Teacher Sammy Taylor, A Slice of My Experience

Bancao Bancao Elementary School

After my teaching in the old PFAC Refugee Camp in 1995, the Vietnamese Elementary school children were accepted in Bancao Bancao Elementary School (Mauricio Reynoso Memorial Elementary School) in the following year, until the year 1997.

 

The Department of Education, with the support of Mayor Ed Hagedorn, requested me to teach the Vietnamese children. There, I taught Grade 4, 5, and 6 in one gigantic classroom. I was very happy to teach the Vietnamese children in Bancao Bancao.
 
In Bancao Bancao, I met a very sweet, loving and thoughtful Vietnamese student named Tang T. Nguyen. Unfortunately, I can no longer remember the names of other students or have any idea where they are now. ( or where they have resettled.)

I'm planning to go to that school to look for my old records so I can recall their names again.

In 1997, The Vietnamese in PFAC were relocated in Viet Ville in Santa Lourdes. The school children were then accepted in many different schools in Puerto Princesa City.
 
I was also accepted as a permanent teacher in public school as a result of the good performance I had in teaching the Vietnamese.

These are some of the pictures I'd like to share. People in PFAC knew me as Teacher Sammy Taylor

OOO 

Left Behind: 

The Story of the Vietnamese            Woman still Living in Liminangcong

When three Vietnamese families made a return visit to Liminangcong, the fishing village in which they had found safety 30 years ago after their harrowing escapes from Vietnam, there was one totally unexpected surprise for them.
After the greetings, the tears, the gifts, and the food, the Barangay Chairman asked the visitors, to their shock and surprise, if they would like to meet a Vietnamese woman  who still lived in their village. Perhaps she hadn’t been left by these three families who returned for a visit; perhaps she was left behind by one of the many Vietnamese groups who had landed and passed through Liminangcong during the years of the Boat People’s exodus – that is from the end of the Vietnam war in 1975 to approximately 1988.

Her name is Gliceria Verian Huerto. If she had a Vietnamese name, no one knows what it was. She does not speak Vietnamese, not even a single word.  She estimates that she is about 40 years old. She must have been younger than three or four when she was left behind or she would have known her name and been able to use Vietnamese. 

We might suppose she was perhaps two. We must remember that the refugees were transported by navy boat from Liminangcong and other ports to Puerto Princesa City, sometimes in haste, as the tides were just right or a storm was approaching. We can only imagine how her family, if she had a family, felt when they realized they had left the child behind. There were of course many  who perished at sea as well as on land upon their arrival in Liminangcong. Could she have been an orphaned child? It would be hard to believe that a family meant to leave her..  

On the other hand it is also hard to believe that during their time in the processing camp – and they were generally there for about six months to a year – no one brought this situation to the attention of the camp authorities or to IOM and/or UNHCR who were in charge of the movement of the refugees. Perhaps we will never know exactly what happened.
But the child was apparently cute and hence immediately taken in by a local family in Liminangcong. There she grew up reasonably happily, in companionship with the other children in the family. She learned to speak Filipino, and came to feel like she belonged there. True, everyone knew she was Vietnamese, and she was sometimes bullied as a child, called a Vietcong, and for a while during a Miss Universe craze, called Miss Aruba! (Never mind the lack of logic in that: kids are kids!)

But she grew up, was educated, got married, now has two children of her own, and still lives in Liminangcong. She is an accredited Barangay Health Worker. But the visit of her former countrymen suggested some questions and further possibilities for her future. She does not have a birth certificate so there are more questions than answers at the moment concerning her persona and legal status in the Philippines; her refugee status has never been established. If her identity is established, will she have lost her refugee status, given the many years that she has lived in the Philippines?  Her refugee status will have to be credibly established prior to looking into what might be a lasting solution for her according to the Refugee Convention of 1951 (Refugee Law). The Convention provides the three following durable solutions:

• voluntary repatriation to her country of origin.
• Local integration in the host country, including being granted citizenship
• resettlement into a third country.

She doesn’t want to return to her country of origin to live because she knows no one, and since she doesn’t know who her family is, she is unlikely to be resettled in a third country. She is in fact integrated into the local culture already although her citizenship has not been established.

Ms. Huerto told the group of visitors that while she had no desire to leave, she would like to trace her roots, find her family. The Red Cross helps with such tasks, but this looks extremely difficult: the only clue is that she is the child of someone from one of the number of boats allegedly from Vietnam which landed and passed through Liminangcong at some point. The Vietnamese families from Australia who came to visit took a lock of her hair, and plan also to follow up on leads in stories of abandoned or lost children, perhaps tracing back in history through stories told to priests who were in the forefront of rescuing the boat people who came earlier in the 80’s.
It will take a minor miracle to find her family, but stranger things have happened, and we certainly would love to see this happen.
So this might become a chapter three in the Saga of the Vietnamese in Liminangcong!

Palawan News Nov. 17, 2017

 

OUR PFAC PALAWAN BOY SCOUTS (Part Two) with THUAN LE

HTC-PFAC FORMER STUDENT THUAN LE

and the BOYSCOUTS of PFAC PALAWAN





 

 

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Photos courtesy of Thuan Le. 
Please do not re-distribute without permission.

OUR PFAC PALAWAN BOY SCOUTS (Part One) with VY DUC

The Active Boy Scouts

of PFAC Palawan

 

Van, Vy Duc, Nhan, and Phong 

Bon, Liem, Vy Duc and Nhan

Minh Chuong, Phong, Luan

PFAC PALAWAN BOY SCOUTS

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Letters from my Vietnamese Students in P.F.A.C.

Together and then separate. It seems that it's the rule of life. Living here in a free country which is not my own for more than three years, I have met many kinds of people- good and bad. Thank God for giving me a chance to meet you... to become your student. You have trained me to become what I am today. I have studied in HTC-PFAC for three years and I've studied with you for nearly three years. Having known you for a long time, I know how much you love the Vietnamese people in general and how much you love us, your students in particular. You are not Vietnamese but your heart and your mind are like the Vietnamese. You always think and try to do what is helpful to us Vietnamese people. You have cared for us and touched us with your enthusiasm and sincerity. You have given us your knowledge and experiences very openly. We've had a wonderful time studying with you. But nothing is permanent. All good thing must come to an end. The time has come for you to go far away from us. Before you leave, I have nothing for you. I just have these sincere words, from the bottom of my heart. I want to wish you happiness and success in your new life. Thank you for what you've done for us. I will forever remember your generosity. God will repay you for all your kindness. I will surely think of you in my prayers. God bless you, teacher, and good luck!
Do Hanh QuyenJune 2, 1992

The Vietnamese Refugees (1980-1992)

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS...

That's how I felt about the Vietnamese Refugees 
in P.F.A.C. Palawan, Philippines.


"I'm indeed grateful to God that at my very young age He allowed me to 

experience something that was truly remarkable and that I believe 

very few human beings will ever experience in their lifetime".

Andrew Taylor

These were the faces of the people I served.  They did not look like me, but I called them brothers and sisters, or probably friends.  I even called the others mothers and fathers, or sons and daughters. There's no word to explain but when I was working for the Vietnamese Refugees Centre in Palawan, I felt as though the Vietnamese people in the camp were my own blood... my own family.
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To be exact, I started working for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on June 24, 1980. It was not easy for me to forget that day because it was Saint John the Baptist Day. I remembered traveling on a tricycle from the center of Puerto Princesa City (Palawan, Philippines) with two other volunteer English teachers (Benny Ong and Zenny Beran) on our way to the refugee center or camp as they used to call it. When the tricycle pulled in the so-called V.R.C., I was astonished to see over nine thousand (9,000) political refugees, who were obviously very much aware of our coming, eagerly waiting for us.

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Yes, indeed. They knew we were coming. Apparently, the camp chairman (Dr. Ky) had announced to his people that there were three teachers who had offered their services, which was to teach English as a Second Language on the volunteer capacity. We were then introduced before a congregation of about six thousand Vietnamese people, exceedingly anxious to see us and hear what we had to say.
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At that momentous gathering, I gave my biggest audience (6,000+ people) a rendition of my favorite song "All I have to do is dream." The song caught the attention of Van Le, who also loved the song. He immediately became my first Vietnamese best friend. (Van Le now lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Tien and their kids, and has a master's degree in computer engineering). That was the biggest round of applause I've ever been bestowed upon- truly inspiring and unforgettable.
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On the same day, Dr. Ky took us to the Catholic Church (in the camp) and assisted us as we started registering the students (ages 4 to 16) in our classes. As expected, we were bombarded by hundreds of enthusiastic Vietnamese children waiting in line and very eager to get into our classes. Dr. Ky was so proud of the enthusiasm shown by his people; he gave us all the support that we needed. The following day (June 25) the two other volunteer teachers and I started teaching English using the Catholic Church as our classroom. we started with 72 students in one class and the following day, the attendance rose to 107.
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After a week, our class had over 300 students and we could no longer fit them into one classroom, which was the Catholic church. Dr. Ky suggested that we divide the students into three groups and hold classes under the trees. We were all open to anything so we obliged. We split the class into three and each of us had our own separate groups of students.
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The students had to sit on rocks as they learned listening, speaking, reading and writing. We had to use portable blackboards, ones that we then put against the tree trunk in front of the students. The students had to move around with their rocks to follow the shade as the sun moved. I found that situation unique and I'm indeed grateful to God that at my very young age He allowed me to experience something that was truly remarkable and that I believe very few human beings will ever experience in their lifetime.
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Six months later, the two other volunteers left the camp for personal reasons. I was left alone with Sister Tomasa (our School Manager) but I stayed because I found so much joy in serving the Vietnamese refugees, who gave me love and respect and filled my life with an enormous feeling of satisfaction. Yes, the job I was doing gave me a sense of fulfillment... something that was definitely worth more than any material thing in this world. My job made me feel complete as a human being. And how could I leave those people who needed me?
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Eight months later, two other volunteers arrived. They were Marian Lynch and Muriel Knox both from the United Kingdom. These two B.V.S.O. volunteers brought new energy in the camp. Then before we knew it, the UNHCR had already started constructing a school building for us. The new school building had twelve very spacious classrooms to the delight of our students. The school's population quickly increased to an astounding 1,200 students.

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Dr. Heracleo Lagrada, who was then the president of the former Palawan Teachers College (now called Palawan State University) joined our school as a consultant and initiated the development of our school curriculum with the assistance of Marian Lynch, Muriel Knox, and myself. Then we named our school Vietnamese Refugees School for Children. As the school grew further our school manager (Sister Tomasa Rivera, O.P.) had to hire two exceptionally competent Filipino teachers- Rubi Diao and Ramona San Luis. The following year, two other volunteer teachers arrived, Adrian Seviour from England and Ann Cusack from Australia.  A few months later, my brother Sammy Taylor arrived in the camp and brought renewed energy to the students with his enthusiastic teaching style and his guitar and songs. 

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