Sister Elen,  doing the work of Jesus.  

Those who know Sr. Elen would describe her as a warm, gentle, soft-spoken and calm.

Prior to her years serving the rural poor through the RMP, she served as a teacher, counselor, and then a principal of the Maryridge School in Tagaytay during the years of the Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s. Sr. Elen, in action and in prayers, stood against Marcos’s martial law. She supported the embattled youth movement and encouraged the Church’s role to speak out during dark and perilous times.

After leaving her teaching and administrative role, she became active as a missionary in the countryside.

She alongside other Good Shepherd Sisters lived in

for genuine agrarian reform and against pro-landlord programs and policies of the government.

Under the Duterte regime, the attacks against progressive groups and individuals, civil society organizations and church people have intensified in an effort to suppress the growing dissent amid the worsening state of the Filipinos. The red-tagging and terrorist labeling have become more systematic as President Duterte issued Executive Order No. 70 last December 4, 2018, creating a national task force (NTF) to end local communist armed conflict and institutionalizing the so-called whole of nation approach.

Among those in the crosshairs of the NTF is the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP). The government apparently sees our missionary work with the rural poor as threats, thereby responding with attacks and harassments.

Sr. Elenita Belardo, rgs, our former National Coordinator, is now facing a baseless and retaliatory perjury case filed by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon. The Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 37 has ordered the issuance of a warrant of arrest against her.

OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2019 FEATURE 5

rural communities in Isabela for six years and worked with rural poor oraganizations in the advocacy for land, and genuine agrarian reform.

During her time there, she realized how good her life had been growing up in a landed family in Silang, Cavite and how comfortable they were compared to peasant families who had to work every single day to survive.

This realization led her to be a member of the RMP. Through the RMP, she was able to gain perspective in assessing the situation of the rural sectors and how she can contribute towards genuine change that can affect the lives of the peasant families she was working with.

Servant Leader

Sr. Elen was elected as the National Coordinator of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) for two terms. First in 2007-2010 and then in 2016-2019.

As the National Coordinator, she has been involved in various literacy programs, advocacy work for rural welfare, as well as the establishment of schools in indigenous communities.

Through her missionary work with the rural poor Sr. Elen was able to put in practice the first line of the encyclical Gaudium et Spes that says:

“The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in

any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”

Sr. Elen also once said that with her missionary work, she does “the mission of Jesus” as he said in Luke 4:18, “He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free.” and in John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”

Peasant Advocacy is not a crime

This act of harassment by the government is an outright attack not only against Sr. Elen but also against the Church of the Poor and other peasant and land advocates. It is part of the large-scale crackdown of the government to those that oppose the tyrannical rule and anti-poor policies of the government.

Last December 10, we commemorated the International day of Human Rights and we were reminded of the worsening state of human rights in the country and the challenges at hand.

For us in RMP, as rural missionaries who commit ourselves to servant leadership with the rural poor through collective witnessing and prophetic action, it is our duty to not be cowered in fear and continue our advocacy for genuine land reform and for rural sectors’ welfare, and for just and lasting peace. [S]