practical lessons on paralegal and human rights work which we sorely need during these times when the people’s rights are being viciously and blatantly violated with impunity.  

BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat

It was sad to greet the New Year with the passing away of an old friend, a preacher and a long-time comrade in the struggle for human rights. Rev. Pastor Alfredo Sueno Faurillo succumbed to a fifth and final cardiac arrest at the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City last December 31. He left a wife, three sons, three grandchildren and numerous friends, clients and fellow human rights advocates. But he left us with practical lessons on paralegal work which we sorely need during these times when the people’s rights are being viciously and blatantly violated with impunity.

Bulacan

It was in 1991 when Rev. Pastor Faurillo, or Fau to his colleagues and parishioners in the province of Bulacan, was first tapped by Catholic priests and co-pastors at the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) to join them in defending human rights in the province.

Fr. Anacleto Ignacio, a parish priest in the same province and Fau’s long-time colleague, said he saw in Fau a distinct kind of kasipagan (zeal).”Kung saan mayroong paglabag, nanduon si Pastor Fau,” (Where there is a violation, you would find Pasto Fau there.) he said recalling that it was Fau who would always tell them to go to a certain place if there was a report of a violation.

On the other hand, Fr. Rolly de Leon, a parish priest in the same province and current spokesperson of the Alyansa ng mga Mamamayan para sa Pantaong Karapatan (ALMMA or People’s Alliance for Human Rights), the local chapter of the human rights alliance Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights), said it was Fau who gave paralegal trainings to his fellow human rights advocates.  Fau, de Leon said, was often a resource person on the human rights orientation whether for volunteer lawyers or for farmers and fisher folk in remote barrios in Bulacan.

De Leon said Fau was instrumental in reconvening ALMMA in 1994 and in the formation of the lawyers’ group Lawyers’ for Public Interest (LPI) in 1995.

It was difficult for the people of ALMMA to let Fau go, de Leon further said, as the pastor-cum-paralegal officer was transferred to the national office of Karapatan in Metro Manila in the last quarter of 1996.

The people of Bulacan would always ask about Fau, de Leon said.

In fact, lawyers in the province would often tell ALMMA officers: “Dapat mag-develop kayo ng HR woker na katulad nya (Fau) na pinapadali ang trabaho ng mga abogado” (You should develop HR workers like Fau because he makes the work of lawyers a lot easier.) because, the lawyers said, Fau would always volunteer to do position papers for their legal cases and never failed to update the lawyers once the cases go to court.

A pastor cum rights defender

For the people of Karapatan, who took Fau as its officer in charge of providing services to victims in 1996, he was the key to confronting the difficult day-to-day tasks of searching for and providing services to victims of human rights violations; negotiating with police and military officials; and providing legal and paralegal assistance, a task that needed the depth of experience and dedication of no less than Pastor Fau.

Karapatan was newly-organized at that time when Pastor Fau joined the national office, said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary-general of the human rights alliance. Most of its staff and officers, Enriquez said, were victims of human rights violations during the Marcos dictatorship but were greenhorns when it came to actual human rights work. 

Pastor Fau, who was later called Pax by colleagues in the human rights community, was Karapatan’s paralegal officer.  He would wake up during the wee hours of the morning to head Quick Reaction Teams (QRT) to police precincts in Metro Manila where students or youth in the communities were detained for pasting posters critical of the government. He also headed fact-finding missions (FFM) to different provinces in Luzon and some parts of the Visayas and Mindanao.

It was at this time that I met Pax who became my “housemate” and “instant father” when I started to work as media officer for Karapatan. With some other staff, Pax and I lived for almost three years at the Karapatan office, taking turns in cooking food for the staff and cleaning the office, all two floors of it, including two bathrooms.

But it was Pax who would always wake up first and so breakfast was ready for everyone as early as six in the morning. Having no breakfast at the table at around 7 a.m. was cue that Pax had already gone to a police precinct for a QRT.

We were together in countless FFMs and QRTs, with Pax as the lead negotiator and I, the documentor. He always brought with him a black clutch bag that had a notebook, a pen, a small bible and his medicines. He was always in barong or a checkered polo shirt especially when going to court hearings or police precincts.

As a paralegal in action, he was always cool and composed and I would always be in awe when he would start giving a lecture on the Miranda Doctrine, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the Geneva Conventions Protocols I and II to high ranking police and military officers.

After the lecture, he would then tell the police or military officer: “Siyanga ho pala, hindi nyo naitatanong, pastor po ako.” (By the way, I am a pastor) Surprised, the men in uniform would reply: “Akala ko po abogado kayo.” (We thought you were a lawyer.)

Meticulous

He was in his mid-60s at that time and he refused to learn how to use the computer. “Matanda na ako para dyan,” (I am too old to learn that.) he would often tell us.

But this did not stop him from writing reports regarding the cases he encountered, the QRTs and FFMs he headed, and court hearings he attended, Hilao-Enriquez said during the tribute for Pax at the UCCP chapel along EDSA last January 5. He would meticulously prepare his handwritten reports at night completing it before the team would head back to Manila.

He was careful with his personal belongings as he was prudent with his reports. Pax would have the tidiest and well-packed bag during FFMs. When we went to San Narciso, Quezon summer of 1998 to investigate a report regarding an old man who was buried alive inside one of the ranches there, Pax brought a plastic raincoat with him. Before we left the office I told him to leave his raincoat behind because it did not seem like it would rain.  But Pax insisted on bringing it.

When we were about to head back to Manila, it started to rain. Pax took out his raincoat and gave it to me because I had nothing to protect me from the rain but a small towel on my head. With a smile, he said, “Sabi ko sa ‘yo e.”  (I told you we would need it.)

A big heart

Pax always had a big heart for everyone, especially the masses who are most often his clients.

This maybe attributed to his humble beginnings, his sister Lolita, 66, said. Pax was the fifth of seven children of Obdulia Sueno and Nemesio Faurillo, a coconut plantation caretaker. Lolita said Pax helped in the plantation even when he was young.

Pax, who was born April 7, 1935 in Lagonoy, Camarines Sur, stopped schooling after high school because of financial constrains. He was only able to finish college through a scholarship in Manila. He was ordained as Minister of the Gospel in 1968.

Before Pax transferred to the Moro Christian People’s Alliance sometime in 2002, he trained the younger set of human right workers on paralegal work. “Si Pax kahit marami syang alam, wala siyang minemenos. (Pax, even though he knew a lot of things, never looked down on people.) He was always willing to share his knowledge regarding the tedious paralegal work,” Hilao-Enriquez said.

It maybe sad to say goodbye to a dear friend but with the richness of his experience which he selflessly shared with all of us, Pax, Fau or Pastor will always be remembered and honored.  It didn’t matter that he died quietly and not heroically as those who were killed while fighting for the people’s rights.  His life was no less full of heroic deeds and meaning, in service of the people. Bulatlat      

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