It was early on the morning of July 27, 1983 at about 2:00AM, that with tears of joy rolling down my face my feet touched the last ring on the ladder up to the deck of the American ship, USS CALLAGHAN DDG994, which had rescued me with 162 boat people. At about 8:00AM of the same day, this ship rescued another group of boat people, sixty-two of them. Their appearance was miserable. Most of them were little boys and girls and women. Some could not even walk. The American sailors had to help them, even to lift them on a sling or something like that. An American sailor told me that their journey on the small boat had been more than 3 weeks on the high seas. Mine was just 3 days and three nights
. The sailor added, "You guys, your group and that one, were really lucky because by this afternoon there will a very strong storm..."The storm came. I didn’t pay attention to how strong it was because on the big ship, so big that although I could hear rains above the deck shelters, and winds around like explosions of rockets or bombs, I didn’t feel any rocking. I was really moved and whispered to myself "THANK GOD! ALLELUIA!"
Late on the night at about 10:00 P.M. the American captain of the ship called my friend Remy Hien and me, and the niece of Brother Thuc, the co-owner of the boat which had brought one-hundred-sixty-two people to freedom. Brother Thuc’s niece, who had been working for the American Army at Long Binh for at least five years, spoke English fluently enough to be translator for us. Through what the captain said, I understood that he had directly contacted Washington and requested to bring all of us - from group 162 and group 62 as well, i.e. two-hundred-twenty-four boat people - to Guam. But because of the very large number of people on his ship, the captain wanted to know more about the organization and the status, "Who is Who?" of these people, etc... I honestly answered all questions, describing some details that happened during three days and nights on the high seas.
The translator presented me as a Freøre to the captain. It seemed that he didn’t realize the meaning of Freøre. I said in French: "Je suis un Freøre des Ecoles Chreùtiennes". He nodded his head, then smilingly said: "I am a former student of the Christian Brothers in Baltimore, Maryland!" We continued talking and sharing stories about changing-life in Vietnam after the events of 1975 for a while. The captain then said: "I regret not able to bring you directly to Guam, but don’t worry. You’ll be in the Palawan Refugee Center for at most six months. The UNHCR will take care of you. All of you will be resettled in the United States if there is no objection about each one’s curriculum vitae. Congratulations!"
On the afternoon of July 30, 1983, CALLAGHAN DDG994 was anchored about 1000ft from a port, and two large yachts approached at the rear of the big ship. The group 62 embarked first, then the group 162 got down on the second yacht. As the second moved far from the big ship, I looked backward and saw many American sailors on the high board of the big ship wave their hands seemingly saying farewell or something like best wishes for a new life... It was really moving and I felt how good and comforting Interpersonal Love was.
It was true that I personally didn’t know anyone of these American sailors or the captain before, but these gestures of interpersonal relationship revealed to me some feelings of love and peace and hope for my future. I was thinking of Cuong and Han, of my roommates at Room #4 in Thu Duc prison, of my two benefactor families Chò Sang, Em Duyeân Em Hoaø, and Baùc Ba, Reùmy Hieån, Maõ K. Nguyeät... I realized that there has been a common denominator which made all human beings tied together. Really happy and comforted and optimistically looking ahead, I said to myself: "The Threshold of New Hope is opened here and now!"
Three big buses drove two-hundred-twenty-four boatpeople to the Joseù Fabella Center, arriving at about 10:00 P.M. Following is a passage describing this center:
STATEMENT OF THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE OF THE PHILIPPINES ON REFUGEES
The seventies will be remembered in Southeast Asia and, to some extent in the whole world, as the period of the refugee problem. It began with the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, and has driven hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese in desperate flight to neighboring countries, the Philippines being one of the main objectives. This catastrophic misfortune has had, in the Providence of God, two side effects which serve in some degree to inspire hope that its long term consequences will not be entirely bad. It has, first of all, shown up better than a thousand books the inhumanity of Communist regimes. These regimes have forced thousands and thousands of people, many of them women and children, to leave their homes and follow perilous paths to safety and freedom. The refugee problem has exposed the real soul of Communism, a subject on which even some good people, including priests and nuns, are woefully misled.
...
More recent is the establishment of the processing center in Morong, Bataan. Not long ago, 1,141 refugees arrived from Malaysia to remain in Morong until their admission to a third country. There were 9,000 refugees at Morong as of June 30th. Commissioner Hartling found Morong the most satisfactory of the refugee centers visited in Southeast Asia, characterized it as really "first class". He was impressed too, by the speed with which the facilities had been readied.
The Philippines is a country of temporary refuge for those arriving directly from Vietnam. Here the refugees will be prepared for adoption by a host country, learning the language, skills and customs to fit them for a new environment...
For the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines:
(Sgd.)+JAIME L. CARDINAL SIN
Archbishop of Manila
CBCP President
July 6, 1980 - Baguio City
***
On the early morning of July 31, I suddenly felt as if swirled into a very strong tsunami. My head turned dizzy and I started vomiting... I vomited so much that at the end, there was nothing in stomach, but I still vomited... My head was like blown out. Some roommates discussed about my "shock", then said to each other: "Brother Seventh has motion sickness - not motion sick as on a ship or boat, but motion sick as on a stable place. It happens to sailors who had lived for a long time on a boat or ship then return home..."
I got into shape two days later. Reùmy Hieån told me: "Do you know any Brothers in Manila?" I realized that I hadn’t got in touch with any Brothers since arriving to Manila. But I confessed that I didn’t have any of their addresses. In addition, I didn’t have any ID cards; the Religious Card and other personal documents were lost right on the day I had been arrested on January 3, 1978. (Cf. Journal 1, Part IV: "REASONS FOR THE DISBANDING OF THE LA SALLE MOSSARD COMMUNITY".) However, using the body language, I could get information about the La Salle Brothers from the Pilipino workers at the Joseù Fabella Center. Most of them knew the De la Salle Brothers, especially The De La Salle University at Taft Avenue and The La Salle Green Hills School in Queùzon City.
I first went to De La Salle Green Hills School. I was lucky to meet Brother Raphael Franco, Visitor of the Philippines District at the Provincialate House within the very large De La Salle Green Hills property. Brother Donato was to leave for Africa "to meet Brother Superior General Joseù Pablo" and told me to write him a letter. I did it, informing Brother Joseù Pablo that "I had been rescued by American ship a week earlier, and had just come to the Philippines Refugee Center waiting for the refugee-documents and admission to a third country - probably to the United Sates of America."
Brother Augustine, De La Salle Green Hills School director and principal, led Reùmy Hien and me on a tour of the property. He could speak French. That made it much easier for us to communicate. I said to Brother Augustine: "In terms of property and buildings, Taberd is just about one third of De La Salle Green Hills’, but in terms of the number of students, De La Salle Green Hills is just about one third of Taberd’s." He was surprised and impressed saying that he admired what the Brothers in Vietnam had done. He added, "It’s regrettable that the growing vitality of your district of Saigon had been suddenly abolished... Do you have any hope for the future of your district?" I replied, "Hope, always Hope, and still Hope! The problem is that whether that Hope still remains and can be nourished with passing times or not. I would think that, if right now - after ten years of endurance and challenges - we were allowed to start again from ground zero, we can do it. But the vision of the future is rather pessimistic... Anyway, in my mind, I still hope that the Brothers around the world in general and the Vietnamese Brothers refugees in particular would support the Brothers in Vietnam: ‘The Threshold of New Hope’ now more than ever."
Reùmy Hieån and I returned to Joseù Fabella Center with the impressive and hopeful promise of Brother Augustine "to do whatever we can to assist and help the Brothers in Vietnam, because they are OUR Brothers, aren’t they?"
On August 8, 1983, our group 162 was transferred to Palawan Refugee Center in Puerto Princesa City, about 500km from Manila.
Following had been a very moving statement of the First Lady Imelda Marcos about the Palawan Refugee Center:
A tear-jerking report from Tung An revealed that five people divided a banana for one day’s meal. This caused Mrs. Marcos to cry. "We are all refugees, if they are stateless, we are all stateless, no one in the world has a country of their own, for we are all refugees," she said. As a result, a place in Puerta Princesa in Palawan City was declared a temporary shelter (The Philippine Refugee Processing Center, universally known as the PRPC) for the boat people who waited for the policy on: what to do with these men and women from the sea.
HISTORY OF PALAWAN REFUGEE CAMP
April 30, 1975: Saigon falls. First wave of refugees leaves
on cargo planes, military ships.
May 1975: First Vietnamese refugees arrive in Philippines.
1979: Second wave of refugees begins leaving Vietnam by boat. Refugee status
granted automatically.
1979: Palawan Camp opens.
March 24, 1989: Refugee status test established. Those screened out face
repatriation to Vietnam.
December 1995: Military confines refugees in Palawan Camp.
Feb. 13, 1996: President Fidel Ramos and Catholic Bishops Conference of the
Philippines denounce forced expatriation.
Feb. 14, 1996: The Philippines halts the forced repatriation of some 1,500
Palawan Camp refugees after one plane load has been sent to Vietnam.