Last month David Brash, a 62-year-old Baptist minister from Cheshire, England, believing that his life was being steered by the hand of God, left his homeland and family to move to the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines. He wanted to be with his new bride, Annalyn Batalyer, a pretty Filipina woman nearly 40 years younger than him that he had met at church a few years earlier when she was only 19. Having married her on Oct. 7, 2007, in a church wedding near her family’s home, Brash clearly had wanted to start a new life. His charred remains, however, were discovered in a swamp near the village of Barangay Tagapira, an area active with terrorists and extremists that England’s Foreign Office, as well as the U.S. Department of State, discourages its citizens from visiting. His hands and feet had been bound with steel chains, he had been severely beaten and shot, and his body had been set afire. Evidence showed that he had been tortured. The son of a farm laborer, Brash was born in Liverpool and raised in Cheshire. Until recently he ran his own computer-repair business — he also had a wife, Veronica, and two grown sons — and devoted any spare time that remained to his church, the Runcorn Independent Baptist Church. He had been pastor there for the last 12 years. More than five years ago, however, David Brash’s life had begun to dramatically change. In February 2002, he received an invitation via email from pastor Edgar Burgonios to come to the Philippines to help with the start-up of a new ministry. Five months later, Brash decided to visit his new friend for two weeks. When he returned to England, he said that the trip had been "life changing." Following the journey Brash found that he was deeply in debt, but he nonetheless began making plans for future overseas excursions. "After years of plodding along in a small church, my horizons have widened considerably," Brash had said upon his return to England. The crowds that had come to hear him preach in the Philippines seemingly adored him, and when he returned in May 2003 he brought along Bibles to distribute to his newfound flock. With land typically cheap in the Philippines, Brash had used his credit cards to obtain cash that he later used to purchase real estate where a new church and an orphanage presumably would be built. Many of the details had been left to his new friend, Burgonios. Brash later wrote in his diary: "Truly the Lord was at work. Add to that the fact that I was there and able to lay my hands on money instantly, and you can see the Lord’s timing. The building project certainly has the Lord’s seal upon it." At about this time he met Annalyn, and over time their friendship blossomed into a romance between a young woman and a man old enough to be her grandfather. In the meantime, Brash’s repeated trips to the Far East had taken their toll on his marriage. Veronica was fed up with it all, and before 2004 ended she had divorced him. For the next two years, between trips, Brash remained close to his prior home hoping for reconciliation with his former wife. But Veronica refused to have anything further to do with him. She wouldn’t even acknowledge him when they ran into each other in public. Even though Brash waited patiently, members of his family told him that Veronica had started a new life and had moved on. They advised him that it would be best for all concerned if he did the same. Just before his marriage to Annalyn, Brash discovered that his pastor friend had used Brash’s money to make the real estate purchase for the new church and orphanage, but had placed everything in his own name and not in the church’s. Brash the idealist, who believed that people were inherently good, began to suspect that he had been scammed and set out to prove it. He told his friends that he had uncovered corruption, and he was out to get his money back. But that never happened, and his subsequent trips only seemed to make him new enemies. It also seemed like his friend, the pastor, was out to disgrace him — possibly so that he would leave and not return and therefore not pursue justice for the corruption that he had suspected. During one visit the pastor had booked Brash, Annalyn and their driver into a hotel, but had reserved only two rooms — one for Brash and Annalyn, and the other for their driver, Prado. Even though Brash had protested about having been booked into the double room with Annalyn, the pastor had purportedly advised him to "say that she is your daughter." After the pastor left, Brash exchanged rooms by moving Annalyn into Prado’s room and having Prado share the room with Brash. "I was baffled by what had been arranged," Brash later said. "The idea of a white man sharing a room with a Filipina means only one thing to Filipinos — immorality." Brash, despite the rumors that were already flying that he had been having an affair with the young woman, believed that the pastor had attempted to discredit his ministry. |
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