Inside Monica’s Mindanao project

In Boringot, Pantukan, Davao del Norte, Monica turned a “malong” into her private boudoir. One hand holding the malong around her, Monica deftly changed trousers before crossing a river and trekking the mountainous muddy trail to see a mining site. —JOE GALVEZ

In early 1985, Monica Feria walked into the office of Mr & Ms Special Edition publisher Eugenia “Eggie” Apostol with a project proposal: a 32-part special report on Mindanao.

Monica’s vision was an in-depth look into the Land of Promise, the country’s last frontier and the island to-die-for, as  young activists, both communists and secessionists, fought and found martyrdom in Mindanao since the 1970s. Through the series, she wanted the public to know what was happening and why.

She had divided the island into topics, with focus on the region’s political peculiarities and cultural charms. Monica offered insights, tips, phone numbers and contact persons. More important, she raised questions that the series must answer.

Apostol, the founding chair of the Inquirer, approved the project, and ordered the formation of teams to support Monica’s special reports. She also released a substantial budget that allowed Monica and her teams a comfortable travel and board.

Monica went to the provinces of Davao, Agusan and Surigao, writing a total of 16 articles, mostly ground-breaking stories about the struggles of the small-scale miners, of people caught in the cross fire between the military and militants and of the island’s mysterious madmen.  She made incisive profiles of the elusive anticommunist vigilante leader Col. Carlos Lademora of the so-called “Lost Command,”  and of Ruben Ecleo Sr., a charismatic cultist and political leader who ruled his kingdom on Dinagat Island.

The series was published in the Ms & Ms Special Edition, some in the Philippines Inquirer tabloid (the precursor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer broadsheet), and in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.

With the advent of Facebook, photographer Joe Galvez, who was Monica’s tandem, started posting unpublished photos of the Inside Mindanao series.

Monica was a reporter of the Philippine Daily Express, a senior editor at Agence France-Presse, a correspondent for Asiaweek and the International Herald Tribune in the 1970s and 1980s.

When she went to Mindanao in 1985, Monica was concurrent Manila bureau chief of South Magazine, a London-based Third World development magazine.

She was a tourist enjoying the languid waters of Bucas Grande in Surigao del Norte and an intrepid journalist riding tandem on a “habal-habal” in Pantukan, Davao del Norte. —JOE GALVEZ

Inside Monica’s Mindanao series, if we may, gave a peek of Monica’s coverage style: endure the hardships, enjoy nature’s pleasures. —JOE GALVEZ