A Backgrounder on

The Very Rev. Dario Palasi
- Dean, Flushing Deanery -

by Lambert Sagalla***

Prologue. On May 1, 1898, six days after the start of the Spanish-American war, Commodore George Dewey sailed into Manila Bay and in a two hour engagement sent the Spanish Pacific fleet to the bottom. The victory generated considerable debate over what ought to be done with the islands. This resulted in the declaration by President William Mckinley that it was the United States manifest destiny to take possession of the Philippine Islands to "educate the Filipinos, and uplift and Christianize them.*

Anglican / Episcopalian missionaries were among those  who leapt at the opportunity to do missionary work in the Philippines following President William Mckinley’s "Manifest Destiny" declaration.  While not a few would point out that it was really  the lobbying of  President Mckinley’s  friends in the Sugar industry that prompted the United States to take possession of the Philippine Islands, American missionaries  have had profound influence in the lives of  Igorots  in  Northern Philippines.

Finding out that lowland Filipinos were already Christianized, the Philippines having been under Spanish rule for more than three centuries, the Anglican / Episcopalian missionaries focused their missionary work in the Cordillera mountain ranges of northern Philippines and the predominantly Muslim populated areas of  Southern Philippines. The Philippine Cordilleras [then composed of the sub-provinces of Bontoc, Ifugao, Benguet, Apayao and Kalinga] were inhabited by  pagan, rice terracing, head-hunting tribes, collectively referred to, by historians or Philippine Chroniclers, as Igorots,  meaning mountain dwellers.  Igorots have also been historically referred to as  non-Christian Tribes,  cultural minorities, and  indigenous people of the Philippines. Fiercely clinging to their freedom-loving ways, Igorots remained predominantly un-subjugated during more than three centuries of Spanish Rule in the Philippines. It was through the missionary works and/or institutions such as what the Anglican / Episcopalian  and other Missionaries established in the hinterlands of  northern Philippines that finally capitulated Igorots to accept Philippine civil authority.

Churches, chapels, schools, clinics, hospitals were the main institutions resorted to by the American missionaries to help Christianize, educate and uplift the lives of Igorots. Thus, it came to pass that legions of Igorot descendants were able to overcome socio-economic barriers of a subsistence economy; educate themselves; and leapfrog into the second half of the 20th century as teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, lawyers, architects, accountants, seamen, military men, musicians, artists, "you name it  they have it"  - which of course include priests.  This brings us to the Rev. Dario Palasi, a descendant of rice-terracing, gangsa-beating, rice-wine drinking and once-upon-a-time head-hunting people, who is now serving as an Associate Priest at St. John's Episcopal Church in Flushing, Queens, New York.

The Rev. Dario Palasi, to a large extent,  is a product of Anglican or Episcopal Church Institutions established by American Missionaries in the Philippines.

Dario Palasi was born March 10, 1960 in a barrio called Bangao along the Halsema Mountain Highway [popularly known as Mountain Trail] in the northern Philippines province of  Benguet. The Mountain Trail, which is the road along the Cordillera mountain range that connects modern day Baguio, Benguet Province, to Bontoc, Mountain Province and beyond, is officially called the Halsema Highway, in honor of then Baguio City American Mayor E.J. Halsema**, who was instrumental in its construction in the early 1900s.

Dario was baptized at  St. Jude's Episcopal Church of  Bangao  established by the Philippine Episcopal Church to minister to the residents of  the strategically located and thriving vegetable producing town of  Buguias.

In 1979, Dario graduated  from St. Mary's High School, Sagada, Mt. Province, a school started in 1904 by the Rev. John A Staunton - then 34 years old and former Rector of St. Peter's church in Springfield, Massachussets. This one hundred years Episcopal Church school prides itself as the alma mater of  quite a number of Igorot professionals, many of  whom found gainful employment overseas - mainly in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Europe.

For his college education, Dario enrolled at Trinity College of Quezon City earning for himself an Associate in Arts degree in 1981. Trinity College, established in 1963 during  the Rt. Rev. Lyman C  Obilby's tenure as Bishop of the Philippine Episcopal Church, was named after Trinity College of Hartford, Connecticut  whose president then was Bishop Ogilby's father.

After graduation from Trinity College of Quezon City, Dario enrolled at St. Andrew's Theological Seminary, also in Quezon City and graduated Bachelor of Arts in Theology in 1985. St. Andrews Seminary was established in 1932 by the American Missionaries to prepare Filipinos  interested in becoming Anglican priests. After the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA entered into a concordat relationship with the Philippine Independent Church in 1947,  St. Andrew’s Seminary, likewise, opened its doors to Filipinos training for the priesthood under the Philippine Independent Church.

Dario was ordained to the Deaconate on March 11, 1986 at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Saytan, La Union; and to the priesthood in October 28, 1986 at St. Jude's Episcopal Church, Bangao, Buguias, Benguet  by The Rt. Rev. Manuel Lumpias, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North-Central Philippines. 

The Rev. Dario Palasi's  Philippine ministry was mainly under the Episcopal Diocese of North-Central Philippines where he served in various capacities including:

• Deacon, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Saytan, La Union, Philippines
  March 13, 1986 to October 27, 1986

• Vicar, Ascension Mission, Kapangan, Benguet, Philippines
  November, 1988 to June 1989

• Dean, La Trinidad-Kapangan Deanery, Episcopal Diocese of Northern Philippines
  April, 1990 to February 1992

• Administrator, Episcopal Montessori Center, La Trinidad, Benguet Philippines
  July 1989 to February 1992

• Rector, Holy Guardian Angels, La Trinidad, Benguet, Philippines
  July, 1989 to February, 1992

Sometime in 1989, the Rev. Dario Palasi mustered enough courage to propose marriage to the fair maiden which his heart has long been secretly longing for, aching for and dying for - Catherine Taclobao. Catherine finally capitulated to Fr. Palasi's honorable advances and so she became Mrs. Palasi on December 28, 1989.

Catherine, a nurse, eventually found employment at the Elmhurst Hospital in New York; and to keep close to his family, The Rev. Dario Palasi followed her arriving in the United States on February 12, 1992.

Desirous of continuing his priestly ministry in New York, The Rev. Palasi enrolled in courses related to his profession including:

• Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, Mercer School of Theology, Garden City, New York, Fall, 1998; and

• Home Away from Home course, Mercer School of Theology, Garden City, New York, Fall, 2000.

Subsequently, The Rev Dario Palasi found himself serving as:

• Supply priest at the Diocese of Long Island, New York
  June 1992 to October, 1998;

• Supply Priest, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, College Point, New York
  November, 1998 to October, 1999; and

• School Chaplain, St. Paul's School, College Point, New York
  November, 1998 to October, 1999;

• Associate Priest, St. John's Episcopal Church, Flushing, Queens, New York
  November, 1998 to the present

• Dean, Flushing Deanery, Diocese of Long Island.
  July 1, 2006 to the present.

The Rev. Palasi and Catherine are happily married with three children: Daphne Kate (13 years old); Daryl Keith (10 years old) and Blanche Kathryn (5 years old) as of this writing - July 1, 2006..

- - - - - -
*Steven Rogers, "John Staunton and the Sagada Mission, An American Missionary in the Philippine Cordillera,  http://64.17.141.29/by_steven_rogers.htm.

**E. H. Halsema stayed in Baguio City for 17 years serving as city mayor and district engineer for Benguet. [Source: Dean Jorge Bocobo, "The Day After Pearl Harbor", Philippine Commentary, Wednesday, December 07, 2005.

***The author, a thoroughbred Igorot, was also a product of Episcopal Mission Schools established by American Missionaries in Northern Philippines. His picture at left was taken when he was a 17-year old student at St. Mary's High School, Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines.