Pasa Sa Lord on Friday/ Tadiar lecture at Silliman

One early morning two weeks ago, Lourdes “Bing” Pimentel woke up with the New Testament verse, Matthew 17:15, piercing her being. Jesus was addressing his apostles after an incident. “He said to them,  “If  you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.’” 

That set Bing  to thinking: “There are so many problems besetting our nation. What can we do, as individuals, to help solve these problems? What can we do to stop the Mautes from ravaging Marawi? How have we come to this?”

The problems seemed insurmountable, until Bing realized that Jesus Christ’s words were the answer. “Faith like a grain of mustard seed .  .  .”

The mustard seed, Bing suddenly saw, was prayer. Prayer can remove the obstacles to attaining peace in the land. And what is our greatest obstacle? Bing says, “It’s our apathy. Our not caring, our neglect of people’s needs. We simply don’t care about what’s happening to our country. We just live and let live.”

Getting her Bible study friends together, everyone was  agreed that problems, huge as mountains though they may be, can be moved, and removed, by turning them over to the Lord, through prayer.  But one man or woman praying is not enough; if hundreds of thousands could pray together, at the same time, they would be propagating the mustard seed into endless fields of mustard.

They formed themselves into the Pasa Lord  Prayer Movement, a term  inspired by the modern techies ‘ “passing the load.”   They have created a prayer  and asked someone to write a song which has been aired in media outlets. 

The movement calls for everyone to pray, even for  just a minute, at a designated time – at 12 noon tomorrow, Friday, July 7. Whether you are at home, inside your car, in the bus, in school, at your  office.

And what do we pray for,  the PSLM has been asked. Pray for the end to extra judicial killings? No, says Bing, pray whatever you want to pray, pray about your problems, turn them over to the Lord, pray to thank Him for blessings you’ve received.

The unified praying is non-partisan, non-political, says Bing. Her son, Senate President Koko Pimentel, did not even know what his mother was up to.  Call on the high and mighty personalities, Archbishop Socrates Villegas told her, as  they can  support the project. To his surprise, Bing said, “No, Your Excellency. We will not invite celebrities to appear on television because the focus will be on them as celebrities. The focus should be on the Lord, and praying to Him. In fact we are not inviting you, we are inviting you to pray with us.”

The movement has spawned more voluminous supporters than they expected. This is due to Bing’s approaching church dignitaries and people from all levels about the nation praying at the same time. Pastors from different faiths and denominations have agreed to help.  Archbishop Socrates Villegas sent Pastor  Carlos Reyes and a CBCP press staffer to attend the movement’s next meeting. 

Ebra Moxsir, president of the Council of Imams in the Philippines, Bishop Eddie Villanueva of Jesus Is Lord, Brother Mike Velarde of El Shaddai,  Cris Uy, Jane Gan, Sky Ortigas, Ruby Chang, Pastor Hugh Nguyen. Party-list Congressman Francisco Datol offered help in opening Amoranto stadium as a venue for a brief prayer meeting among senior citizens and interested individuals. 

The media has responded to the Pasa Sa Lord call. Bing says  Ted Failon has been calling for listeners to pray at noon tomorrow.   She  has been interviewed by Channel 5, TV Patrol, and German Basbano, president of Kapisanan ng Broadkasters sa Pilipinas. 

Bing asks people to put their hands together and press them to their breast as they pray.  They could listen to the song created by Pow Chavez, entitled, “Pasa Lord,” when it’s played on TV and the radio.

She sent a letter to President Duterte, and, to her surprise, the reply from a staffer obviously, said,  “The President can’t attend your meeting.” Bing replied, “I am not inviting the president to a meeting. I am inviting him to pray at noon on July 7.” 

*          *          *

The late Prof. Alfredo F. Tadiar, recognized as the  “Father of Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Philippines,” will be honored with a lecture in his honor and memory  at  Silliman University,  Dumaguete City on July 10.

The Distinguished Persons Public Lecture Series 2017  is sponsored by the Participatory Research, Organization of Communities and Education Towards the Struggle for Self-Reliance (PROCESS) in partnership with the Silliman University College of Law. It will be held at the Justice Venancio Aldecoa Moot Court, Villareal Hall inside the Silliman campus. 

Atty. Golda Benjamin will deliver the lecture. She is a lecturer at the SU College of Law, and  Southeast Asia Researcher  and  Representative, Business and  Human Rights Resource Centre. She will speak on the topic “Aligning Judicial Remedies with Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms: Solving Problems in Diverse Communities”. She will be introduced by Atty. Sheila Catacutan-Besario,  dean of the Su College of Law.  

Dr. Ben S. Malayang, Silliman president and chair of the PROCESS board of trustees,  will give the welcome remarks. PROCESS as an organization will be presented by Dr. Florence Macagba Tadiar, its president. Dr. Neferti Xina M. Tadiar, another PROCESS board  member, and professor, Columbia University , Barnard College in New York, will introduce the honoree.

Atty. Mikhail Lee Maxino, current director of the Dr. Jovito  Salonga Law Center  and  former dean  of the SU  College of Law, 2010-16,  will serve as moderator of the open forum.

The word of thanks   from the Tadiar family will be given by  Bonifacio Carlo M. Tadiar, a well-known writer. 

*          *          *

A few words about Professor Tadiar, who passed away on Dec. 9, 2015. Along with the late Dean Froilan Bacungan,  Atty. Tadiar founded PROCESS.   Until 2015,  he was chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Department of the Supreme Court Philippine Judicial Academy. He was professor in the University of the Philippines College of Law (1976-96) where he also served as director of the Office of Legal Aid, a law internship program. He was chair of the Philippine National Amnesty Commission (1996-2003). 

He served as  chair of  the  Women’s Health Care Foundation and  Institute for Social Studies and Action based in Manila.

He was elected as the First Filipino and  First Asian member and subsequently chair of the  Board of Advisers of the  28 Nation International Development Law Organization (IDLO) based in Rome.  

He published several books and numerous legal monographs, reviews, surveys, articles and essays on such diverse subjects as the administration of justice, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, legal education, reproductive health, legal and ethical aspects in health care and human cloning, patient’s rights, the use of paramedics in health care, administration of the governmental program of amnesty for rebels, declogging of court dockets, among others.

Email:[email protected]