When Jude Tiner served in the United States Army in the mid-1960s, he often noticed the Vietnamese orphans. But as an active duty soldier, Tiner could not help them in the way he wanted at the time.
Thirty years later at 56 years old, Tiner got his chance – not to help those he saw in Vietnam, but kids left orphaned under similar circumstances in the Philippines.
During a three week trip from June 29 to July 19, Tiner visited locations that had brought back many of the memories of his tour of duty in the 1960s, including reports of violence that had government agents battling rebels, often leaving innocent villagers caught in the middle, and above all, making the difficult lives of children there even more difficult.
Tiner, a Bayonne native, learned about Filipino orphans while attending prayer meetings at City Chapel in Bayonne.
Tiner has been a member of City Chapel for about four years, attracted to the place after a friend of his told him that it was a small church with a good congregation. In fact, he found many very caring people there who inspired him, such as Father Francisco Javier Cabezas, Christine Marmol and Ray Massarelli.
Once he heard about the neglected and needy children of the Philippines, Tiner decided he wanted to do something to help.
“When I heard about them I wanted to go there,” he said.
The trip was part of an effort to raise awareness and eventually begin a not for profit organization that would help Filipino orphans, and wanted to go see for himself what the conditions were.
Tiner went by himself but with the idea of setting up a network of contacts that he could bring back. “I went just for the experience,” he said. “I wanted to know what I was talking about when I came back.”
Not completely prepared for what he found
While Tiner said he had seen the brochures and thought he was prepared for what he would see when he got there, he was still amazed by the depth of poverty, yet more by the smiles these poor children gave. Tiner’s trip to the Philippines began and ended at Bishop Amigo’s Friendship Home in Manila.
The streets of Manila can be tough on poor kids, who often have to deal with violence as well as poverty, and the Friendship Home – administered by Amigonian priests and bothers, is one of the ways out of the cycle for kids there, providing youth services to street children and help to drug addicts and wayward youth.
“Our mission is basically directed towards all youths who in one way or the other have lost the true path of life; those stricken by loneliness and those addicted to drugs and vices,” Amigo writes in his literature describing the organization missions.
But Tiner soon went beyond the urban centers to reach some of the poorest and oldest cultures in the Philippines. Tiner’s visit took him to several areas, some of them remote, and some that brought back vivid memories of his army days in Vietnam, as he walked through wetlands and rice paddies to encounter water buffalo and other images he recalled from 30 years ago.
“Part of the problem in the Philippines is the lack of a middle class,” he said, noting that many of the poorest live within sight of the wealthiest
For instance, off the coast of Davao is the beautiful Samal Island which is a luxury resort. While wealthy tourists water ski and climb mountains, kids wander the streets in hunger. Many of the poor pick through trash heaps to survive.
In Davao, Tiner visited a special school that dealt with blind children where he was witness to “a cantata” or a passion play performed by the students there.
He said his trip was one emotional peak after another, moving through a country side filled with need and tragedy.
“The kids got to me. They have nothing and yet they still smile,” he said.
The kids often called him Uncle Jude.
Visions of Vietnam During his trip Tiner visited an group called Teknotrophero – which is Greek for “to bring up the children,” a not for profit organization headed by Criselda Malicdem which haves volunteer doctors, nurses, dentists, teachers pastors and lay leader from various churches who reach the Mangyan Tribe of the Mindoro Islands where some of the poorest children of the Philippines reside.
Mangyan is the general name for the indigenous tribes who live in the province of Mindoro, and are one of the oldest cultures in the Philippines which traded with mainland China well before the arrival of the Spanish several hundred years ago.
Tiner called them “an amazing people,” who tended to live apart from the rest of the population and who could slip in and out of the jungle like ghosts just at the scent of someone’s cologne.
But to reach them, Tiner had to travel not only deeper into the countryside, but psychologically back in time to those years when he served in Vietnam as a paratrooper. Images such as rice paddies and water buffalo appeared before him as he traveled, and, so did the images of warfare he thought he had left with his discharge.
While the Mangyans often lived higher in the mountains, so did the communist rebels that Tiner said were really only thugs.
As in Vietnam, the situations there often had a strange politics. He recalled a well-loved priest, who the rebels distrusted because they believed he was a spy for the government and the government hounded because they thought he sympathized with the rebels.
While Tiner was there, he heard reports of violence. In one instance, 17 people were reported missing, eventually 15 of them returned, two hadn’t.
The violence in the hills was a chilling reminder of how warfare often impacted the poorest and the most innocent. In one report he heard a Mangyan was killed and four others were missing during a firefight between soldiers and suspected communist guerillas.
Families are frequently displaced during such operations.
Tiner said the reports reminded him of Vietnam because they often provided conflicting information about dead or missing natives.
“One paper will say 10 and someone will add a zero,” he said.
Regarding one report, he said, his own sources said all the villagers were accounted for.
“But they had to be relocated because their village doesn’t exist, thanks to helicopters and rockets,” he said.
A girl’s picture inspired him
Tiner, of course, had wanted to seek out the Mangyans for another reason, to help a young girl he had read about while still in Bayonne.
“I wanted to meet her as soon as I saw her picture,” he said
Mirale, a five or six year old girl, who had witnessed her own mother’s suicide, had heart problems so significant they required surgery. A smart girl that stood out from other natives by her cleverness, Mirale was unfortunately too poor to afford the extensive surgery needed.
“While there are capable doctors in the area, the problem is follow up care,” Tiner said, hoping get find a family in the United States that will adopt her, and money through local efforts to help get her the surgery she requires.
For Tiner, the trip was one of the most moving and life changing moments he ever experienced, something that will remain fixed in his mind forever, and something that has motivated him to help.
Back in the United States, he is involved with his church’s effort to establish the Bishop Luis Amigo Foundation.
“We’re waiting for the legal paperwork to go through for the non profit organization that will help the kids,” he said.
This would be done through Bishop Luis Amigo that would provide medicine, education and care for kids that are neglected.
“Knowledge is power and many of the kids there do not go to school,” he said.
When asked if he would go back to the Philippines, Tiner did not hesitate, “Without a doubt.”