Br. Dan Fenton, FSC District of San Francisco

The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well . . .. His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matt 13:24-30

Not wheat, but rice to be planted in the fields at Bahay Pag-asa

For the past seven years, I have accompanied young volunteers for a month-long service trip to the Philippines, to Bahay Pag-asa Youth Center, Bacolod, on the Island of Negros. Each year I warn the few volunteers that travel with me, “You’re not going to be tourists. For the most part you’ll be spending all of your time working with teen-aged boys who are in trouble with the law. You will get up at 5:30 in the morning and you’ll be exhausted by 9:30 in the evening. It will be hot and humid. There will be mosquitoes, flies, ants, spiders, lizards, snakes, and frogs. The power will go out regularly and there will be no hot showers. You will probably see things that upset you and you won’t be able to do much about it. Your job will be to support the staff as they work with the residents and you’ll need to follow the rules they set down.” Strangely, there are always a few who still want to go.

Bahay Pag-asa or “House of Hope” is a center for Filipino youth who have run into trouble with the law; it provides a safe, positive, educational environment as an alternative to the overburdened Philippine correctional system which has often housed young offenders with adults. The center opened in 2001 with the support of the District of San Francisco and under the supervision of Christian Brothers of the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod.

The volunteers are always full of questions: “What are the kids like? Do they speak English? What did they do to be sent there?”

I think back over the stories told to me. “There are some who are falsely accused. Most of them have been involved in some sort of illegal activity. Some are facing murder charges.” When the volunteers finally have a chance to meet the residents, they invariably discover that “They’re just kids! They’re polite. They’re interested in learning.” They can’t believe that these nice boys came out of jails or police lock-ups.

Every summer, I can count on Jensan Lazarito, the social worker who has dedicated her life to helping the boys at Bahay Pag-asa, to fill us in. Soft-spoken and unassuming, Jensan has walked me through jails and squatter camps in search of potential residents and to find the families of current residents. She guides my understanding of the legal processes and can describe the facts of particular cases: “Stealing chickens and ducks…attempted rape…homicide…highway robbery…breaking into a house.” Later the volunteers will say to me, astonished, “They’re charged with some pretty serious stuff!” Jensan also reviews the background information on each resident, “…father told the boy to steal food…was beaten with a bamboo stick…was a street kid…parents abandoned him…was recruited into a gang…father is in prison…has a psychological disorder…was defending this father who was being attacked.” I glance at the volunteers. They’re looking at the table, the floor. They’re thinking of their own experiences of growing up, silently comparing.

Over the years, the Brothers, the staff and the boys have filled me in on the details of arrest and incarceration. The jail stories, from many different boys and in many different cities, are strikingly similar. Unless a boy has connections (a relative or friend at the jail), he will fall prey to abuse from inmates and guards. Several years ago CNN broadcast shocking images of children stuffed into cages in one particular jail. UNICEF launched an effort to reform the country’s juvenile justice guidelines, and in 2005, a Juvenile Justice Reform Act was passed. Under its provisions, no child under the age of 15 may be held by police for more than eight hours and are exempt from criminal liability. Juvenile offenders between the ages of 15 and 18 who are charged with serious crimes are to be placed in intervention programs.

Following the passage of this reform, there was significant confusion regarding its implementation. The government scrambled to set up centers specifically for minor offenders, but there were soon reports that the same kinds of abuse found in the jails were taking place in these centers. I visited a government-sponsored “Social Development Center” with Br. Vince Fernandez, where there was a mixture of minor offenders and abandoned children. The conditions looked little better than a jail. No learning activities were taking place and the kids were sitting on a concrete floor, their arms and legs covered in rashes and sores. Brother Vince explained, “It is up to us to demonstrate how to run a real rehabilitation program.”

Once the young men complete their terms of rehabilitation, they face another problem: Where do they go after this? The desperate and hopeless situations in their homes have, in all likelihood, not changed during their incarceration. In answer to that concern, Bahay Pag-asa Halfway House on the campus of St. Joseph’s High School in Bacolod was established. Originally envisioned by Brother Gus Boquer, opened by Brother Vince Fernandez and now supervised by Brother Arian Lopez, it is a place where former residents of the Bahay Pag-asa Youth Center can request to join a community of students once their court cases have been resolved. There, they spend their morning hours operating a water purification and bottling business, and in the afternoon and evenings they attend classes at St. Joseph’s High School. Currently, two former Bahay Pag-asa residents are attending the University of Saint La Salle while living at the Halfway House.

By the time the volunteers have been working at Bahay Pag-asa for two weeks, they have a more accurate sense of the realities faced by the residents. Some are very intelligent and, with dedication, effort and support, could become college students. Others have serious learning disabilities or a lack of schooling that makes language-related skills difficult. There are options for kids like these, especially in the areas of agriculture and mechanics. Bahay Pag-asa’s livelihood programs provide a great deal of practical farming experience and volunteer teachers have helped the residents become skilled at food preparation, water purification and recycling. The residents raise livestock and sell meat and eggs.

Over the years, I have brought some unusual “gifts” to Bahay Pag-asa that reflect my interests as a science teacher. In 2004, we installed a weather station which is still working. In other years, I have brought telescopes, microscopes, and materials for all sorts of science activities. Early on, Brother James Joost provided computers, while more recently students at De La Salle North Catholic High School in Portland, Oregon (who purchased the first weather station and telescope) sent books. The students at San Miguel High School in Tucson continued that practice, sending microscopes, books, science equipment and money for scholarships. Students at Cathedral High School in Los Angeles teamed up with the San Miguel students this year to raise $1500 in assistance for the expenses of the Halfway House residents who are attending college.

Inevitably, the volunteers notice that there are desperately poor kids wherever we travel in the Philippines, an observation corroborated by a recent newspaper article suggesting that 50% of the half-million residents of Bacolod are squatters, living in unhealthy and unsafe conditions, conditions that lead young people into drug addiction and criminal activity. The efforts of Bahay Pag-asa may seem inadequate in light of these realities. Brother Gus Boquer, the visionary who launched the first Bahay Pag-asa, has a simple answer – build more centers for youth in conflict with the law. The second Bahay Pag-asa located in Cavite, south of Manila and adjacent to De La Salle University, Dasmariñas, has been completed and will soon be ready for residents. Among other innovations, this facility will operate in conjunction with the Criminology program at the university and will offer training for police officers in the implementation of upgraded guidelines set forth in the Juvenile Justice Reform Act. A third Bahay Pag-asa is planned for the island of Mindanao. The ultimate hope is that these centers will become models for the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders and will be replicated throughout the Philippines.

After four weeks at Bahay Pag-asa, Bacolod, the volunteers become adjusted to the schedule of prayer, teaching, manual labor and recreation; they also become, predictably, very attached to the residents. The volunteers have been teaching and learning simultaneously. They have been side-by-side with the residents in the classroom, at the table, on the basketball court, and in the chapel. They have gone to hearings and visited homes with dirt floors and no running water. They have joined the residents in planting rice, cassava and sweet potato. They have enjoyed the unexpected and unsurpassed hospitality of people who were strangers to them just a few weeks ago. These volunteers have been moved to the depths of their being, by an experience that was complex and unpredictable. They reexamine the world they inhabit and it no longer makes sense in the way it used to. They look at their faith and ask the tough questions.

“It’s not fair.” I knew this was coming; it always does. “I have the things that I have because I was born in a certain place. If I had been born here, in the conditions that these kids were born, I would be in the same situation as they are. Why does God let kids suffer like these kids have?”

I tell them what little I know. “You’re right, of course. The world is not fair or even reasonably humane, but our hope for the perfect world should not make us think that God botched the imperfect world we have. In fact, it’s a very good thing that we don’t live in a perfect world. We would be terribly out of place. Look at these boys you have been working with. They are sons of God but they are not perfect, and neither are we. We all are a strange mysterious mixture of weeds and wheat – just like these boys. You love them not because they are perfect, but because they aren’t. It’s why God loves you and gives you a world so imperfect that it is open to change. You can make change happen and you can create better possibilities for yourself and for these guys whom you now love. The imperfection and unfairness of this world is God’s gift to you. It means you have a vocation and you’re just starting to discover what it is.”

The volunteers always smile, appreciative that I have tried, but they are going to have to sort this out for themselves. My synthesis probably falters in the light of careful reasoning. Waiting in the Manila Airport for the boarding of our long flight home, I ask them to write down some of their thoughts or impressions. Reading them later always helps me to understand why doing this is all so very important and why we are so very lucky to be here.

“I am a different person after this trip. I was humbled, I was loved, and I was educated. My heart is troubled when I compare my “hardships” with theirs.. . . There’s something powerful about receiving gifts from people who have nothing material to give. –Adonis Trujillo 2010

Bahay Pag-asa is in great need of donations to support their educational endowment and operational costs. These can be sent to Br. Arian Lopez, FSC, c/o University of St. La Salle, La Salle Avenue, Bacolod City, 6100, Philippines.

Donations may also be made through the De La Salle Institute, District of San Francisco.