By Estanislao lbano, Jr.
Florence and I attended the funeral service of Severo Bullongan at the Assembly of God Church in Dagupan Centro morning of January 4. Severo whose bullet-riddled body was recovered by police in Tublay, Benguet on December 26 was married into the Pekas clan of Besao, Mtn. Province. His mother-in-law Paula Pekas Umaybas is a first cousin of Florence and also of Atty. Antonio Pekas, the publisher of this paper.
I understood from the early part of the service that Severo, his wife Lovejoy and their four children are members of the church; that he was once served as president of the men’s organization of the church and firstborn Collin Earl is a member of the youth band.
My intention in attending the funeral service was purely to express support to the bereaved family but this changed later while Pastor James Pekas, a brother of Paula, was a couple of minutes into his message, the second sermon of the service the main one having been delivered by the pastor of the church, Bishop John Binbinan. I then took some notes intending to share some information and observations from the service with others.
Although he called the killing of Bong a sad event, James did not dwell on the injustice. He implied acceptance of what happened when he quoted the Bible as saying that “in the last days, wickedness shall abound.” He urged both families and their friends to come to God instead of to “Digong or the congressman” because it is from Him true counsel can be obtained. He continued that God had said in Psalms that He is the father of the fatherless and is described in the book of Hosea as the defender of the widow who will also extend mercy to the fatherless.
In relation to the story of Timothy in the New Testament, James said that with the father now gone, the effort to have the children educated will now be more difficult; that it is the natural desire of people to have their children attain education and find good jobs later. He, however, cautioned that education is not everything and that it is more desirable to have a proven character and be well spoken of like Timothy because one could be a lawyer and be a failure in character at the same time.
James said that it is but natural to ask what now happens to the children now that they have lost their father but asked everyone not to worry because “by the grace of God, the children will prosper.”
The message and stance of James was not unexpected he being a priest’s son and a pastor himself but I frankly, I did not expect what I witnessed next – the 16-year old son of a murder victim reminding everyone to trust and praise God in any circumstance. Collin Earl shared some recollections of how his father was as a Christian including the times he tagged along to the dawn services in the church as a tot. He said that at one time they were the first to arrive and he saw his father walk in the church with both hands raised praising God. Accompanying himself with the guitar, he sang the song “100 Reasons (Praise the Lord, O My Soul) written by Matt Redman. He would explain to me later that he thought of the song because the second stanza talked about singing praises to God early in the morning which he saw his father do.
Collin Earl also quoted Jeremiah 29: 11 saying that for reasons he could not understand until the until the tragedy befell their family, the verse had stuck in his mind after coming across it while reading the Bible and seeing it somewhere later. He would tell me later that the verse tells him that no matter the injustice, God is still alive.
Neither did I expect a young widow to be so composed in such a situation. When called to speak, Lovejoy calmly shared that it is God who gave her the strength to face the trial and a tomorrow without the father of the family. She said that her ability to cope with the tragedy showed that mere listening to the word of God after all avails because even if one does not immediately experience the reality of the words, they will come to mind when one is faced with adverse situations like what happened to their family.
Lovejoy testified about how God provided the needs of the family despite their not having well paying jobs because of their lack of education. She also recalled how loving Bong was to their children. Near the end of her short remarks, Lovejoy said that she has fully entrusted what happened to her husband to God.
The family informed that Bong left for Baguio City on Christmas Day saying he would be the second driver of a passenger van – he worked as a van driver but that time the van he was regularly driving was up for repairs. When after some days they did not hear from him and he could not be located, both families searched for him with their quest ending at the Bahay Damayan funeral parlor along Marcos Highway on December 30 where the body had been brought by the police on the 26th.
As pieced together by the police, the killing may have taken place from 2-2:30 AM of December 26 with the body dumped along a road in Tublay where the police recovered it that day. The body was stripped of everything that could identify its owner. The body bore nine gunshot wounds, his hand was fractured and there were other wounds in other parts of the body. The family said that investigation is still ongoing.
To conclude, the response of the family reflects the beauty of the Christian religion, that after all, forgiving others and trusting and praising God in the grimmest and direst of situations such as the loss of a loved one through violence are humanly possible. May this open the eyes and hearts of all people who call themselves Christians specially those who still have trouble recognizing the inconsistency of a vengeful spirit with Christ’s teachings.**
