He grew up a member of the Aglipayan Church, a Christian denomination that broke away from the Catholic Church in 1902. When he was still young, he dreamed of becoming a soldier, or a diocesan priest. He nearly forgot these childhood dreams during the years he was in college. He took up Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education major in Library Science in Misamis University in Ozamiz City in southern Philippines.
While still an Aglipayan, Villanueva heard Mass in the Catholic Church together with friends and classmates. When he was reviewing for the licensure examination for teachers in Cebu following his graduation, he happened to watch a film on Saint Joseph of Cupertino, an Italian member of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual.
“I was so amazed and inspired by that movie,” he recounted. “I started to do research to know more about him and the Franciscans.” His research inevitably led him to learn about Saint Francis of Assisi, the Italian mystic, poet, and friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans.
While reviewing for the licensure examination for teachers, Villanueva’s older brother encouraged him to join the Christian Life Program for Singles for Christ (SFC). He completed the seven modules of the program, but he was not admitted as a full-fledged member of the SFC since he was not baptized in the Catholic Church at the time. “I took adult catechism so I could be baptized in the Catholic Church,” he said. “And I took it at a Franciscan church in Cebu: the San Vicente Ferrer parish church.”
Saint Joseph of Cupertino and Saint Francis of Assisi made a deeper impression on him while he was at that Franciscan parish church. His catechist was Franciscan priest Dante Barcelona, who was a deacon at that time.
He completed the catechism and was baptized in the Catholic Church. Fr. Dante and he also became friends. At times he was invited to the friary to experience the community life of the Franciscans. “I was fascinated by the community life of the Franciscans,” Villanueva said. “I decided to enter the seminary. For some time, I kept it secret from my father, who was a staunch Aglipayan. But after one year in the seminary, he started to accept the life I have chosen.”
He entered Our Lady of the Angels Seminary (now Our Lady of the Angels Seminary-College) in Novaliches, Quezon City in 2007. In 2010, Villanueva professed his religious vows with the OFM.
RESTORING HOPE
Villanueva started drawing using pencils, ball pens, and crayons when he was an elementary school student. He drew on papers and math notebook pages, which caught the teachers’ attention. His teachers encouraged him to join editorial cartooning and poster-making contests in the school.
Over the years, he developed his artistic talent. During high school, he participated in regional and national contests in editorial cartooning and poster-making. He started painting in college and continued it even after he joined the Franciscans.
Three years after he professed his first religious vows with the Franciscans, Typhoon Yolanda (international name Typhoon Haiyan) struck central Philippines in 2013. The super typhoon claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people.
The typhoon left survivors with food and water shortages. Many were forced to loot convenience stores, fast-food chain outlets, and grocery stores. International and local volunteers came to help rebuild the communities ravaged by the typhoon.
Villanueva went to the affected communities and conducted art therapy workshops for children who survived the massive catastrophe. He saw the impact of the typhoon, the most destructive one in the Philippines’ recent history, on the children. Terror gripped the children even days after the typhoon struck the communities. The children cried and trembled even at the slightest rain showers, fearing that it could be another deadly and destructive typhoon.
Studies have shown that art therapies, such as drawing, painting, clay molding, sculpting, photography, and others, develop and reinforce emotional resilience, ease and resolve distress, help manage anxiety, and boost self-esteem.
In 2016, Villanueva also went to Basilan, an island province in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, and conducted art therapy workshops for children whose fathers were Abu Sayyaf guerillas and died in the conflict. Abu Sayyaf is an Islamic militant group operating in Mindanao, affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Some of the children whose fathers died in the fighting were left behind living with their surviving mothers, Villanueva observed. Others joined their relatives to live with them. In 2017, the Marawi siege broke out. Government troops, and the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups, both affiliated with ISIS, clashed.
The five-month-long fighting claimed the lives of more than 970 Islamic militants and over 160 government soldiers. The fatalities included 87 civilians, 40 of whom died of illness in evacuation sites. The clashes displaced more than 300,000 people.
Marawi is an Islamic city in the province of Lanao del Sur in southern Philippines. The displaced civilians were evacuated to temporary shelters in the neighboring province of Lanao del Norte. Villanueva and other Franciscans traveled to the evacuation centers in Lanao del Norte. They distributed relief goods to the evacuees.
He also conducted art therapy workshops for the children in the evacuation sites. When they arrived, the fighting was not over yet, but the government troops had already regained control of most of the city. “Bombs were still exploding in the distance when we were there,” Villanueva said. “The children’s longing for home in their city manifested in the drawings they made.”
But most of the city was reduced to rubbles, and reconstruction would take years. The drawings by the children also revealed their hope for a future that is peaceful and brighter, he said. The friar also trained Muslim mothers on how to conduct art therapy sessions as the recovery of the traumatized children could take long, so that they could do it on their own after he left.
ART EXHIBITS
When the government enforced restrictions on the mobility of the public during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Villanueva stayed in the Franciscan community in Kidapawan, a component city in the province of Cotabato.
He had to isolate himself in the community for a period of time until he recovered as he got infected by the virus. His passion for painting helped him cope. “The depressing situation during the pandemic prompted me to unload my emotion through painting,” he said.
Villanueva even joined an art exhibit for the first time when Art Show Philippines announced it was calling for submissions during the pandemic. Since physical art exhibits were banned at that time as a measure to prevent transmission of the virus from person to person, Art Show Philippines held exhibits online using its social media platform.
His paintings caught the eyes of art aficionados–his pieces sold at online exhibits. When the government eased the restrictions on the mobility of the public in the latter part of the pandemic, the ban on physical art exhibits was lifted.
The friar took the opportunity to display more of his works at the exhibits, usually in malls in Manila. He was able to sell more of his paintings and Villanueva became one of the top-selling artists of Art Show Philippines for three straight years from 2021 to 2024.
Villanueva has touched the lives of war and typhoon survivors with his talents, especially children. He helped in restoring hope and rebuilding their lives through art therapy sessions.
EVERYONE IS A HERO
Aside from victims of conflicts and natural disasters, the friar also uses and shares his talent and artworks to inspire hope among ordinary people.
In 2022, he participated in a physical exhibit themed “Every day Heroes” at a mall in Manila to honor ordinary people working for their families. The pieces at this art exhibit included paintings of a fisherman, a shoe repairman, a farmer, a security guard, a teacher, and a tailor.
For Villanueva, everyone in society, regardless of social status, who works hard and is dedicated to their family is a hero. He also participated in an art exhibit in 2022 to raise funds for the survivors of Typhoon Odette (internationally known as Typhoon Rai) in Surigao. The typhoon hit the country in December 2021.
Villanueva also conducted art therapy workshops for Lumad children in Cotabato who were struck by an earthquake in 2019. “I wish to help people grow more in their faith through my artworks,” he said. “I hope my artworks inspire hope, especially among those facing challenges in their daily life.”
