Exodians

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Exodians became famous to the people of Cotabato City in the southern part of the Philippines in the Island of Mindanao, in the year 1987 when a group of 36 young Roman Catholic Seminarians from Notre Dame Archdiocesan Seminary, Nuling Cotabato held a hunger strike asking for reform inside the seminary which is known to be the first recorded protest held by seminarians in a conservative Philippine Catholic Institution. Through the Church Hierarchy's decisions and without explanations, the seminarians suddenly lost the opportunity of becoming servants of the Lord. Hence, the 36 young seminarians, after searching for the truth, ended in an Exodus-liked journey of finding the truth; two bishops, Bishop Smith, and Bishop de Dios Pueblos sent all the 36 Seminarians out of the seminary.

It is also notable that among the 36 seminarians who were expelled from the seminary, four of them came from the Prelature of Ipil, in the western section of Mindanao Island who were sent by then Ipil Bishop Federico Escaler, SJ,who is now retired and residing in Manila. Among the three Bishops, Escaler was appreciated most for inviting back to a seminary life his four seminarians who were part of the 36 NDAS seminarians. Right after the expulsion, the then Ipil Bishop Escaler invited his seminarians to go back to the seminary life at Pastor Bonos Seminary in Zamboanga City,also of Western Mindanao. However, all of the four Ipil Prelature seminarians turned down the offer in respect to the plight of the other seminarians from Cotabato Archdiocese and Kidapawan Diocese.