By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Pastor was born in Basao on August 14, 1948. There being no Grade 7 in Basao at that time, in SY 1962-1963, he proceeded to the St. Theresita’s School in Lubuagan but he failed to graduate as he had figured in a fight and was sent home for the remainder of the school year.
Being the only member of the tribe who could understand English at that time, Pastor was asked by Rev. Carl Lutz, the American missionary who established the Masua, Basao Lutheran Mission, to help in the translation of the Bible into the Basao dialect. Pastor lived in the mission house where apart from his translation work, he accompanied the missionary in his visitation of the other villages in Tinglayan.
That paved the way for Pastor’s conversion to the Lutheran faith which was undoubtedly the most profound influence in his life. He was impressed by Rev. Lutz and his family because, according to him, “they had everything in their country but they came to Basao to become poor.” His exposure to the scripture as he translated these to the Basao dialect awakened and sharpened his moral discernment.
In preparation for SY 1963-1964, Rev. Lutz had arranged for him and several other Basao boys to take the scholarship examinations of the Anglican Church-run St. Mary’s School in Sagada, Mt. Province. He was the only one from Basao who passed.
According to Manang Vicky, when Pastor graduated from St. Mary’s School in 1968, he was offered scholarships to take up ministry in the Anglican St. Andrew’s Theological Seminary and in the Lutheran Theological Seminary with him eventually choosing the latter because of his close relations with the Lutheran missionaries.
Being that in those days, two years of college was required to enter the Lutheran seminary, he took up Liberal Arts at the Baguio Tech (now University of Baguio) from 1968 to 1970. It was while enrolled at the Baguio Tech that Pastor met his future wife Victoria Batong of Guinsadan, Bauko, Mt. Province while attending church at the Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Baguio City. They married in 1972, midway into his studies for the ministry. .
Pastor graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1974. His first assignment was in the Lutheran Church in Sunnyside Area, Tadian, Mt. Province where he served for two years. From 1976 to 1979, he pastored the congregation in Kopyas, Kapangan, Benguet. In 1979, he was tasked to bring the Lutheran faith to Apayao where he was able to establish the Trinity Lutheran Church in Lenneng and the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Kalias, both barangays in Kabugao.
While doing missionary work in Apayao, Pastor Aoas was based in Tabuk occasioning his baptism of fire in tribal peace negotiations in 1980. This happened when the late journalist Augustus Saboy, then the Provincial Secretary, was directed by Governor Amado Almazan to intervene in the shooting war between the Sumadel and Butbut tribes had sought the help of Pastor..
According to a source while Saboy and Pastor were not able to work out the final reconciliation of the two tribes, the ceasefire they successfully negotiated held until the two tribes smoked the peace pipe with the restoration of their bodong or peace pact sometime in 1981. The source said that, five lives were lost in that war including that of Mayor Alexander Alngag whose assassination in November 1980 had triggered the violence.
In 1986, Pastor was called to the Lutheran Church of the Philippines (LCP) headquarters in Manila to take charge of the Lutheran Hour, its radio ministry, a work he held until 1995 when he was assigned to administer the Lutheran Theological Seminary, his alma mater. He came home in 1998 in response to the call of his fellow Basaos living at San Juan, Tabuk, for a pastor. He had since established the Grace Lutheran Church there.
For a time, Pastor was the president of the North Luzon District and then the national secretary of the LCP in which capacity he had represented the organization in the National Council of Churches of the Philippines. He has also represented the LCP in various conferences abroad. **
