AT 64, Filipino Redemptorist priest Amado Picardal leads a hermit's life, spending his remaining years in meditation, prayer, and writing to fight the "evil forces" in society.
“While other dioceses have retirement programs for the priests and others go back to their families, mine is very different,” says Picardal, an activist priest known for cycling across the Philippines to dramatize his fight against corruption, climate change, human rights abuse, and the controversial drug war of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Sometimes we are too active, we forget the contemplative part. We think everything depends on us,” said Picardal, who is fondly called as Fr. Picx by his family and friends.
Picardal led a multi-faceted life in the past 37 years, being a pastor, poet, missionary, evangelist, professor, community organizer, rights worker, climate advocate, musician, scuba diver, mountaineer, and a blogger.
Amid the social ills faced by Filipinos today, Picardal warned that the people should not rely on their own strength to overcome it.
“Even a life of prayer contributes to the transformation of society, especially when you realize you're up against evil forces,” he said as he urged Filipino Catholics to spend time in silent prayers to renew their spiritual lives.
“I believe that right now there is evil in the society - evil men who lead us,” he added.
These "evil men possess the people” through their manner of action and speech “that eventually brought suffering to many.”
Asked if he offers a personal prayer for the firebrand president, he said: “My prayer is God will deliver us from evil.”
“I pray for our country, for our people,” he said.
Asked if Duterte is an enemy, Picardal said: “Our enemy is the evil one.”
Picardal prays that the Filipinos will continue to have hope despite the extrajudicial killings and rampant corruption in the country.
He recalled that during the Martial Law years, Filipinos also thought it was hopeless.
Yet, after 20 years of iron-fist rule by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Filipinos reclaimed their freedom in a “bloodless” Edsa People Power revolution.
Now with the Duterte administration, Picardal said that “ultimately, we have relied on God's help to deliver us from evil.”
"All that is left for us to do is to pray and cry out. Miracles can still happen,” he added.
Ignorant or blind
Picardal admitted that there is “very little that can be done within our country."
“Duterte continues to have a high approval rating which shows that many of our people are either ignorant or blind to what is really happening or have a dull conscience, unable to discern what is right and wrong, what is good and evil,” he said.
“We can continue speaking out but it will have little effect. We just have to hope that the ICC case will prosper and there will be enough international pressure,” he added.
The International Criminal Court opened in February 2018 a preliminary examination of allegations of human rights violations associated with Duterte's brutal crackdown on illegal drugs.
The move stemmed from the 77-page communication lodged by lawyer Jude Sabio, accusing Duterte of committing crimes against humanity for allegedly inciting the killings of drug personalities in the Philippines.
In reaction, Duterte decided to withdraw from the Rome Statute, which created the ICC.
Picardal said the problem also lies "in each one of us."
“The problem is we want to change society, then we depend on something, on someone, the 'Messiah'...We rely on someone who promises change,” he said.
“We forgot that it is ourselves that we need to change. If we want to change our country, change ourselves,” urges Picardal, saying that to do this, people should not tolerate evil, corruption, and abuse.
No matter how many “Edsas” that may come, there will be shortcomings if people will not change themselves, he says.
Church’s fault?
Asked if the Catholic Church can be partly blamed for the prevalence of evil forces, Picardal said: “We think too much on externals."
It is our “conscience, how we behave” that should be given more importance, he added.
He agreed that there is a “lack of emphasis from the Church.”
“We don’t exert too much on internal transformations,” he said.
“The same people who attend procession and Holy Mass are the same ones who support the killings, who are silent on the abuse of government officials, and who keep on voting them. This is the problem with our split Christianity,” he added.
As the country is continuously threatened by evil forces, Picardal said Filipinos should look back to how they nurture their family.
“The family is very important. It is the seedbed where we grow, become human beings, and Christians,” he said. “Parents should be the first evangelizers.”
As 2018 is the Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons, Picardal said there is a need to renew the Church and priests need to do more “if we want to renew our society."
“To denounce evil, you cannot be silent. Be more. Do not only focus on saying Masses,” he said.
In an article he wrote for the Union of Catholic Asian News, Picardal said the clergy and religious should also stop asking for and accepting donations from government officials and wealthy businessmen who may be engaged in corruption.
There are around 9,000 priests serving the Catholic faithful across the country. Picardal said the number is not enough.
Advocacy for peace
Picardal hails from Iligan City. Born in 1954, Picardal is the eldest of eight children.
He entered the seminary when he was 14 years old and studied Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City.
His student years, however, were marred by the declaration of Martial law in 1972.
Like other student activists, he was tortured and jailed for seven months.
Despite this, he managed to finish college in 1975 and thereafter lived and worked with the slum dwellers of Cebu.
After joining Redemptorist mission in 1977 and ordained a priest on April 24, 1981, Picardal was instrumental in strengthening the Basic Ecclesial Communities in Mindanao areas.
At the same time, he turned himself into a mobilizer of the communities in their fight against illegal logging for years. His efforts eventually resulted in the total log ban in Bukidnon province starting 1989.
He later went to the U.S. to pursue higher education, completing his doctoral studies in Theology with highest Latin honors in Rome in 1995.
For the next 15 years, Picardal led a life of “peace advocacy and dialogue” in between his works as a professor and dean at St. Alphonsus' Theological and Mission Institute, a theological institution of the Redemptorist mission in Southeast Asia based in Davao City.
As he personally witnessed the clashes between the Christians and Muslims in Mindanao and the horrors of human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by Davao Death Squad during the leadership of then Davao City Mayor Duterte, Picardal launched his advocacy for peace and life through cycling around the country.
From 2000 until his retirement, Picardal covered more than 12,000 kilometers of riding his bicycle, running, and walking barefoot across the Philippines for his advocacies. He also did the same when he was in Israel and Spain.
He resigned as executive secretary, a position he held since 2011, of the Episcopal Committee on Basic Ecclesial Communities of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines in December last year.
Believing that the pen is mightier than the sword, Picardal continues to blog and write thought-provoking commentaries to fight abuse and corruption in the country. (SunStar Philippines)