Nasalipdan ang akuang ubang mga anak na sila Registered Electrical Engineer Vince Aston Omandam, Gabriel Alfred Omandam, Juliana Fe Bless Omandam (gagmay pa sila Ani)
ON MOTHER’S DAY, MY MOM’S BIRTHDAY: Remembering Nanay Basilia — A Mother’s Love Through War, Loss, and Hope
Today is Mother’s Day and my mother’s birthday.
My mother, Basilia Gito-Matula (1939–2016), was born before the Second World War, as I was told.
I was born to her in Maguindanao, then part of the undivided province of Cotabato, in the mid-1960s.
She was the first woman who told me that she loved me. I felt that love even before I fully opened my soft and delicate eyes. In the loving embrace of my mother, I dared to see the first light of this world.
On the day I was born, it seemed the angels were singing Alleluia. At the same time, I heard the call to prayer from a nearby minaret, where our Muslim brothers and sisters praised the greatness of God whom they call Allah. Even as a child, I grew up hearing both church bells and the adhan — reminders that faith and humanity can live side by side.
She breastfed me, and I grew up a strong and healthy child. I mingled and played with other young children in a rural community where the majority of the residents were Muslims.
But history turned harsh on us.
During the fratricidal war in Cotabato in the 1970s, our house was destroyed and we lost our small farmland in Barurao, Sultan sa Barongis. Our family became among the collateral damages of the civil war in Southern Philippines.
There, I witnessed the courage of a mother.
Amid the barking of guns — from the Barracudas, Blackshirts, Ilagas, and the army — she and my father shielded us and brought us from one place to another as war evacuees until we migrated to Agusan in 1971.
In those difficult years, I saw how a mother’s embrace can become a fortress stronger than fear.
Though Nanay was not able to enter high school, she taught me and my siblings how to read, write, and count. She may not have possessed diplomas, but she possessed wisdom, patience, and determination.
She sewed my first khaki school bag with her own hands. She enrolled me in Grade 1 and accompanied me to school on the first day of class.
Like many mothers, she carried dreams not for herself, but for her children.
From there, she and my father sparked in me the love for learning and the courage to venture on my own. Because of them, I dared to pursue my education and dream beyond the limits of poverty and displacement.
After 77 years on this planet Earth, Nanay left us on August 2, 2016. She quietly began her journey back to our loving God.
But mothers never truly leave.
They remain in the stories we tell, in the values they planted in our hearts, in every act of courage, kindness, sacrifice, and faith that we continue to carry.
May she have eternal rest.
We know that our Nanay is now with the angels, singing praises to the Lord, our Creator.
We are deeply grateful for your love and care, Nanay.
You are very dear to us. We will always cherish you in our hearts.
Happy birthday, Nanay! We love you.
Nasalipdan ang akuang ubang mga anak na sila Registered Electrical Engineer Vince Aston Omandam, Gabriel Alfred Omandam, Juliana Fe Bless Omandam (gagmay pa sila Ani)