26/06/2021
“MR. NAAS, OUR TATANG”
Ignaas Karel Raymond Bornschein Demyttenaere
Mr. Naas, or Naas, as he was fondly called, was not your ordinary child. His teachers often found him getting into mischievous adventures. He would put on plays with his siblings and pull of pranks with his friends. In high school, he and his classmates once removed the classroom doors and hid them flat on the grassy ground. It took a day or two to find them and when his teacher complained to his mother, his mother cleverly replied, “You’re lucky, you only have one. I have ten.” In the seminary he changed the contents of a smoking pipe belonging to a priest who became fuming mad when he discovered the switch. For his final exams, he piled up all his textbooks to the ceiling and watched them asking himself how on earth would he get all of it in his head and ace his exams. While taking a course in tropical medicine, he mastered setting an IV by practicing with a friend using each other’s veins.
Mr. Naas arrived in the Philippines in 1970. He climbed mountains and crossed rivers, braved typhoons, earthquakes and landslides, lived and worked with the locals, his friends and family, and most of all he educated and taught all the people around him. He walked for hours from Calanasan to Claveria with a blind man as his guide and drove the first jeep to Apayao to the amazement of the locals, especially the children. He served as a guide to a group of Philippine Navy officers on board a military helicopter to Dalupirip and one Christmas eve, he mediated a truce between the military and a group of NPA soldiers for the release of two captured policemen.
He spent most of his life performing missionary work in Manila, Vigan, Apayao, Isabela and in Baguio City. During his long and abundant life, he developed a burning desire for a better world, “an inclusive society,” in his words. A society he defined as the Kingdom of God, a society that is here, but not yet. Though to many his dream was an illusion, this did not deter his passion. He believed education was the bedrock of an inclusive society, and therefore to have an inclusive society, education must be inclusive. For him education that is not inclusive and does not develop people’s potentials for a better Philippines is not education! He openly challenged and opposed beliefs, policies, and practices that condoned or promoted exclusion, particularly in education. Inclusive education was his ultimate passion and his lifelong mission.
For five years, Mr. Naas was the executive director of the then Northern Luzon Association for the Blind (NLAB)- School for the Blind. He intensified and improved the training of blind students and teachers alike to prepare them for integration in the mainstream schools. He pioneered Braille production and organized the first computer training for the blind in Northern Philippines. He welcomed persons with disabilities as staff.
He helped blind people advance their livelihoods with the introduction of the Swedish massage with Fr. Lode Wostyn before leading the Inclusion and Production Center, a small office focused on building the capacity of mainstream teachers for inclusive education and providing educational support to students with visual and hearing disabilities.
In 2004, working closely with Dr. Roque Bernardez, the concept of an Institute for Inclusive Education was born. In 2007, with the support and blessings of the newly installed president Rev. Fr. Jessie M. Hechanova, the Saint Louis University - Institute for Inclusive Education (IIE) was founded where Mr. Naas took the role of executive director and led the institute to carry out the mission of inclusion.
He made people think more out of the box. His critique and recommendations were sought for the Philippine CBR Manual: An Inclusive Development Strategy intended for local government and community leaders and partners, development workers, and Persons with Disabilities as a guide in working towards inclusive development. Mr. Naas became the Chairman of the Board of the Philippine Coordinating Council for Inclusive Development from 2013 to 2021. Mr. Naas’ ideas, proposals and conceptual frameworks have been instrumental in the promotion of inclusive education and inclusion across the country.
A voracious reader and thinker, he involved himself in discourse, debate, and deliberations on inclusive education. He travelled the Philippines and beyond to speak about inclusion and inclusive education with enthusiasm and passion. You better prepare for lengthy arguments and discussions over coffee if you plan to pay him a visit or when it happens that you meet him and found no one to bail you out. His controversial views and straightforward approach without subtleties made him unpopular and not exactly the most desirable person around. Though his towering personality and fiery attitude appalled many, Mr. Naas was a father particularly to the blind people. He believed in the capacity of the blind to learn and govern their lives when most believed otherwise.
Mr. Naas was a mentor to those who saw his wisdom and a good friend to those who embraced him as a person. He ignited a fire, “an ignis”, in everyone he met to inspire them to chase dreams and believe that ideal is not impossible, inclusion is achievable.
Born in Geluwe, Belgium on April 8, 1943
25 years of service in the CICM
25 years of working with the blind
26 years of a happy and loving marriage with Dr. Juliet and being a sweet and caring father to Karen.
He will always be our beloved “Tatang.”
