“Students of St. Scholastica’s are ‘colegiala ’; they’re not used to advocacy work,” said the retired environmentalist nun, Sister Aida Velasquez OSB. She explained that schoolgirls in this exclusive, all-girls Catholic College are from affluent families. But she added that Sister Mary John Mananzan OSB was the exception. “She is the activist,” Sister Aida said.
A boarding “interna” since grade school, Sister Mary John also took her perpetual vows there. “But I’m not in the ‘haciendero’ (landed gentry) league –I’m middle class!” Sister Mary John protested. “Colegiala” typecasting aside, the progressive nun continues to fight for the poor, women’s rights, and environmental protection.
In 2023, she wrote about “Ecofeminism” because, according to her, both the womb of women and the womb of the earth give life, and yet they are abused. “Both are victims of patriarchy,” she said.
Putting words into action in 1984, Sister Mary John co-founded GABRIELA. She served as its national chairperson for 18 years. They named this women’s grassroots alliance after Gabriela Silang, who led the Ilocano independence movement against Spanish colonial rule in the 18th century.
GABRIELA stands for “General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality, Leadership and Action.” It advocates for gender equality, human rights, and national liberation. The federation provides community and legal services.
Also in 1984, Sister Mary John organized the Institute of Women Studies at St. Scholastica’s College. There she served as dean for 18 years and president for six. She performed her duty to the congregation as prioress of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters in the Manila Priory, and as national chairperson of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines.
Still Speaking Truth to Power
Born November 6, 1937, Sister Mary John, at 88, still works. She is the Superior and Directress of their academy in San Fernando, Pampanga. She continues to give public lectures. As a go-to church personality, she is sought after by the media for her views on controversial issues.
In interviews, she unflinchingly sides with women on reproductive rights and equality, never shying away from opposing the Catholic Church’s position. She condemns all forms of corruption. So, she is aware of the government “red tagging” her as subversive.
In September of 2025, she spoke at the massive anti-corruption demonstration, “Trillion Peso March,” to protest anomalies in the government flood control spending. She also led the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution last February 2026.
Showing Up
In fact, I last interacted with Sister Mary John during that time. Some 40 years ago, on February 22, 1986, I found myself in a van at St. Scholastica’s College waiting for other nuns to join us. Sister Aida was already on board. Sister Mary John sat in the front passenger seat. With her window rolled down, she spoke cheerfully with German visitors walking by.
We had decided to support what was reported on Radio Veritas as a coup to oust the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. His Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and his second cousin, Chief of the Philippine Constabulary Lt. Gen. Fidel Ramos, had just defected. They barricaded themselves in two military bases, Camps Crame and Aguinaldo, which faced each other across EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue). We were going there.
The defectors and then Manila Archbishop Cardinal Sin called on the people, via Radio Veritas, to gather at EDSA to protect the defecting faction from any attacking Marcos troops. During the first hours of the first day of the coup, no one knew for certain what the defectors’ ultimate intentions were.
We went to EDSA anyway. EDSA was relatively empty when we met soldiers outside the camps. We did not know which side those in the ranks manning the tanks would take. But we took a conciliatory stance. And as more people arrived, we made our way back to the college. We returned to EDSA separately until the dictator and his family fled on February 25, 1986.
Still Showing Up
I saw Sister Mary John before the EDSA anniversary in 2026. And she looked exactly like that day in 1986. The sprightly gait has slowed down, and experience now line her bright face. But her wit and kindness remain.
St. Scholastica’s College Manila is celebrating its 120th Founding Anniversary in 2026. And the event she was there to attend was running late. I arrived half an hour before our 1 p.m. appointment, which by then was moved an hour later.
She saw me from the hall where their lunch was being served. She walked, with no assistance, towards where I sat. I signaled that I would wait there until she was done. Securing that appointment took a bit of luck and some wrangling with the guards. I could wait.
But she approached and said: “We have guests from Germany… I thought I won’t be able to speak German anymore.” Then she smiled and suggested we talk somewhere quiet. Next minute, we huddled in what felt like a maintenance closet.
Where Her Courage Comes From
“I am a nun,” Sister Mary John said. Letting out a laugh, she continued, “They won’t just kill a nun. If I were lay, I would have been killed the day after coming home from a rally.”
“I entered the convent in 1957; I was 19. To be honest, initially it was out of inertia. I was here my whole life in this school. So, I got to look at how nuns live. I heard them singing the Gregorian Chant like angels. And I also overheard them laughing during recreation time.”
“I thought I’ll give it a try. If it wasn’t my vocation, then I’ll leave. I will have every chance in the world to get married… But the more I lived this life, the more I knew… And then I found this book, ‘Heliotropium’ (The Sunflower), about interior life.”
Sister Mary John mentioned two more books, “The Knights of the Cross” and “Sister Joan of the Cross,” that stirred her yearning for spiritual life. She then remembered a feature on her in “People’s,” a magazine circulated in the ‘70s. After fumbling through her phone, she showed me the photo of the cover and the article, “The Nun Who Wanted to Change the World.” It referenced another book that inspired her: “You Can Change the World: the Christopher Approach” by Father James Keller.
Putting Others First
Halfway through her animated storytelling, she stopped to ask if I had been served lunch. I realized that she had skipped lunch to chat.
“I was recently called to the Senate. They asked me why I was an activist. I told them it is simple. I’m supposed to be a follower of Christ. If Jesus had (a preferential) option for the poor, I should also have an option for the poor. And if the poor are being exploited, their rights are violated… What (did you expect me to do)? Just talk about it? That is why I join strikes, picket lines.”
Sister Mary John said her “baptism of fire” came in 1975. She had just returned from studying abroad. She received a Diplom degree in Missiology (missionary strategies) from the University of Münster in Germany and a Ph.D. in Linguistic Philosophy from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
A call came from the nuns barricaded inside the La Tondeña distillery together with strikers on October 24, 1975. The strike was the first open labor protest under Martial Law in defiance of Marcos’ prohibition.
The distillery’s 500 workers demanded better wages, permanent status for casual workers, maternity leave, and an end to illegal firings. That night, news came that Marcos’ dreaded military-police force, Metrocom (Metropolitan Command of the Philippine Constabulary), would come to break the strike.
“Wait, it’s 11 o’clock. I don’t have my superior’s permission. She’s in bed now…” Sister Mary John narrated. “So, I wrote a note and pinned it on her door. I am glad I went. Soon as we got to La Tondeña, by around 1 a.m., six cars of Metrocom came.”
One of the nuns inside the distillery later told Sister Mary John that in solidarity with the workers, they locked arms (“kapit-bisig”). Metrocom ordered them to come out and threatened to use force if strikers refused.
“And what did Metrocom do (after forced entry)? They hit everyone in the head. Sister told me she was spared because she was a nun. But she said they hit the worker to her right and to her left.”
“I saw blood running down everybody’s face, like Jesus Christ’s, as they emerged. At first, I thought they were kneeling as they walked. In fact, they were pushed into that position.”
“Right there, we founded the Friends of Workers.” Sister Mary John said. “It’s too late to help workers at picket lines. We must look at their working conditions before that.” The “colegiala” nun has done that since. She could have stayed cloistered. But she is changing the world instead.
