MSC Novices Live Among the Aeta in Bataan
13 November 2008
BANGKAL, Bataan – Four second-year MSC novices lived in an Aeta community in Bangkal, Abucay, Bataan from 14 October 2008 to 13 November 2008. The month-long activity was part of the exposure program of the MSC novitiate to prepare novices for the pastoral duties which their service to the community requires.
The Aeta are an indigenous people who are believed to be among the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines. They are commonly found in the Luzon region, including the isolated, mountainous parts of Bataan. The MSCs established a parish among the Aetas in 2004. This parish is now administered by Fr Lauro Mozo, MSC. Being an MSC himself, Fr Mozo helped organize the novices’ immersion in the Aeta community.
The four novices were Junides Aro, Joel Bonza, Quang Bu Vui, and Hung Puc Nguyen. Both Junides and Joel are Filipinos while Quang and Hung are Vietnamese. They were assigned to separate Aeta families. Their foster families taught them how to plant rice, grow vegetables, hunt wild animals, cook their catch and share it with the community.
The MSC novices did not only see the poverty of the Aetas they also experienced all the discomforts that came with it. Sometimes they had to skip meals due to lack of food. They walked for hours on end to find wild animals. They slept on bamboo floors without mattress and sometimes woke up covered in mosquito bites. One of them got so sick that he had to be brought to a nearby medical center.
But the novices also saw that despite their poverty, the Aeta are a people filled with joy and hope. Even if there is no food on the table for days they could still smile or even laugh and dance. Their willingness to share everything they have with others has had a huge impact on the novices.
The exposurists felt accepted by their Aeta families. And later on they learned that the feeling was mutual. The novices helped their foster families in their household chores – cooking food, washing dishes, watering plants, cleaning the house, and looking after the children. They did such a fine job that the children felt so close to them and even considered them brothers.
Their exposure among the Aeta helped the novices to experience first-hand the challenges as well as the joys of being a Missionary of the Sacred Heart. They realized that in order to serve the Aeta (and other groups of people for that matter), they must live with them, love them, speak their language and understand their culture.
MSC novice Junides Aro (standing, first from right) with young members of the Aeta community in Bangkal, Abucay, Bataan.
MSC novice Joel Bonza (seated, fourth from right) with newly-found friends in the Aeta community in Bangkal, Abucay, Bataan.
MSC novice Quang Bu Vui (first from right) with a friend in the Aeta community in Bangkal, Abucay, Bataan.
MSC Novice Hung Puc Nguyen (in blue shirt, standing in the back) with Aeta children at the Sto Thomas Aquinas Parish church in Bangkal, Abucay, Bataan.
ROBERTO A. SINGHID on 
Jack Tyler on 
Nhila on 
dccuaajsjn on 
jiybjnkraw on 
Benny M. Usog on 
Bebot Martinez on 
I’m happy to see one of these novices doin fine in his 2nd year of spritual formation, jun aro. In my short term during his college days, we’ve had some good memories together with all of the group. Keep up Jun-jun! Praying for the rest of you! (Fr. looking,msc – Brasil)
P.S. To my ka batch, Fr. Lauro, “Mabuhay ka ug atong mga igsoong Aeta!
congrats 2nd year novices- Quang,Huang,joel and jun-jun may you have a memorable immersion with our Aeta brothers and sisters.
I remember the Aetas as truly humble people. Most of us had mistaken their humility with shyness and meekness. Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” If we could stand with the Aetas and not above them despite their small stature, it would be a marvelous thing, because it creates in us a capacity for the closest possible intimacy with God. I think the MSCs have done just that.
this is a good avenue for our MSC novices to experience the life of the Aeta’s. And also as future Missionaries of MSC kinahanglan gyud mag PRACTICE na daan …….God bless us All!!!!!!……
super gudluck!!!!
I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Bankal and some other Ayta/Aeta villages during May (2010) — Father Lauro Mozo, MSC was amazing – a man of vision with the skills and talents to make the visions reality. The Bankal I visited in 2010 was radically different than the Bankal described in the World Bank study from 2000. The disease, hunger and misery that loomed large in the 2000 report seemed to be only a memory in 2010. Ten years ago it might not have been feasible to immerse the novices. Although I am a Protestant, in Bankal, the good works of the Roman Catholic Church, the MSC novices, lay volunteers and Father Mozo are clearly in evidence. Bankal was blessed to be the site of Father Mozo’s assignment and I also suspect Father Muzo feels he was equally blessed by his time with the Ayta – of Bankal, Abucay.
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One question – I am still not clear about the differences (if any) between MagBukun Ayta and MagKadang Ayta – and which is it that is spoken in Bankal? Reed interpreted the Ayta dialect of Bataan as degraded Tagalog and not a
Sambalic language and Stone did not include the Bataan Ayta dialect in his study of the Ayta Sambalic languages. Is the dialect in Bankal considered to be in the Sambalic family?
Hope to return