Pura is the eldest daughter of Jose Benjamin Sumangil and Aurora dela Cruz-eSumangil. She is a grand daughter of Cirilo "Apo Padi" Sumangil Sr. Her siblings are Atty. Jose "Pepito" Sumangil (+) , Lolito "Lolly" Sumangil (+), Rey "Bebot" Sumangil (+), Manolo Sumangil, Mila Sumangil-Santarinala, Nora Sumangil-Calingo, and Rene Sumangil.
Pura was an educator before she became a peace advocate in the north (Abra).
She holds a Masters Degree in Development Management and is Chairperson of the Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government (CCAGG). She is also the Director of the Abraeniana Institute and Research Centre at the Divine World College of Bangued. Previously she has been a Director for Research and Community Extension at the Divine World College of Bangued, a Consultant on the DWCB Community Extension Programme and the General Manager on the Abra Irrigation Project. She has also presented a number of papers at international conferences including “Integrity in Governance”, UNDP sponsored conference in Thailand (1998) and “2nd Global Conference on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity” at the Hague 2001. Pura has also won awards for “Peace and Development” from the Aurora Aragon Quezon Peace Awards Foundation (1997) and “Most Active NGO Chairperson” from ARYA ABRA Foundation. (http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN024654.pdf)
She was one (1) of the candidates for the prestigious Nobel prize in 2005. She was among the 1,000 women worldwide who have been nominated for consideration by the Nobel Committee in Oslo to acknowledge and publicize the vital work that women do in building peace in their homes, communities, countries and the world. The women are involved locally and internationally in peace advocacy, governance, human rights, women’s rights, inter-faith dialogue, education, justice, health, psycho-social rehabilitation, empowerment, migrants rights, policy-making, peace negotiations, culture and the arts.
The following is a write-up about her as published in www.1000peacewomen.org
It states, and we quote:
"If a person is poor, he is not free because he is not given a choice, except for what he has."
All of Pura Sumangil's efforts, whether bridging the gap between the two ethno-linguistic groups (Tingguian and Ilocano) of Abra or advocating for good governance, have always been in the context of promoting peace that has so evaded her violence-stricken adopted province.
For more than three decades now, she has lived a simple life is Abra, where she has proven herself to be of solid integrity and earned the respect of the locals.
Pura was searching for a bishop to ordain her as an Auxiliary in 1970 when she went to Abra, a dusty, destitute and underdeveloped province. Auxiliaries work in dioceses where they serve God by living in the "full blast of the wind" for the rest of their lives. After her ordination, the late Bishop Odilo Etspueler asked her if she wanted to stay and serve in his diocese.
It was more her desire to serve in any diocese than a love for Abra that made Pura say yes to the bishop 35 years ago. "I was so into the Catholic movement then that I did not want to be half and half," says Pura, a convert to Catholicism.
She stayed, finishing her studies, obtaining a degree in education at the Divine Word College of Bangued, the capital of Abra, while she served the diocese. She then taught at Divine Word College, and became head matron of the Saint Arnold Janssen Dormitory. Back then, dormitories were very popular among the students, especially from the Tingguian tribe who came from the uplands to study in the capital town. "Back then, Bangued was very unfriendly to Tingguians," says Pura.
.
In the mid 70s and 80s, the Janssen dorm was packed with lady boarders mostly from the upland municipalities. Ilocanos and Tingguians in the province have a long history of discrimination and it was very evident in the relationship between the two ethno linguistic groups in Divine Word College and in the dormitory. Pura then realized that there were more than walls dividing the people of Abra. There was no common understanding of their culture. She initiated a program that would allow them to meet and appreciate their differences. "We had programs that would build persons and [we would facilitate] human interaction...they would eat together and we would teach them how to cook."
At that time, Pura was told that she was wasting her time but she knew in her heart that her labor would not be in vain. The thank you letters that she receives from her former wards every now and then tell her that she did not plant on barren ground.
The 70s and 80s were also the height of military oppression in Abra. Pura relates that most of her students became tearful every time they would see a helicopter flying overhead, wondering if their municipality would be the next to be bombed.
"I also noticed that most of them were into the habit of thumb sucking,” a sign, she says, that they had unshed tears and unexpressed fears.
From her students, Pura learned about the encounters between the New People's Army and military in the uplands and human rights violations committed against the Tingguian. Abra was then known as an active operations base of the communist rebels, especially at the height of land grabbing and logging in ancestral land domains by the Cellophil Resources Corporation.
"I learned not to ask questions," she says. But she came to know the sad plight of her wards by waiting for them to speak first. She listened patiently and before long, she was helping their families and others who came to know of her efforts in reaching out to victims of the conflict. The dormitory became an open house where people came for care and shelter. Most of those coming down from the uplands would head straight to Janssen Dorm.
After the snap elections in 1986, Miss Sumangil then a volunteer at the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and others who were also involved in the effort towards free elections, decided to form the Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government (CCAGG), a non-government organization aimed at economic emancipation, monitoring governance, empowering people and building citizenship.
In the beginning, many LGUs and agencies did not welcome the idea of private citizens monitoring their performance. Pura received death threats and one high ranking official who considered her a political threat, even told her to go home to Nueva Ecija. But CCAGG helped facilitate the delivery by local governments of services like electricity, water supply and the cementing of roads to far-flung areas.
“Old people wrote a letter to President Cory Aquino and told her that from their childhood until that time, there had been no changes in the roads in the province. They told the president of their wish to be able to park vehicles in front of their houses before they died."
One of the prominent cases handled by CCAGG was an administrative case against 11 engineers and personnel of the DPWH whom they found were involved in graft and corrupt practices. During the litigation of the case, Pura received bomb threats over the telephone. Unmindful of the threats to her life, she went on television and told the people of Abra that they only get the government service that they deserve.
Pura has been described as CCAGG personified by her co-workers in the organization. When the work was mainly voluntary, she used her own money to sustain the workers.
Being one of the few people who could go to the uplands without being harassed by either the rebels or the military, Pura helped establish a link between the rebels and the national government when the communist movement was at its peak. Through CCAGG, she helped rebel returnees from Lacub, Malibcong, Tineg and other areas controlled by the New People’s Army (NPA). When the entire village in Sitio Beew, Barangay Alingtan, Tubo was burned by the military because it was suspected to be a lair of the NPA, Pura involved herself in the reconstruction of the war torn community.
Survivors of the fire went to Janssen dorm and through CCAGG, Pura helped find ways and means for them to start all over again by soliciting clothes, blankets and other necessities. She gave the people much needed comforting, specifically the women and children, letting them share their grief and unload their anxieties by asking them to write about their traumatic experiences.
"What kept us going? Compassion for the people. You could not help but take pity on them. Their poverty had kept them from talking because if they talked, they could die the following day," she relates.
Pura Sumangil stands by her conviction and CCAGG’s philosophy, that the key to liberation from underdevelopment and political instability is in monitoring the performance of elected officials and other people in the government.
"If a person is poor, he is not free because he is not given a choice except for what he has," she says. To people close to her, Miss Sumangil is a quiet worker whose main goal is always the achievement of peace. Her very character is peaceful. Her capacity to see the good in everyone has enabled her to be unprejudiced and have a deep understanding of issues that affect society.
At present, the CCAGG, under Pura’s leadership, is still into community organizing and participatory audit. They give lectures for barangay officials to inform them of the responsibilities and duties that come with being a public official. The CCAGG concept has been replicated in the provinces of Ilocos Sur, Mountain Province, Kalinga, Alaminos in Pangasinan, Baguio in Benguet, Quezon, Nueva Vizcaya, and Cagayan.
In the 35 years that she has served in Abra and other provinces, Pura has been a teacher of development management and is currently the director of the Abreniana Institute and Research Center at the Divine Word College of Bangued.
Pura Sumangil believes that people can always find common ground to settle their differences and that peace and good governance are the solution to the problems of Abra, her adopted province, and the entire country. She also believes that disputes at grassroots level can be resolved by involving the people through feedback and dialogue. After the snap elections in 1986, Pura, then a volunteer at the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) worked with other like-minded citizens to form the CCAGG. Local governments did not welcome the idea of private citizens monitoring their performance and Pura received death threats, but the group persisted in exposing graft and corrupt practices through citizen vigilance.
Working with the Tingguian tribe in the late 1980s, Pura became involved in the reconstruction of war-torn communities in the uplands. She was a co-convener of the National Unification Commission, now Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), where she was consulted on the causes of community unrest in Abra and the Cordillera Autonomous Region. She assisted rebel returnees in Abra and the Cordillera, linking them up with government agencies, funding agencies and NGOs for their development projects and for scholarship programs for their children. Pura works with regional, national and international organizations such as United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Transparency International, the National Peace Council, Cordillera Peace Forum, Commission on Audit, National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) and local government units of Abra that advocate peace and good governance. She has presented papers in international conferences in The Hague, Bangkok and New York, and is also a member of Abra’s Council of Elders, which facilitates peace talks between warring politicians.
The province of Abra is dusty, destitute, underdeveloped and conflict-ridden. The Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government (CCAGG) believes that the key to liberation from underdevelopment and political instability lies in monitoring the performance of elected officials and other government officials.Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government (CCAGG)
Transparency and Accountability Network (Tr-Ac Net)
Cordillera Women's Network for Peace and Development
Reference: http://www.1000peacewomen.org/eng
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.