Long before the Abellera clan became an institution in the field of Education in Davao City, very little, if none at all, was written about its patriarch, Juan Abellera, a native of Cava, La Union who was an educator, poet, and church minister. Until 1906, he was a head teacher of all schools in Santo Tomas, Pangasinan, under the District of La Union, as reflected in the Official Roster of the Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 25, which was issued that same year.
A year earlier, Rev. H.W. Widdoes, a Protestant pastor of the United Brethren in Christ, encouraged him to join the ministry but he was reluctant. Later, though, he wrote the reverend to express his sincere desire to leave his teaching profession and focus on spreading the Gospel. Dr. Frank Charles Laubach, in ‘The People of the Philippines’ (1925), reproduced the letter in part:
“It is now about a year since you expressed yourself as desirous of having me in the working force, teaching Christianity. The hardest part of the question, which has been very difficult for me to settle, is the following: Would I be influencing the people more by being a teacher or by entering missionary work?
“One day last week, while I was sitting and trying to find the way in which I could best help in the salvation of my people, the Spirit of the Lord seemed to guide me. He has cleared away all my doubts. As a teacher I shall be influencing only a few hundred boys and girls, while as a worker in the Christian religion, I shall have an opportunity to influence this whole province or even more.
“As Christ’s worker, I may be able to train both souls and intellects of old people as well as young. Though I am now acting as assistant superintendent and am expecting another promotion in the coming school year, I have decided to give up this work and take up the one which I feel God wants me to do.” (Paragraphing mine.)
Juan’s acceptance of the challenge to become pastor was directly due to influence of his Protestant parents. At home, they had this regular Bible-sharing, with father using the Latin version, and mother reading the Ilocano translation. For the young minister, it was the Spanish edition of the Holy Bible.
Giving up his teaching profession meant also the diminution of his salary. As an educator he was receiving a monthly compensation of one hundred pesos, but as preacher he had to make do with only thirty pesos every month.
On February 14, 1908, during the Philippine Conference, Abellera and four other native pastors were granted license as annual preachers. His ordination as an elder was deemed “an event of special moment in the history of the mission, for it as the fulfilment of the promises of the missionaries that the church was to be for the Filipinos, of the Filipinos, and by the Filipinos.”
Juan’s initial exposure to missionary work started in the province of La Union, which was then home of fledgling churches. This experience would later bring him to “the greatest student section in the Far East, the congested districts of Sampaloc and Quiapo.”
An alumnus of the Union Theological Seminary in 1912, he began serving the church as evangelist translator and assistant pastor in 1915. His eloquence in preaching and speaking publicly was something that earned him plaudits. When he went to America and conducted speaking engagements, his charisma as speaker was highly noted. During the United Brethren National Convention held in the US in the 1920s, “it was widely accepted that his masterly address surpassed all others of any nationality.”
Abellera also founded “the first united [Protestant] church” in the country before he was advised to take only light functions due to failing health. In one of his rest days, he received a letter from his 18-year-old daughter, which goes:
“DEAR PAPANG:
“I write this to make you happy. You have prayed that one of your children might follow you into the ministry; if none of us did, I know how disappointed you would be.
“I had a long struggle between my way and God’s, and God won. I do not know his plan for me yet, but I will prepare myself educationally as well as I can, and leave the rest to him.
“So, Papang, if you fear you may not take up your work again, remember there is somebody to push it on and to realize the ideals for which you gave your life. And that somebody is
“Your affectionate daughter,
“ESPERANZA”
Juan, as a poet, was cited by Leopoldo Y. Yabes, an Ilocano writer and a former dean of the University of the Philippines, in A Brief Survey of Iloko Literature (1936).
In the early Commonwealth period, Abellera and wife Elena Manongdo moved to Davao where some colleagues in the Protestant mission had already relocated to expand their obligations. He also preached at the Furukawa plantation where he gained new converts.
By 1939, he took over the pastoral work of a group that would become the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in 1948. He died in Davao City and his remains are interred at the public cemetery at Wireless.
