Fr. Rudy Romano.
As the country commemorates the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolt, for the Redemptorist community in Cebu, it is difficult to forget the sacrifices of a priest named Fr. Rosalio “Rudy” Romano.
Fr. Rudy, who led several social actions against the regime of former President Ferdinand Marcos was abducted by armed members of the Military Intelligence Group (MIG) in Barangay Tisa, Cebu City, just months prior to Edsa – on July 11, 1985.
After almost 33 years since he had gone missing, Fr. Rudy is now presumed dead by his family and fellow priests.
“He was the voice of the voiceless,” said Fr. Crispin “Cris” Mostajo, parish priest of Cebu’s Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, better known as Redemptorist Church, in describing Fr. Romano.
Fr. Cris was only a 19-year-old seminarian when Romano arrived in Cebu for his assignment at the Redemptorist Church in 1983.
Mostajo recalls how the late cleric would bravely stand with poor families whose houses were about to be demolished.
“Kon dunay demolisyon kay mangadto mi sa Brgy. Pasil ug Ermita mag vigil. Matulog mi sa sawog nga hinapinan og karton uban sa mga tawo (If there was a demolition in Brgy Pasil and Brgy Ermita, we would go to the area and held a prayer vigil. We even slept on the floor with the people, using cardboard as mats),” he said of the priest who lived a simple life even if he had come from an affluent family.
Romano’s father was the town mayor of Villareal, Eastern Samar.
According to Mostajo, Romano convinced his father to initiate a land reform program and distribute parcels of their land to their poor tenants in Samar.
Mostajo added that the mayor asked Fr. Rudy to leave the country because of threats to his life during Martial Law.
But Romano remained firm in his mission to help the people and rejected his father’s wish.
“The people had come to me. The workers come to me. These people are voiceless. I cannot leave them,” Romano told his father, said Mostajo.
As a young seminarian back then, Mostajo was amazed at how Fr. Rudy could still afford to crack jokes with the people, just to help lighten the mood, amid very trying times.
Fr. Rudy, he said, already knew that his efforts to help the oppressed and the needy would have dire consequences.
The disappearance of the martyred priest is commemorated by his family, friends and fellow clergy of the Redemptorist order every year, with a candle lighting ceremony held at the stone marker in Brgy. Tisa, where Romano was last seen during his abduction.
“Ang iyang kinabuhi kay wala siya masayang (His life has not gone to waste). He lived his life to the fullest. Iyang gihalad iyang kinabuhi aron atong nasod makaangkon og demokrasya (He offered his life so that the country can achieve democracy),” Mostajo said.
32 years had passed since the Edsa People Power Revolt, and yet the Philippines relives painful memories of the past.
For Fr. Mostajo, Edsa remains relevant to this day.
“Ang Edsa kay murag wala pa matuman. Namatay si Marcos but the system kay nagpabilin (Edsa appears to not have been accomplished. Marcos died but the system remains). The problem is not the person but the system of the country,” he said.
According to Mostajo, if Fr. Rudy witnessed the things going on in the country today, he would be very sad to see that the strong beliefs and principles that he had valiantly fought for had all gone to waste.
“Usa lamang siya sa mga patriots sa atong nasod nga nakigbisog tungod sa gugma sa nasod, demorasya ug sa mga kabos. (He is just one of the patriots who fought for love of country , democracy, and the poor),” Mosajo said.
He called on millennials to carefully study and be rightfully informed of the country’s current situation and use social media to educate others.
Meanwhile, the Redemptorist community is now gathering data to start the process for Fr. Romano’s possible beatification.