FR. EWALD DINTER, SVD (Society of the Divine Word), sees ?Christ as the Mangyans? liberator who wants them to be free and happy.?

Endeared as ?Amang? to the Mangyan community, the missionary has been director for more than two decades of the Mangyan Mission Inc. (MMI), a Church-based non-government organization.

The group?s program in Oriental Mindoro covers every aspect of Mangyan life, with land as a major concern.

Dinter, 72, also sees education as a weapon that the Mangyans can use to protect their lands and to stop others from treating them as second class citizens.

Accepted

Born in the former East Germany, Dinter became the first rector of the St. Augustine Major Seminary in Tagaytay City when he arrived in the Philippines in 1969.

After seven years at the seminary, he became provincial superior of the SVD. Six years later, he decided it was ?time to work full-time with the Mangyans.?

In 1986, the priest attended a Mangyan Hanunuo planting ritual in Panaytayan in Mansalay town. He was puzzled by the community?s reaction to him, but nobody talked to him about it.

After a time, two old Mangyans invited him to a solemn feast and they told him: ?You?ve been observed very closely. You?ve never made any negative remark about our culture. We?ve decided now you may know everything.?

Dinter suspects the Mangyans have accepted him because he has never tried to convert them. He has only wanted them ?to experience the love of God.?

In 1988, he was appointed coordinator of the MMI by then acting Bishop Tony Maramot.

Dinter says the MMI ?updated? the 300-year-old approach to tribal mission that included dole-outs. In 1989, it invited 39 Mangyans from different tribes and religions, even those who were not baptized.

?We told them: Look back on your life 10 years ago. How are you doing now and what do you want to happen in the future?? Dinter relates.

The priest says 1989 was a significant year because the mission gained approval on the vicariate level and became an accepted program.

In 2009, Dinter became temporary executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops? Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Indigenous People, which has adopted the mission.

Schools

In pursuit of the mission?s goals, Dinter established schools, now totaling 27, all of which have been handed over to the Department of Education for supervision.

Of the total, 11 are formal elementary schools while the rest offer non-formal programs.

The schools are in the interior uplands in the towns of Bulalacao, Bansud, Bongabong, Mansalay, Baco, Naujan, Roxas, Victoria, Pinamalayan, San Teodoro, Gloria and Socorro in Oriental Mindoro.

Dinter says the mission has provided teachers and buildings. Some 1,363 Mangyans have participated in the programs.

Aside from establishing elementary schools, the mission helps send Mangyans to college and high school.

At present, 301 are enjoying various forms of scholarships, but thousands of Mangyans from all tribes?Iraya, Alangan, Tadyawan, Bangon, Buhid and Hanunuo?have already benefited from the scholarship programs through the years.

Around 500 scholars have graduated and become social workers, lawyers, nurses, midwives, and priests. Others are in the technical/vocational fields.

Supporting the Mangyan Mission are friends of Dinter from his high school and college days. ?Instead of making funeral donations and birthday treats, they collect money for the Mangyan scholars,? says Dinter.

Blessed

Dinter says he has been blessed with the ?right committed people at the right time,? referring to the clergy, religious and volunteers, majority of them Mangyans, who help the mission in its work.

Dinter never fails to remind everybody that true education should have an impact on both lowlanders and uplanders, as they have many things in common.

Always a man of the cloth, Dinter also takes every opportunity to teach people that they are all children of God endowed with dignity.

?All are equal before God,? he says. ?Let?s all walk together towards a beautiful future.?

The Mangyan Mission Secretariat is in Calero, Calapan City; tel. 043-2883048.

(On Jan. 29, Fr. Ewald Dinter received the Saint Joseph Freinademetz award, given to a SVD member who best exemplifies prophetic dialogue and inculturation in his mission, following the charism of the SVD first missionary, Freinademetz.)