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IMPACTQuote in the Act“Our efforts to attain the goal of denuclearising

the peninsula remain unchanged.”

Kim Jong-Il, North Korean leader; saying that his country will return to the six-party talks on its nuclear disarmament depending on the outcome of the discussions with the United States; which observers take with reservations.

“If the government fails to enforce it, the government can be sued.”

Gamawan Fauzi, Governor of Sumatra; in the aftermath of the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that rocked West Sumatra, the governor pledged to issue a law that

would ensure all buildings in the province are rebuilt to withstand stronger quakes.

“Corruption was the lifeboats that should have been there but were not because the money had

been stolen.”

Conrado de Quiros, Columnist, Philippine Daily Inquirer; summarizing the bottom-line cause of government’s inability to respond to the cries for rescue

and relief of almost half a million victims of tropical depression Ondoy into just one word: corruption.

“We are not out of the woods.”

Stephen Harpe, Prime Minister of Canada; noted that while global economy is experiencing a mild, fragile recovery, one cannot really say that it has kicked in

earnest until it starts to turn unemployment around.

“If there were no graft and corruption in our government, our government would be more

prepared to respond to such crisis.”

Angel Lagdameo, archbishop of Jaro and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines; bewailing the government’s inutility in the face of the onslaught of tropical depression Ondoy that claimed over 300 lives and

rendered thousands of people homeless.

“The key in Afghanistan is to have a triad of things happen simultaneously: economic development,

good governance and the rule of law.”

James Jones, Jr., National Security Adviser of the United States; in the wake of President Obama’s meeting with top congressional leaders this October to discuss an overall strategy in Afghanistan that now appears to be at a potential tipping point.

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Volume 43 • Number 10 3

IMPACT October 2009 / Vol 43 • No 10

EDITORIAL

Stewardship ....................................................... 27COVER STORY

Filipino Seafarers: Sailing amidst turbulent waters ............................................................... 16

ARTICLES

Metro Manila flooding: A disaster of mismanagement and corruption .................... 4

CARE (Clean, Authentic, and Responsible Election) is our mission .................................... 8

Raining on the parade ...................................... 10

Greed, the guru of growth ............................... 12Charity in Truth ................................................. 21

DEPARTMENTS

Quote in the Act ................................................. 2News Features ................................................... 13Statements .......................................................... 22From the Blogs ................................................... 26From the Inbox .................................................. 28Book Reviews ..................................................... 29Entertainment .................................................... 30Asia Briefing ........................................................ 31

CONTENTS

The world was watching as the flash floods brought about by tropical storm

Ondoy drove thousands of Metro Manilans to scamper for safety on their rooftops or swam to higher grounds. In minutes, SMS that carried texts, videos and photos were transmitted to relatives and friends abroad. And twitter rattled numerous twits of alarm and pleadings for help.

Barely three hours from the onset of the flooding, relatives from all over the world were already calling Manila radio stations asking help on behalf of their relatives who were help-lessly marooned precariously on top of their houses.

Before darkness enveloped the pitiful victims of the raging floods on that fateful Saturday afternoon, the 26th of Septem-ber, the internet was already spewing pictures and videos in youtube, facebook and other on-line social networking devices. As if on real time in a reality show, the global community was watching people disappear in the sea of raging waters, of cars being towed by the fierce floods like matchboxes, and of hundreds of people negotiating to safety in what looked like a river which earlier was actually

the streets of Marikina. It also showed the embar-rassment of the govern-ment that emerged more helpless than the victims themselves.

Judging f rom the number of SMS transmitted, this may have been the most techno-logically covered catastrophe in history—after the one of the World Trade Center. The Chair of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) had to ask people, though nonsensically, to stop send-ing text messages in order to declog the airwaves. That, of course, showed the folly of the government that was so far from realizing that the SMS was the only line for rescue available.

At the backdrop of so much suf-fering during and after the floods when the victims had to huddle in hunger and discomfort in evacua-tion centers if not in what was left in their mud-filled houses, the world was mesmerized by the resilience of the Filipino. This was verbalized by an American soldier helping the relief operations who saw people still smiling and in better spirits—despite the catastrophe and the neglect of their leaders.

But what stood out really were the heroism and the bayanihan spirit that is seemingly cultural to the

Filipino. Or, perhaps, of a value system that has been nurtured through centuries of Christian-ity. Stories were told of people giving up their lives in order to save their neighbors. Stories were told, too, of the Bicolanos and many others trooping to Manila with heavy equipments, foodstuff and relief materials to give assistance to the suffering flood victims. And more stories of individuals who have parted with even the little they have just to give relief and comfort to those in distress.

This issue opens with an es-say that discusses a bigger catas-trophe which is mismanagement and corruption in government that may have caused more agony to the Filipino people than natural calamities. Sr. Pinky Barrientos, FSP, writes the cover story titled “Filipino Seafarers: sailing amidst tur-bulent waters” and pursues the real “turbulence” that has driven more and more Filipinos to become seafarers in the first place. Read on.


ARTICLES

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By Pepe Quitorio

Tropical storm Ondoy, internationally known as Ket-sana, that hit mostly Central Luzon on September 26 was not even a typhoon. It was all about a two-day

torrential rain with barely a wind. But it left the country with 295 people dead and counting, hundreds injured and many more missing.

Damage to property according to government reports is estimated at P9.767 billion which counts P3.412 billion in infrastructure and P6.354 in agriculture. The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) further reports that at least 828,380 families or 4,081,596 persons were affected in the entire Luzon, Cordillera, Western Visayas, Regions 9 and 12, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Metro Manila were affected.

But these are government figures. And they are cold. What makes one shiver are the amateur videos in Youtube and maybe a million pictures on facebook that could paint a thousand words about nameless faces hugging on rooftops or wading through rising waters that could launch, with apolo-gies to Bread, a thousand ships, but only three government rubber boats were actually available.

Today, almost two weeks after the tropical storm, 1,786 barangays are still flooded. According to reports, there are still 216,845 families or 1,092,827 persons that are holed up in evacuation centers. And 39,068 houses damaged with 16,219 totally and 22,849 partially.

While most of the survivors are clearing their houses thick with mud, finger-pointing seem to have become the order of the day. The political opposition and most of the general public are heaping curses over the inutility of the national government that was caught flatfooted. NDCC chair Gilbert Teodoro blames the local government units for not being prepared and not responding too soon.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., is filing a class action suit against those responsible for the allegedly “reckless release of water from the dams.” Another Senator, Miriam Defensor Santiago, said the mayors of areas gravely af-fected by tropical storm Ondoy, including Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, should be suspended for negligence.

Others surmised that maybe this misfortune is an act of God. Or perhaps because of the global warming and the consequent climate changes that are bringing about more rains and typhoons. But was it really? Could the massive flooding have been mitigated and lives saved? Whence came the real disaster?

Global Warming and climate changeWithout rocking the boat on Al Gore who received a Nobel

Peace Prize for just making a film “An Inconvenient Truth” and touring around the world brandishing his environmental niche, global warming until now is still a scientific theory. What is beyond theory is the environmental lobby that has become so successful in political fora and academic bodies so that both proponents and fans have fearlessly accepted it as gospel truth.

Charles Darwin over 150 years ago has already showed that coral atolls grow on top of sinking volcanoes. He also observed that the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu which is in danger of sinking under the waves is so because the land

Metro Manila flooding

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beneath it is dropping due to factors not necessarily because of global warming.

The same may be true with rising temperature, which, according to studies have done a roller-coaster even before industrialization began to add CO2 to the atmosphere. The earth, for instance, has cooled down between 1940 and 1976, warmed from 1976 to 1998 and has been cooling down since 1998, according to scientific records.

This, of course, is for experts. And a layperson may not dare question scientific findings which till this day are still being debated by the scientific community. But granting, for the sake of argument, that global warming is real, factoring it in the recent inundation of Metro Manila is a long shot. (Since I was a kid, the experience of flooding and typhoons had been common place in my province of Eastern Samar—even before global warming became a blockbuster!).

Columnist Perry Diaz quotes an email that refutes it all saying that “It’s deemed impossible for the supposedly ex-cessive amount of rainfall, equivalent to a month’s outpour condensed in six hours time, to be the main culprit.” He gives the following reasons: 1) The rain was not that strong; 2) We’ve had worst rains before; 3) And why Marikina, Pasig and Cainta became water worlds in just an hour; and 4) Why Moriones, Tondo, just several hundred meters away from Manila Bay was barely affected if nature did cause the rivers to swell, overflow and contribute greatly to the deluge. It makes sense.

Besides, what happened to the much advertised disaster preparedness on expensive TV by the government and its Gilbert Teodoro?

Gross neglect and mismanagementA more plausible factor is the gross neglect and urban

mismanagement. Urban planner Felino Palafox was quoted lately as saying: “The flood disaster that struck Metro Manila over the weekend was not an act of God but a sin of omission by government and private real estate developers.”

He said further that “a land use plan that took floods into consideration was drawn up as far back as 1977, titled ‘Metro Manila Transport, Land Use and Development Plan-ning Project,” sponsored by the World Bank.” The study he said “had already noted the possibility of heavy flooding in at least three sites of urban growth in the Philippine capital—the Marikina Valley and its northern and southern parts.”

But nothing was done about it. Instead of considering the study, the government has built projects and allowed estate developers to indiscriminately build housing subdivisions on critical areas that in effect would block the natural flow of flood waters.

The Manggahan Floodway was constructed precisely to mitigate the flooding in Marikina, Pasig and Cainta. This time, and maybe even before, it did not work. Reportedly, there was a mechanical or systems failure of the water pumping station, which has been left rusty because of gross neglect.

Metro Manila is supposed to be blessed with wide rivers, tributaries and “esteros”. These are the natural floodways that have saved residents from killer floods years back. But this time, these tributaries are clogged and “cemented” with all kinds of garbage of all shapes and sizes from refrigerators to mattresses to human waste and name it.

The growing population has often been blamed for the

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Metro Manila flooding

litter that has contributed much to the inundation of Metro Manila. But Hong Kong, Tokyo and even Manhattan do have as much number of populations, yet they do not encounter the same problem as Manila does. Population management is the key. While centralization of population is indeed a problem, allowing people to build houses along waterways and under bridges is indeed the summit of population mismanagement, if not incompetence and social irresponsibility.

Even if the population is reduced and decentralized to other provinces, the end result will still be the same if the government will not manage it rationally.

Corruption, plain and simple In his statement issued shortly after the Metro Manila

flooding, CBCP president and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lag-dameo bewailed, “If there were no graft and corruption in our government, our government would be more prepared to respond to such crisis.” That is mouthful enough.

But the hard-hitting Philippine Daily Inquirer Columnist, Conrado de Quiros, says it his own way: “Corruption was the lifeboat that should have been there but were not because the money had been stolen. Corruption was the pile of relief goods that should have been there but was not because the money had been stolen. Corruption was the dams and garbage incinerators and drainage systems and relocation areas for those living beside the creeks that should have been there

but were not because the money had been stolen.”As it appears, there has been a reduction of images in the

government: from a much advertised, albeit costly, strong republic and super-regions, it has laid low to becoming a mendicant. Malacañang is begging for donors to help its strange relief operations that involve bringing well chosen flood victims to take refuge in Malacañang—making it the best evacuation center in the world. NDCC is also solicit-ing funds from its constituents for its relief work. Not to be outdone, the Department of Health is also soliciting medicine from the general public. It is the government now competing with non-government organizations in raising funds.

Obviously, unless someone is spinning a trick some-where, the government does not have ready funds for disas-ter assistance—which is worse. The Commission on Audit (COA) has recently reported that President Arroyo “has all but spent the P800 million contingency funds allotted to the Office of the President.” Moreover, COA has also reported that “nearly every peso of the fund had been used for her foreign junkets, on top of the more than P1 billion budget for her official travels.”

And that, without even considering other anomalies where the office of the President, or the extended office of her family, had been accused of irregularities.

That, indeed, maybe the biggest disaster that has been hitting the country for some years now. I

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Clean, authentic and responsible elections are one such critical participation. Let’s consider the

following.

SituationerMaria (not her real name) confessed

to her B.E.C. cluster community that in the 2007 elections she tried everything to avoid the rampant vote-buying in her neighborhood. In fact, after she and her husband voted early in the morning she left her house together with her whole family to her husband’s birthplace, a barangay seven kilometers away. To her family’s shock, when they returned home several envelopes and folded papers were strewn all over their front porch even if it was walled in by grills. They were filled with money from the leaders of the different candidates, urging the couple to vote for their bets. They tried to avoid vote-buying but vote-buying came to them. Still, hus-band and wife returned the money where they came from. They pointed to their commitment expressed in writing by a piece of paper posted on their doorway inspired by their parish PPCRV: “THIS FAMILY WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY

CARE (CLEAN, AUTHENTIC, AND RESPONSIBLE ELECTION)

IS OUR MISSIONBy Rev. Eutiquio B. Belizar, Jr., SThD

MONEY TO VOTE FOR ANYBODY. THANK YOU.”

This incident is repeated in various ways and in diverse places across our archipelago when election time comes. But, without a doubt, Maria and her husband are not the rule. They are the exception. Our mission is to help make as many Filipinos as possible take and live up to the same commitment.

At this point three questions could be proposed for group reflection: (1) What election anomaly(ies) have I or other reliable person(s) been a witness to? (2) What did I do or did not do about it and why? (3) What consequences did my action or inaction have on me and the situation?

ReflectionWhy must we overcome dishon-

est, dirty and irresponsible elections? 1) They give us leaders with the most money and dirty tricks but not necessar-ily with the right qualifications; 2) They are a big factor behind some politicians’ thrust into graft and corruption, in part to recover lost money and to make a bigger profit for themselves; 3) They damage the voter’s character as a citi-

zen and his/her sense of responsibility to self and country; 4) They stifle real participation since the people’s will is blurred or even reversed by dishonest elections; 5) The common good is not served when the right leaders are not elected and the exact count of votes is not reported.

The expected first automated elec-tion in the country is, by and large, a source of hope for most Filipinos. But it can also be a cause of complacency; hence, a warning is in order. Not only is automated cheating a dreaded possibil-ity. The readiness of election personnel and teachers who control and supervise both the equipment and the process, not to say that of the voting population itself, is still uncertain. This is all the more reason for us to CARE. That is to say, we must both aim at and work for a CLEAN, AUTHENTIC AND RESPONSIBLE ELECTION.

CLEAN. There is no election un-less it is clean which we must define here as uninfluenced, untainted and unmarked by cheating and other dirty tactics employed by certain political leaders and their agents in order to win an elected office. But why should we

“The characteristic implication of subsidiarity is participation which is expressed essentially in a series of activities by means of which the citizen, either as an individual or in association with others, whether

directly or through representation, contributes to the cultural, economic, political and social life of the civil community to which he belongs. Participation is a duty to be fulfilled consciously by all, with responsibility

and with a view to the common good.”Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 189


CARE (Clean, Authentic, and Responsible Election) is our mission

Catholic Christians and all Filipinos of faith commit ourselves to this prin-ciple? Because we cannot be who we are unless we repent and say no to sin in whatever form it takes, including those that emerge in the conduct of elections. “The kingdom of God is near at hand,” Jesus says at the start of his public ministry. “Repent and believe in the Good News!” (Mk 1:15). In Jesus’ own words we hear that before we can even listen to and follow the gospel we have first to repent, that is, to make an about face in our minds and hearts, in our words and deeds from sin in all its forms in order to turn to and follow Jesus the Master and Lord. As St. Augustine states: “We make a ladder for ourselves out of our vices if we trample the vices themselves under foot.”

AUTHENTIC. When is an elec-tion authentic? If and when it reflects not only the people’s real choices but also true democracy’s principles of participation and freedom. Why is this significant to us people of faith? Because our God is Truth, our Savior, his Son, is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6). This must be reflected in us believers, his Son’s followers in what we say and what we do. Hence, our elections must also be authentic, true. Otherwise we cannot claim to be People of God, followers of Jesus Christ. We do not conduct elections despite being but precisely as Christians. When we renounce elections that are not true or those that do not proclaim who the people truly voted for, those that do not serve the true principles of

democracy which are real participation and real freedom, then we confront a reality which is a direct affront to God and to his Son, as well as to ourselves. When elections are called upon not to determine the true chosen leaders of the people but to hide a despotic rule behind a mask of democracy, then de-mocracy itself becomes a sham. To fight it is not only a duty but also a mark of discipleship. To work for its authentic form truly becomes an integral part of our mission to proclaim Christ and the Kingdom of God.

RESPONSIBLE ELECTION. What makes an election responsible? When everyone involved in the process respond to its goal and purpose which, ultimately, is the common good, even if it means turning his back on himself and his own interests. Its Latin root ‘respon-dere’ precisely means to respond to or to answer. For example, when candidates run a campaign looking at an elected of-fice not as an opportunity to power and wealth but to service in the direction of the people’s true welfare, when voters reject money and patronage politics in order to elect qualified leaders, when election personnel do everything ac-cording to law and morality, then they all answer and respond to the call of the common good. When election time comes, people participate in it in vari-ous ways but all must work to achieve this one goal. “Participation,” says the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, “is a duty to be fulfilled consciously by all, with responsibility and with a view to the common good”

(CSDC, 189). When the Church defines the com-

mon good as “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily” (GS 26), it clearly includes clean, authentic and responsible elections. The reason is simple. Only when elections have these characteristics will there be a possibility for human fulfillment to become full and easier.

Call to Action1) We must spearhead intensified

voter’s education programs, particularly exposing not only the evils of vote-buying and cheating but also the intimate connection between them and the sorry state the country is in; 2) We must call a spade a spade, we must call sin a sin especially in the conduct of elections: e.g., vote-buying because it desecrates the voter and suffrage itself; cheating because it is a gross injustice to one’s political opponents and to the country itself; and other election violations in so far as they impede the attainment of the common good; 3) The prophetic ministry also means that the Church must coura-geously and constantly call politicians and voters, hierarchy and lay faithful, to repentance and to reject sin in private and public life, especially in the conduct of campaigns and elections. Pastoral letters, homilies, chats and addresses must repeat this call just as Jesus himself did so; 4) The Church, that is, the hierarchy and laity, must use all available and legitimate


CARE, page 14

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Today China celebrates the 60th anniversary of Com-munist Party rule. The Party is highlighting the nation’s huge and powerful military, its international influence,

its towering role in the world economy, and its growing pros-perity, at least in the large coastal cities. It has left behind the barbarities of Mao Tse-tung and has become a "civilized", "harmonious", "prosperous" and "democratic" country.

But one barbarity persists: the one-child policy. On September 25, 1980, the Communist Party announced that, with very few exceptions, couples were permitted to have only one child. Party officials insisted that the population had to be capped at 1.2 billion by the year 2000.

This policy has not only blackened China’s reputation as a human-rights abuser. It also is leading to economic and social disaster. China’s population is ageing so rapidly that caring for the elderly will impose a crushing burden on its economy. And because Chinese have a traditional prefer-ence for sons, infant girls are often aborted or murdered, which means that as many as 15 percent of Chinese men will never find wives.

How did such an insane idea become official policy of the world’s largest nation?

This is the question raised by anthropologist Susan Greenhalgh in her valuable book Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng’s China. Greenhalgh reads and speaks Chinese and used to work for a US-based NGO, the Population Council. With this background, she won the confidence of many high-ranking government officials involved in forging the policy. Her detective work yielded a surprising answer.

Most Westerners attribute the one-child policy to Com-

Who is responsible for China's infamous one-child policy?

Surprisingly, it is not 60 years of Communist rule.

munist ideology and its top-down authoritarianism. This is only partially true. Without the harsh discipline imposed by the Party, it would have been impossible to implement. However, population control is not a Communist idea. Karl Marx despised his contemporary Thomas Malthus and the Soviet Union was clearly pro-natalist.

Until 1980, the attitude of the Chinese Communist Party was far from clear. Although birth planning was regarded as a solution to China’s economic problems in the 50s and 60s, the slogan was just "later, longer, fewer"—later marriages, longer spaces between children, and fewer of them, not "stop at one". The Great Helmsman, Mao Zedong, flip-flopped on population control. He was quoted as saying both "of all things in the world, people are the most precious" and, shortly before his death in 1975, "it won’t do to not control population".

As late as 1974, Premier Zhou Enlai told the UN Popula-tion Conference in Bucharest that the notion of a population explosion was a capitalist plot: "Is it owing to overpopula-tion that unemployment and poverty exist in many countries of the world today? No, absolutely not. It is mainly due to aggression, plunder and exploitation by the imperialists, particularly the superpowers."

Mao’s pragmatic successor Deng Xiaoping was clearly in favor of reducing population growth, but he never publicly committed himself to a one-child policy.

So who was responsible for the idea? Although many people had a hand in creating this cruel policy, Greenhalgh claims that the single most influential person was not a Marxist ideologue, but a brilliant computer expert named Song Jian. Song was a missile expert who had survived the

By Michael Cook


Raining on the parade

Cultural Revolution because China needed a strong military even during the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution. His particular expertise was cybernetics and unlike many of his colleagues, he was able to travel overseas.

In 1978 he attended the Seventh Triennnial World Con-gress of the International Federal of Automatic Control in Helsinki. There he met two Dutch control theorists who had contributed to the Club of Rome report, Limits to Growth. This was an influential computer program which forecast catastrophe if world population were not limited. Song found their work compelling and when he returned to China he set to work developing a population model for his own country.

Unfortunately, Song was completely unaware of the ham-mering which Limits to Growth was receiving in the West. Greenhalgh says that he imported what had been merely a scientific exercise in Europe and transformed it into a con-crete policy proposal for use on a real population.

After the ideological lunacies of the Maoist era, Song’s supporters in the Communist Party were searching for scien-tific solutions to social problems. What Song offered them was confident precision. In their isolation from the West, these Chinese officials had never even seen computer mod-eling and graphs. They found ideas like "spaceship earth" and mathematical control of childbearing utterly compel-ling. Song once confided to a group of American population specialist that because he was a mathematician, anything he said would be believed. His models were real science, not social science or spurious ideology.

The most trenchant opponents of Song’s mechanistic approach to social problems were actually Marxist theorists, but in the wake of the disasters engineered by Mao and the Gang of Four, no one listened. If Greenhalgh’s narrative has a hero, it is a Red Guard turned Party intellectual named Lian Zhongtang.

Liang foresaw the problems that China faces today. "One-childization" would impose terrible social costs upon the peasants, he said in 1979. In several decades there would be 150 million "gloomy and lonely old people" and that China would become a "breathless, lifeless society without a future". "In the past," he wrote, "under the extreme leftist road, China’s peasants were subject to all kinds of coercion. We have made the peasants’ suffering bitter enough in the economic realm. We cannot make them suffer further [in the reproductive realm]."

Alas, Party officials were mesmerized by computer-generated population forecasts based on a range of birth-rates—even though Chinese population statistics ranged

from fictitious to inaccurate. In December 1979 the Party sponsored a conference on population theory in the city of Chengdu, in Sichuan province, where Song finally won over influential party officials after intense lobbying.

Greenhalgh cites a radio broadcast from early 1980 which shows Party officials were besotted with bogus statistics:

"This reporter saw numerous figures typed on paper by electronic computers—the first fairly detailed, reliable data and prediction that have been made of our country’s popula-tion growth in the next 100 years. This dazzling data clearly shows the different results of population growth according to different plans... Their data shows that... if we vigorously encourage every married couple to have one child... [and can] achieve this goal by 1985... [this is] the most ideal way to solve our country’s population problem."

Obviously this reporter had never heard of "garbage in, garbage out".

Greenhalgh claims that Chinese officials even foresaw China’s incredibly distorted sex ratio at birth, which today stands at about 120 infant boys for every 100 girls. They knew that if couples were forced to stop at one child, some would kill their daughters. However, discussion of this sensi-tive topic was stifled. Instead, birth planning officials wrote articles denying that the sex ratio would rise. Researchers told her that they had been instructed to avoid investigating this issue and that newspapers and journals would refuse to print anything they wrote about it.

So the real villain of China’s oppressive one-child policy is scientism, the belief that science and technology can solve all human problems. As Greenhalgh puts it, the Chinese of the post-Mao era had merely swapped one ideology for another. Today in China, she writes, "there is overwhelming acceptance of science as a new theology that can settle all problems, even scientific ones".

Does this sound familiar? In the West we are grappling with similar issues in areas like stem cell research or climate change. Scientists are often applauded as experts even if they are abysmally ignorant of ethics and blithely ignore the social implications of their policy proposals. Like the most dogmatic Marxists, they are capable of stripping human be-ings of their dignity and treating them as nothing more than numbers. Greenhalgh’s research is a sobering reminder that obsequious reverence to shonky science has been responsible for one of the greatest human rights violations of the last hundred years.

(Michael Cook is editor of MercatorNet.)

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ARTICLES

By Fr. Shay Cullen

There were heroes who sacrificed their own lives while saving the weak and helpless during the height of the devastating tropical storm that brought rampaging

flood waters cascading through Manila, sweeping all before them. A construction worker, Muelmar Magalanes,18, leap again and again into the raging torrent and saved over 30 women and children until he was too exhausted to fight the current as he was saving a baby girl. He was swept away to his death. A Judge, Raph Lee, 49, of Quezon City took his Jet ski and later with two rubber boats rescued over a 100 people in danger of being drowned by the rising waters. Hundreds of ordinary people took great risks as they carried their neighbors to safety. Thousands spent days and nights on their roof tops terrified as the water kept rising.

Such terrible tragedies bring out the best in the Filipino as neighbors help one another. Mostly the poor helping the poor survive the turbulent torrent. The kind and generous people, non-government and church agencies are out day and night sharing food and dry clothing as I write this.

Media commentators and editorials have lambasted politicians and government officials that were nowhere to be seen as they cowered in their mansions while the poor were carried away to their deaths. Disaster prevention and readiness was practically non-existent, there were no plans, no practice or preparation according to an opposition Senator Loren Legarda. “It’s plain incompetence of the leadership, and the government was absent. ...clearly it has no plan”, she said.

The political fall-out in the Philippines as a result may well be like that of hurricane Katrina in the United States that brought election disaster to the Republicans because of the Bush administration’s inability to respond adequately. The need for change was apparent then as it is in the Philip-pines today. The world need to change too as Copenhagen

Greed, the guru of growth

gets ready to host the world conference on climate change in December. International agreements must be reached and signed to reduce CO2 emissions from power plants, factories and cars to save the planet.

These terrific storms of growing intensity and frequency are evidence of the deadly effects of climate change due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Soon we will reach the point of no return, a tipping point where a runaway chain of events will cause the planet to heat ever more quickly. The burning of fossil fuels have to be cut back and clean electrical generation must be harvested from renewable sources such as wind turbines, ocean tides, solar panels on houses and factories and arrayed across the hot deserts.

There is much we can do to contribute to the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere. We can recycle everything we can, reduce the use of our vehicles, get smaller electric cars, insulate our houses to reduce the need for heating and cooling and stop cutting and instead plant millions of trees. What we need also is to change the almost fanatical belief of our politicians and economists that consumerism is the engine of growth; that greed is good and we must shop til’ we drop. The world economy came to a shuddering halt as a result of this ideology that champions possession and power. The more we have, it says, the more powerful we are. The pursuit of riches is not the same as the pursuit of happiness and do we really need to pursue the goddess of growth? Do developed nations really need continual non-stop economic expansion? Are the rich never rich enough?

Greed is the guru of growth but soon it causes us to burst our britches with the economic obesity that is alternately caus-ing the planet to burn, the ice caps to melt, the oceans to rise, the land to perish in drought and then to drown in storms and typhoons. Millions of plants and animals are going extinct and poor hungry sick people, shrivel, starve, drown and die in their millions. Growth, is it worth it after all?

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NEWSFEATURES

MANILA, Philippines, Oct. 2, 2009—The head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines expressed his frustration with the pace of relief efforts in the typhoon-devastated Lu-zon region.

Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said he can’t but register his deep con-cern at the unacceptably slow response to the grave humanitarian crisis.

He said “depletion” of the govern-ment’s resources might have triggered the “slowness” in responding to the victims of the strong typhoon.

What the church leader fear the most, he admitted, is the misappropria-tion of resources set aside for responding to calamities.

“If there were no graft and corrup-tion in our government, our government would be more prepared to respond to such crisis,” Lagdameo said.

Survivors are angry at the lack of aid. Some of them reported that they were trapped inside their homes or on the rooftops but were ignored by rescue helicopters flying overhead.

Record breaking

Massive flash floods unleashed by Typhoon Ondoy swept across Metro Manila and nearby provinces on Sept. 26 killing over 200 people and stranding hundreds on roof tops.

The National Disaster Coordinat-ing Council (NDCC) said the homes of nearly 1.9 million were inundated.

The typhoon dumped 410.6 mil-limeters (16 inches) of rains on Manila that weekend in just 12 hours, breaking the previous single-day record of 334 millimeters in July 1967.

Major areas in Pasig, Marikina and Rizal, Laguna and Bulacan provinces were the hardest hit by the storm.

Based on the initial report that reached CBCP’s National Secretariat for Social Action from its diocesan networks, Metro Manila has been the worst-hit in terms of flooding and damage, while Rizal province had the highest number of casualties due to landslide and flash floods.

CBCP prexy scores slow response to killer flood

The Diocese of Antipolo is still in the process of gathering information. So far, a partial list of 5,452 affected families (including Marikina) has al-ready been documented.

In Bulacan, 22 municipalities (118 barangays) were affected listing down a partial total of 13,576 families (44,178 persons). “There were reported cases of 42 casualties but still has to be con-firmed,” the NASSA reported.

In Pampanga, the typhoon left in its wake 207 barangays in the 20 municipalities/city submerged under 1-9ft deep of floodwaters. Landslide oc-curred in Arayat, affecting 174 families, which are now temporarily housed in five evacuation centers mostly schools and chapels.

NASSA said a total of 37,540 fami-lies (175,514 individuals) were affected in this province, 217 of which are staying in the evacuation centers.

In Laguna, it also said, there were a total of 73,170 families (310,893 individuals) affected with nine fatali-ties. In Cavite, there were 309 partial list of families affected from three municipalities.

As of press time, the official death toll in the massive flooding has climbed to 240. There are nearly 380, 000 people

in evacuation centers.Following the onslaught of the

typhoon, survivors were found digging through the mud, desperately trying to find their loved ones.

Dead bodies were also found ev-erywhere—hanging in tress, floating in mucky floodwater, or buried alive by massive landslides.

Compassion

The current situation, Lagdameo said, is call to everyone for compassion.

He also lauded the efforts by various groups and individuals who immedi-ately responded to help the thousands of typhoon victims.

“The pictures we have seen in the past few days are pictures of Filipinos responding to the call for compassion, of people willing to ‘suffer with,’ people with the spirit of ‘bayanihan,’” he said.

“We bend our knees in prayer for salvation against natural calamities, but when they do come, we are not so help-less as not to respond with heroism.”

“We have said it before and we say it again “In the Church, no one is so poor as to have nothing to give, and no one is so rich as to have nothing to receive,” he added. (CBCPNews)

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means, including the internet, to teach morality and the mission of the laity to bring gospel values to politics, econom-ics and other secular fields of action; 5) Maria’s and her husband’s commitment to reject vote-buying and other election malpractices should be elicited always through persuasion and prayer from as many more voters as possible. PPCRV, responsible citizens and the youth should campaign actively for such a commit-ment, e.g., through written and publicly displayed notices; 6) Politicians and vot-ers must always be invited not only to

CARE, from page 9discussion fora but also to recollections and prayer meetings for clean, authentic and responsible elections. Their commit-ment to such a goal must also be elicited and monitored; 7) While we do right by condemning wrongdoing by politicians and voters alike, we must also encour-age those who do right, e.g., citing and giving awards to good and accomplished leaders as well as to responsible and exemplary citizens.

What are we really saying? That Jesus Christ be realized among us even as we conduct politics and, in particu-

lar, our elections. We conclude where we started. It is Jesus Christ who saves us and calls us to his saving ways. It is the same Jesus Christ we follow and his salvation that we try to announce as covering all human beings and all human endeavors. That is to say, we engage in clean, authentic and responsible elections to signify his saving presence among us. That all of this forms part of a plan we want to serve. “A plan to be carried out in Christ, in the fullness of time, to bring all things into one in him, in the heavens and on earth” (Eph 1:10).

NEWSFEATURES

HANOI, Vietnam, Sept. 28, 2009—Amid a con-tinuing smear campaign against Catholics, lo-cal Vietnamese offi-cials have confiscated a Catholic school while other church land has been appropriated for private investors. The school adjacent to the parish church of Loan Ly in the town of Lang Co (Hue province) was built by parishioners in 1956, Fr. J.B. An Dang told CNA. It was used as a Catholic elementary and high school until the local government seized it after the communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975.

Since the seizure, Sunday catechism classes have been allowed under the condition they are conducted under a large picture of Communist leader Ho Chi Minh instead of under a cross.

Local authorities have repeatedly attempted to convert the school into a hotel since 1999. Their efforts were previ-ously stopped because of parishioners’ public protests.

The most recent confiscation attempt came under the local chief secretary of the Communist Party, Ho Xuan Man, who wanted to annex the school to create his own hotel. On Septem-ber 13, a Sunday, local authorities along with the local, district and provincial police barricaded the building and prevented the children from coming to the school for their catechism classes.

The occupants then built a makeshift fence around the school. Hundreds of protesters gathered at the school and some started pulling the fence down.

According to Fr. An Dang, thousands of police and armed reinforcements rushed to the scene and attacked the parishioners with batons and stun guns.

The two Catholic bishops of Hue expressed “shock and frustration” with the government action and its “employment of violence.” They also called for peaceful dialogue.

Vietnam officials continue confiscation of church landHue Television responded to their comments with a

series of interviews in which government contractors posed as Catholics who verbally attacked the bishops.

Newspapers have also made “fierce” attacks against Fr. Joseph Ngo Than Son, pastor of Loan Ly. They accused him of plotting and directing parishioners’ protest on Sunday. However, the priest had been in the hospital for weeks and was not at his parish when the incident took place, Fr. An Dang reports. (CNA)

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Japanese experts expect super-typhoons to cause a lot of

damage due to global warmingTOKYO, Japan, Sept. 30, 2009—Japanese weathermen predict that global warming will spawn ‘super-typhoons’ in the second half of this century that will hit coastal Japan, causing unprecedented damages. However, typhoons and tropical storms have already sown death and destruction in the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Vietnam.

“If a super-typhoon makes landfall in Japan, the surges in tides could bring about more serious damage than the Isewan Typhoon,” said Katsuhisa Tsuboki, as-sociate professor of meteorology at Nagoya University. The Isewan Typhoon struck the Ise Bay area in 1959, killing more than 5,000 people, many of whom were swept away in tidal surges.

In August this year, researchers predicted that global warming would raise sea surface temperatures in the Western Pacific, leading to several super-typhoons with winds of more than 240 kilometers per hour from 2074 to 2087.

In May, an Environment Ministry team in an inde-pendent study forecast huge damages from surges in tides due to rising sea levels and stronger typhoons. ”Coastal structures will need reinforcement in 40 to 50 years,” said Nobuo Mimura, professor of coastal engineering at Ibaraki University.

Only 65 per cent of the 13,792 kilometers of coastal embankments are high enough to handle tides caused by storms the size of the one that hit Ise Bay. (AsiaNews)

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COVERSTORY

By Pinky Barrientos, FSP

The travails of Filipino seafarers invaded anew the consciousness of the Filipino people when in April

2009, international attention was riveted by the dramatic rescue of American cap-tain Richard Phillips from the hands of Somali pirates.

The drama on the high seas was suc-cessfully executed through the combined efforts of France, European Union, Canada, China and some African countries, which sent their navy armada to resolve the crisis.

At that time, there were about 228 seamen of various nationalities being held captive by Somali pirates from 13 ships they seized on various occasions. Half of those hostages were Filipinos.

The swift action of the United States in securing the release of Captain Richard Phillips highlighted the inadequacy of the Philippine government in ensuring the safety of Filipino seafarers when they fall prey to piracy and other dangers related to their work.

Piracy on the high seasConsidered the scourge of the mari-

time industry, piracy caught international interest when Maersk Alabama, a US cargo ship, was seized by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa sometime in April and took hostage the ship’s captain, Richard Phillips.

Piracy off the coast of Somalia is a booming business. With warlords offer-ing protection, it has become too easy for pirates to pull off attacks in exchange for hefty ransom that runs to millions of dollars.

Somali pirates have been attacking ships plying the Gulf of Aden in the Horn of Africa since the early 1990’s.

Piracy in Somalia started off as an upshot against illegal fishing and dump-ing of toxic wastes by other nations into Somali waters. With no functioning cen-tral government, and a civil war to boot, there was much chaos around. The local fishermen banded together to protect their source of livelihood. And very soon after, they transformed themselves into pirates upon discovering that piracy is a lucrative business that pays in millions of dollars.

International piracy experts have estimated that in 2008 alone, the pirates have gained at least $80 million dollars in ransom payments.

Somali pirates have had at least 78 piracy attacks since January this year,

Filipino Seafarers:Sailing amidst turbulent waters


San Miguel Corporation: A Brewing StormFilipino Seafarers:Sailing amidst turbulent waters

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Seaman Jonathan Luman-ag Seaman Hydee Denoy

COVERSTORY

compared to 111 during the same period in 2008, according to a Malaysian-based International Maritime Bureau.

In November of last year, Somalis took hostage a Philippine tanker and its 23 all-Filipino crew. The longest in cap-tivity so far, the ship and seamen were freed only on April 21 this year, after the ship’s company paid an undisclosed amount of ransom.

Somalis however, are not the only pirates preying on merchant vessels ply-ing the Gulf of Aden off North Africa. Nigerian militants are also involved in the lucrative business of piracy whose notoriety is second only to Somalis.

Job benefits outweigh risksFilipino seafarers comprise about

25% of manpower in around 80% of ships in the world today. Hailed as among the very best in the world, Fili-pino crews can be found anywhere—onboard transport ships, tankers, ro-ro ships, riggers, fishing vessels, luxury liners and yachts. It has been said that without the big percentage of Filipino seafarers working onboard, the global shipping industry would suffer a crisis.

Seafaring, perhaps more than any other profession exacts a lot on the emotional and psychological wellbeing of the person and his loved ones.

“It can be lonely sometimes, espe-cially when you have to think of your loved ones left behind. But in my profes-sion that is a sacrifice that you have to accept,” says Jonathan Luman-ag.

Working as an able-bodied seaman (AB) in a salvage towing ship, Luman-ag says his ship has traveled many times in pirate-infested waters of Africa and Malta. But he is not worried about dangers at sea.

“God is there to protect,” he says.Indeed, life in the oceans is fraught

with risks. Seafarers have to contend not only with their own personal struggles of being separated from family for a long period of time, but with other factors as well. Loneliness sometimes drives them into illicit relationships every time they call on every port. There are instances too when their salaries are withheld for months or they are not given sufficient food by their employers. At the top of it all is the problem of piracy which has been pillaging the high seas for years already.

Notwithstanding threats of piracy or otherwise, Filipino sailors still are lured to seek a seafaring job because the profession pays far better than any other job they can find at home.

Ordinarily, able seaman and oilers can earn as much as US$1,500 monthly. Bosuns earn US$1,700; chief cooks get a pay of US$1,600; and third and second engineer officers US$2,350 and US$2,500 monthly, respectively.

Seafarer Hydee Denoy admits he also worries about being taken hostage, but says he is willing to take the risk.

The Leyte native says he would rather stay in the country than board a ship if only he could find a job that pays as much as he gets as a seaman. Working in a product tanker ship, De-noy gets as much as P60,000 a month in salaries.

“Life is really hard in the begin-ning because of adjustments, but after a few months you tend to get used to the routine,” he says in a mixture of English and Tagalog.

Lack of opportunities at homeLike thousands of other overseas

workers who opted to leave the country

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Filipino Seafarers: Sailing amidst turbulent waters

and loved ones in search for better op-portunities abroad, Filipino seafarers are mostly driven by the same motivation. Certainly, it is not all love for travel that moves them to endure the hard life at sea, separated from family for months, sometimes without the possibility of communication.

The Department of Foreign Affairs, approximate the number of Filipino seafarers deployed all over the world at around 350,000, most of them on board ships that travel through African waters, particularly the Gulf of Aden in the Horn of Africa.

According to the Philippine Over-seas Employment Administration (POEA), since 1987 the Philippines has been the leading contender in the supply of manpower in the international ship-ping industry. In 2007 alone, 266,553 seamen were hired to work in interna-tional passenger and cargo ships.

Despite receiving pay less than what their contracts state, still the salary is bigger compares to what they will nor-mally get if they worked in the country. To be able to sail around the world for free is also another plus factor.

“Besides earning dollars, you can travel around the world,” says Luman-ag, who gets a monthly salary of $1,500.

Seafarers’ remittances make up 15 percent of the $14.5 billion sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). In 2007, the remittances sent home by seamen totaled around $2.2 billion. This amount went up in 2008. According to Central Bank, Filipino seafarers sent home $2.393 billion in the first nine months of 2008, a 43.35-percent higher than the $1.669 billion they sent in the same period in 2007.

Demand remains highAlthough the demand for Filipino

crews has remained high as shown by increase in deployment this year despite the global economic crisis, the emergence of other countries like China, Ukraine, India, Indonesia, Po-land and Greece, as sources of labor can drastically cut the need for Filipino seamen.

But ship owners still preferred Filipino seamen for various reasons. The Filipinos’ ingenuity, flexibility, loyalty, willingness to work long hours and facility in English language are among the many positive factors why ship owners would choose Filipinos to

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Filipino Seafarers: Sailing amidst turbulent waters

man their ship. But ship owners also tend to exploit the seamen in many ways, like withholding their salaries for sometime or paying them less than what was stipulated in their contracts.

Apostleship of the SeaThe Church is deeply involved

in protecting the welfare of Filipino seamen and their loved ones. To be able to assist the needs of mariners who are highly vulnerable to dangers and exploitation, the Church has es-tablished the Apostleship of the Sea (AOS) organization which gives all kinds of assistance to seafarers and their families. The AOS which is pres-ent in many countries works hand in hand with national and international organizations, private agencies and maritime institutions to protect the welfare of the estimated 1,200,000 sea-

farers worldwide, more than 300,000 of whom are Filipinos.

Magna Carta for SeafarersRecently, a bill providing a Magna

Carta for Filipino Seafarers, which aims to improve the economic and social status of Filipino sailors has been in-troduced in Congress. Filed by Senator Edgardo Angara, the piece of legislation is touted to be a “major breakthrough in Philippine Maritime industry,” as it proposes better educational curriculum, employment system and post-employ-ment support for Filipino seafarers and their families.

Indeed, global competitiveness should push the country to improve the Maritime industry by creating poli-cies that would safeguard the rights of Filipino seafarers.

At the home front, the government

may do well to urge for the revitaliza-tion of the country’s shipping industry so that Filipino mariners who may not wish to go out of the country at one point in their life will have an equally satisfying opportunities right within our shores.

But with little possibilities offered to them at home, our seafarers may yet choose a riskier alternative. Brave it out in the pirate-infested waters of Africa where yet a number of Filipinos are being held hostage.

While the Filipino seafarers in rough seas are living turbulent lives enough, the government seeming in-difference to their plight is more than chaotic. But all that is nothing compared to the catastrophic turbulence of bad governance which is the root cause why the unwilling Filipino has to become a seafarer in the first place. I

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I ts original Latin rendition is “Caritas in veritate.” It’s the title of the third long-awaited encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI that just came out first week of July. When two years ago its idea was first brought up in

public, the common attitude was that it was to be the pa-pal social encyclical to tackle our festering current global economic crisis.

Expectations and suspense ran high. What made it more so was that there were announce-ments that the document would come out last year. But it didn’t, thus, all sorts of speculations came thick and fast.

So it was quite a major letdown that when it finally came out, only the “usual people” (ecclesiastics, Church commentators, seminary professors, etc.) were the ones mak-ing noise. Hardly anything came out from the secular press. It seemed that interest in the encyclical was restricted to a certain circle of people.

Even in our country that’s sup-posed to be very Catholic, there’s almost total silence to its reception. The bishops preferred, it seems, to talk about politics or something else, though it must be said that what they said one way or another have some relation to what the encyclical is saying.

This phenomenon has been hovering and bothering me at the back of my mind. Why is it like that? His second encyclical, “Spes salvi” (Saved by hope), despite its tremendous content, suffered more or less the same fate. It was only the first one, “Deus caritas est” (God is love), that caused some stir.

Several reasons can be put forward. But I prefer to think that most people are not prepared for it. Many are those who do not know how to think theologically. They can think emotionally, rationally, sociologically, economically, politically, not but yet theologically.

I’m afraid some have gone to the extent of considering documents like this as a foreign body to their system. They have already developed a certain allergy to any Church document.

Underpinning this could be an attachment to the super-ficial aspects of the current situation, plus a certain soft or subtle narcissism that keeps one thinking of oneself only, or worse, a hostile attitude backed up by some ideologies like secularism, a wild liberalism, etc.

Charity in TruthWhich is all a pity because the encyclical puts the whole

issue of our current socio-economic-political predicament in its proper perspective. The Church has the duty and the charism to read the signs of the times, and this is what the Holy Father is doing in this encyclical.

It does not offer technical solutions, but it points out the fundamental causes of our problems these days and the way to correct them. The Pope knows the vast scope as well as

the limits of his authority. He toes the line.

In this document, the Pope says that while truth always has to be pursued and given in charity, as St. Paul says, charity, which is the driving force of human develop-ment, should always be developed in the truth.

Everyone, I suppose, wants to love. But we have to make sure that our love is in the truth, otherwise we would just be going in circles, pursu-ing a false and dangerous love.

He defines what true integral human development is, grounding it on its ultimate source as a vocation coming from God and highlighting the spiritual component more than its material aspect.

The Pope tries to highlight the connection between our earthly affairs on the one hand, and our origin and destination in God, on the other.

Our usual problem is to under-stand our autonomy in our earthly affairs as total independence from God. They are just a human thing, we tend to think. God has no place

in them. Wrong! We need to make drastic changes in this mentality.

The Pope goes on to touch on a number of crucial ele-ments regarding our earthly affairs that all need clarification. Among these are the social principles of common good, solidarity and subsidiarity as lived in the context of our present crisis.

There are references to how international cooperation should be developed, and other issues like migration, aid to poor countries, care for the environment, delicate responsi-bilities in finance, etc.

There’s one point that I find most interesting. It’s about how openness to life is at the center of true development. “If personal and social sensitivity toward the acceptance of a new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance valuable for society also wither away.”

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

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STATEMENTS

The pictures we see in the newspapers and television screen in these days, after the epic flood brought about by devastating tropical storm “Ondoy” have many

stories to tell which are beyond words. Many of the victims of super typhoon Ondoy has a scary experience to narrate.

While we keep in our imagination the pictures that invite our deepest sympathy, and even listen in our hearts to their desperate cries for help, the victims agonizing and angry complaints at the slowness or absence of response from Disaster Preparedness Program, let us see in this situation a call to everyone for compassion. If there were no graft and corruption in our government, our government would be more prepared to respond to such crisis.

Typhoon Ondoy’s destructive path may be the worst flood in more than half a century. Through the ravages of nature in the past, the Filipino sense of compassion, which we also call “bayanihan,” has been called forth. The pictures we have seen in the past few days are pictures of Filipinos responding to the call for compassion, of people willing to “suffer with,” people with the spirit of “bayanihan.”

We pray against typhoons, earthquakes, floods and other natural calamities. But when they do occur, the heroism of the Filipino comes out. We salute, for example, to that 18-year old teen-ager, Muelmar Magallanes, who lost his life after saving more than a dozen neighbors, the last of whom was a six-month old baby.

This one heroic example is an inspiration of our appeal with the CBCP National Secretariat for Social Action. The CBCP NASSA has been mobilized to help with its limited resources the victims of the flood. Relief goods have started to be gathered and distributed to the flood-affected provinces around Metro Manila. Caritas Manila has started to respond to the flood victims in Metro Manila. Compassion is drawing many Filipinos to unite with their unfortunate brothers and sisters. Social Action Centers of other Dioceses may join the campaign by sending to CBCP NASSA whatever they

Epic Flood: A Call for Compassion

may collect. Profound gratitude to the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council and the US Bishops’ Conference—Catholic Relief Services. They were among the first to respond.

Other Institutions like the RED CROSS, have also started to respond to the call for compassion, as we have seen in GMA network and ABS-CBN network in the spirit respectively of “KAPUSO” and “KAPAMILYA.”

We bend our knees in prayer for salvation against natural calamities, but when they do come, we are not so helpless as not to respond with heroism. We have said it before and we say it again “In the Church, no one is so poor as to have nothing to give, and no one is so rich as to have nothing to receive.” We are humbled by the crises that come to us. We pray to God and appeal for our neighbor.

+ANGEL N. LAGDAMEOArchbishop of JaroCBCP PresidentSeptember 29, 2009

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Statement against the slaying of Fr. Cecilio Lucero

The CBCP-National Secretariat for Social Action–Justice and Peace condemns in the strongest terms

the brutal murder of Fr. Cecilio Lucero, human rights activist, of the Diocese of Catarman, Northern Samar.

The murder of Fr. Lucero comes in the wake of a series of unresolved extrajudicial killings and attacks on human rights defenders, journalists and NGO activists. These senseless acts of violence represent the antithesis of a people of life. The Filipino people, who peacefully pray and work every day for the protection of all human life, are rightfully aggrieved by this news.

Our immediate thoughts are with

Fr. Lucero’s family and parishioners. This is a terrible moment for them, in which their worst fears about the threats to Fr. Lucero’s life have been confirmed. We offer them our deepest condolences. Fr. Lucero is a well-known peace and human rights advocate who served as parish priest in Catubig town, and Chairman of the Human Rights Com-mittee of the diocese. He was a tireless crusader for the rights and dignity of all individuals. He understood the danger of his work, but refused to be intimidated. Fr. Lucero’s remarkable courage and dedication are sources of inspiration; he will be truly missed.

We fully support every effort to bring

those responsible for this cowardly crime to justice. NASSA calls on the government and its law enforcement agencies to ensure a thorough, prompt and impartial investigation, and to leave no stone unturned in the hunt for his killers. The time for political statements and assurances has passed; only the swift delivery of justice will lend any credence to the authorities’ supposed commitment to justice.

For the Social Action Network

+ BRODERICK S. PABILLO, D.D National Director 9 September 2009


STATEMENTS

In January 1988 the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued the Pastoral Letter on Ecology,

“What is Happening to our Beautiful Land”, where we shared our anxiety over the “attack being made on the natural world” which was “endangering its fruitfulness for future generations.”

On the tenth anniversary of that Letter, the CBCP released a “Statement of Concern on the Mining Act of 1995” to underline how concerned we were at the rapid expansion of mining operations arising from the said Act of 1995, asking for the repeal of Republic Act 7942 known as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

In March 2005, NASSA and the CBCP Episcopal Com-mission on Social Action-Jus-tice and Peace issued “Nature is Groaning: A Statement on the Revitalization of Min-ing in the Philippines,” and observed that the continuing enforcement of an oppressive law is blighting our ecology.

In January 2006 the CBCP re-affirmed our stand for the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995, contained in “A Statement on Mining Issues and Concerns,” believing that the said mining law destroys life. The right to life of people is inseparable from their right to sources of food and livelihood. Allowing the interests of big mining corporations to prevail over people’s right to these sources amounts to violating their right to life. Further-more, mining threatens people’s health and environmental safety through the wanton dumping of waste and tailings in rivers and seas.

Today we are saddened to see many of our recommendations have been ignored and the broken promises have continued to multiply, including the claimed invest-ments, revenues, jobs and the promise of development.

With the current speed and scale that mining is being aggressively promoted in the Philippines, the vast deleterious impacts to our already fragile ecology is quickly becoming a bitter reality.

Be Responsible Creation Stewards

We remember the fears that were outlined by CBCP ECSA-JP in 2005, that “Mining has given the Philippines a scarring experience: mine tailings flooding villages and killing individuals, depletion of natural resources, ill effects on health, fabricated social acceptability, polarization among locals, unjust labor practices, delays in or non-payment of taxes due the local government, aban-doned mines that continue to harm the environment and inhabitants long after

operations have ceased, displacement of indigenous communities, unfulfilled promises of community development, militarization, intimidation and threats.” It seems that our fears have come true only after three years. We reiterate the recommendations of the 1998 CBCP Statement wherein, i) we asked for the “repeal of Republic Act 7942 known as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995,” ii) the “recall of all approved Financial or Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAAs) and other mineral agreements, and to disapprove the pending ones,” and iii) we expressed “support for the petitions of some sectors to close down several mining operations in various communities that confronted this extractive industry.”

These calls were again highlighted in 2006, wherein we called all our religious leaders:

1. To support, unify and strengthen the struggle of the local Churches and their constituency against all mining projects, and raise the anti-mining campaign at the national level;

2. To support the call of various sec-tors, especially the Indigenous Peoples, to stop the 24 Priority Mining Projects of the government, and the closure of large-scale mining projects, for example, the Rapu-rapu Polymetallic Project in Albay, HPP Project in Palawan, Didippio Gold-Copper Project in Nueva Vizcaya, Tampakan Copper-gold Project in South Cotabato, Canatuan Gold Project in Zam-boanga del Norte, and the San Antonio Copper Project in Marinduque, among

others;3. To support the conduct

of studies on the evil effects of mining in dioceses;

4. To support all economic activities that are life-enhancing and poverty-alleviating.

Given the many unresolved issues and concerns about large-scale mining, it is clear that the present Mining Law (Republic Act 7942) does not regulate the rational exploration, develop-ment and utilization of mineral resources, and fails to ensure

the equitable sharing of benefits for the State, Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and local communities.

As we have said in our 1998 state-ment, even our best efforts will come to nothing without the help of God, our Creator. We invoke upon you the grace of the Holy Spirit who renews the face of the earth. With gratitude in our hearts we ask the intercession of Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, to obtain for us a renewed land and a converted people. “At the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last.”

For the Episcopal Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace (ECSA-JP)The National Secretariat for Social Ac-tion-Justice and Peace (NASSA)

+BRODERICK S. PABILLO, D.D.National Director September 8, 2009

A Reiteration of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Pastoral Statements against large-scale mining in the Philippines

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STATEMENTS

The issue of good and evil in governance starts with re-sponsible and irresponsible citizenship. Leadership in governance starts with leaders as citizens. Responsible

citizens produce good leaders, good leaders produce good citizens. Leaders and citizens are linked to each other; they influence each other for good or evil, for better or for worse.

Leaders and citizens must work jointly for the common good. Sadly, however, the common good is very often being subordinated to private good, to the good of one’s own self, party or family.

While it is true that we cannot be blind to the evil or wrong around us, we must have the wisdom and fortitude to correct it.

We need to exercise our social conscience by owning our social evils and wrongs and by owning as well the tasks of fighting these, and of pursuing the common good, individually or collectively. Before condemning others, let us first look at ourselves, because we may be guilty of the same or similar. No person is completely evil that there is nothing we can do to correct him or her.

Corruption, we have said many times before, is the greatest shame and problem of our country. Our government has not eradicated it, because it is involved in corruption itself.

To help pursue the good and fight evil, the CBCP has recommended and undertaken “communal actions,” we “pray

For Good or Evil, For Better or Worsetogether, reason together, decide together, act together towards a more vigorous work for good governance and a more active promotion of responsible citizenship in our society.” May I repeat here that in view of the national elections next year, “we call upon those who are competent, persons of integrity and committed to change to get involved directly in partisan politics and become candidates for political election, aware that the common good is above the good of vested interests. We remind the laity that it is within their right as their duty to campaign for candidates they believe to be competent, honest and public-service minded in order to reform our country.”

Our question that needs to be posed to all those aspiring for the presidency and other government elective positions is: how are you going to eradicate graft and corruption in your level of governance? We, citizens, are urged to examine their plans, and in conscience choose and support those who will lead us to the good, onward to the better.

+ARCHBISHOP ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO, DDArchbishop of JaroPresident, CBCPSeptember 16, 2009

With the introduction of the Re-productive Health Bill 5043, a.k.a. Reproductive Health

Bill, in Congress, truth and morality, the value and dignity of life, family and marriage are sadly made to depend on human laws. That is what is implied in the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill presently under discussion in Congress.

It appears that Congress even plans to shorten the discussion in order to have the R.H. Bill passed before the end of October. We hope that the normal pro-cess of discussion and interpellation be observed, that the Congressmen who have signified to interpellate on the R.H. Bill be honored and given the op-portunity to interpellate. To shorten the period of interpellation would give the impression that the passage of RH Bill is “lutong makaw”, not judiciously and sufficiently discussed.

As Catholics and Christians we are against the passage of the RH Bill 5043 of Congress for reasons we have already enunciated and I now summarize:

1. The Bill dilutes and negates Section III (1) Article XV of the Constitution which provides “The State shall defend the right of spouses to found a family in accordance with their religious conviction and the demands of responsible parenthood.”

Reiterating CBCP Position on Family2. The Bill seeks to legalize surgical

procedures that the Catholic Church has denounced as immoral, except for serious health reasons: tubal ligation, vasectomy and abortion.

3. The Bill requires mandatory re-productive health education from Grade V to Fourth Year High School without consideration of their sensitivity and moral innocence. The moral law and the Constitu-tion recognize the right of parents to be the primary educators of their children.

4. The Bill recommends having two children only per family as the supposedly ideal family size. There is no moral or scientific basis for this recommendation. It puts the State above the family. The natural right of couples to have as many or as few children as possible, pursuant to their understanding of responsible par-enthood, is in our view already protected by Section 12, Art. 2 of the Constitution, which recognizes the “sanctity of family life” and protects the life of the mother and of the unborn.

5. The Bill states that those who “ma-liciously engage in disinformation about the intent of provisions of the bill” shall be punished with imprisonment and/or fine of P10,000 to P50,000. This includes those who will teach contrary to the bill (after it is passed) and speak about its immoral

provisions. Such provision is a clear violation of the freedom of speech and of the right to religious conviction. Only totalitarian states have such policies.

We thus reiterate our categorical and unequivocal opposition to any at-tempt at controlling the exercise of the God-given rights of human persons to enter into married life, procreate and raise families according to the provisions of the Constitution and their religious convictions.

We appreciate and are grateful to the members of the Legislature who seek to understand the will of the Supreme Lawgiver whose laws are beyond our limited human competence to repeal or amend. We recognize and likewise thank the individuals and groups who support our pro-life, pro-women, pro-marriage and pro-family advocacy. We raise in prayer all their efforts for continued guidance and strength from the Lord and Giver of Life.

For the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines:

+ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO, DDArchbishop of JaroPresident, CBCPSeptember 16, 2009


STATEMENTS

We, the del-egates to the 13th

Asian Liturgy Fo-rum of South-East Asia, met from Sep-tember 16-19, 2009 to discuss the time-ly and urgent topic of Liturgical Year and Inculturation. The meeting was held in Bahay-Pari of San Carlos Pasto-ral Formation Com-plex, Makati City, Philippines, under the auspices of His Eminence Gauden-cio B. Cardinal Ro-sales, Archbishop of Manila to whom we express profound gratitude. The del-egates to the meeting came from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philip-pines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. We are now pleased to share the result of our three-day meeting.

1. The history of the liturgical year shows that the calendar of feasts has been constantly adjusting itself to politi-cal, cultural, and religious environment of local Churches. This should serve as a guiding principle in our work of inculturating the liturgical year.

2. We note that inculturation nor-mally takes place within the framework of approved liturgical books, whereby the substantial unity of the Roman Rite is preserved. Hence, the inculturation of the liturgical calendar does not re-sult in a totally new calendar that is an alternative to the typical edition of the Roman Rite.

The Liturgical Year and Inculturation

13th Asian Liturgy Forum (ALF)South-East Asian Region,

September 16-20, 2009Bahay Pari, San Carlos Pastoral Formation Complex,

Edsa, Makati City

3. However, we acknowledge that inculturation might not always be suf-ficient to address certain local needs. We would not preclude the creation of particular liturgical calendars while retaining the register of feasts of the Roman Rite.

4. Roman traditional liturgical sym-bols may need to be adjusted in accord with the seasons of the year in the local Church. This would be applicable, for example, to liturgical feasts like Christ-mas and Easter whose original symbols do not correspond to existing seasons of the year in a particular Church.

5. Inspired by liturgical history, we recognize the role of local cultural and social traditions in the institution of some liturgical feasts like the Chair of St. Peter in Rome, which originated in the ancestral feast of ancient Rome called parentalia. In accord with liturgi-cal norms, local Churches could institute

feasts derived from their traditional and other estab-lished practices.

6. Likewise, the cycle of human work has shaped some liturgical cel-ebrations like Ro-gation and Ember days. We believe that in the industri-al world marked by the rhythm of work and rest, produc-tion and consump-tion, and strikes and negotiations, the Church should similarly establish pertinent liturgical feasts.

7. In regions where popular pious exercises abound and continue to be meaningful to the faithful the liturgical calendar can be enriched by the integra-tion of popular religious practices with the liturgical feasts.

8. Sometimes political situations have left their mark on the liturgical calendar as witnessed by the institution of the feasts of Christ the King and St. Joseph the Worker. Local Churches may propose similar feasts to accompany the faithful across political systems.

In conclusion, given that time is relative, that situations are provisional, and that culture and traditions are in constant evolution, the Church should continue to revise, reinvent, and create liturgical feasts that meet the actual needs of the faithful.

That in all things God may be glorified.

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FROM THEBLOGS

The election fever has started. Political gimmicks are all over the country. Camouflaged, ambivalent or obvious campaign advertisements have long since invaded par-

ticularly the radio and TV stations. The common tao are already anticipating and salivating for the fiesta atmosphere of the forthcoming elections. But more than them, there are political candidates who will spare no costs and will adopt all conceiv-able means to get their monies back by landing their eagerly opted political positions. These are good times. These are bad times. It is a good time because money, food and drinks will flood the country. It is a bad time whereas bad people appear as if from nowhere to sow fear and bring havoc to many otherwise peaceful communities in all the regions of the land.

While all political candidates—specially those aspiring for the highest office in the land—are decidedly saying anything and doing everything to sell themselves to the voting public, there are however three pivotal questions that both the young and old committed and serious voters keep on asking more frequently and insistently as election time draws nearer. One, whom will they vote for? Two, why will they vote for him? Three, will he be able to reform the malevolent Philippine politics and transform an ethically dying and wherefore morally bankrupt present government? These are not only legitimate but also timely questions. Why?

After the long infamous martial law regime, not only a pious person and thereafter a brave figure, not merely a popu-lar individual followed by a haughty character as well, were all one after another elected to lead in the governance in this other blessed country. The over-all lamentable result of their combined some two decades of administration need not really be mentioned at all. Reason: Reciting their long litany of their respective outrageous personal conduct and official nauseous actuation can readily be considered as sadism—something like adding barrels of salt to a big and still fresh national injury. The mere recall of what their individual presidency stood for—with the still ruling administration deserving a special mention—is enough to make the brave surrender in despera-tion and the courageous to give up with disgust!

INTEGRITY, that keeps someone fair, just and upright, notwithstanding all arguments to the contrary. CHARACTER, that makes the same individual stand still, and thereby exercise the right and sound political will despite all representations and pressures in favor of the opposite. COMPETENCE, that empowers the same person with the knowledge of and aptitude for governance, without necessarily being perfect or altogether unerring; with good intentions however never wanting. These are the key attributes demanded from the in-coming President according to the signs of the times. Note: Truth to tell, there is one distinct and singular personality already in government who for all intents and purposes, has the integrity and the character and the competence for eligibility and election to the Office of the President of the Philippines. Why not check attentively, look closely and vote for him accordingly?

www.ovc.blogspot.com

Key enemies of good government

Considering that good government demands good politics which in turn stipulates good politicians, the main social enemies of this triple goodness are

the following: One, poverty. Two, credulity. Three, pas-sivity. All these realities have been long since obtaining on the part of a good number of Filipinos in their roles as citizens and voters in this supposedly democratic country. Otherwise, it would be practically impossible to explain particularly the incumbent administration during the past eight years—an administration which has been long since in effect equated with deception and corruption.

The ground truth of such a partisan politico-national disaster is the combined by-product of a people who are by and large poor, credulous and passive. More than a composite socio-ethical fault on their part, they are in-stead continuous victims of flagrant thievery, gross deceit and ultimate pitiful submission—courtesy of the ruling administration with an odious and devious destructive staying power. The bigger the “trapos” are in government, the more poor, credulous and passive a large portion of the Filipinos become.

To start with, an impoverished people are not re-ally free precisely because they are chained by their unmet basic needs and unsatisfied necessities. Time and again, it is rightly said that genuine democracy and real poverty cannot co-exist. In line with the dictum that beggars cannot be choosers, so it is that poor and hungry people are readily bought, reigned and silenced by political dole outs which can be readily equated with social bribery. This is precisely why truly evil political figures prefer to govern people wallowing in poverty as these become not only simple in thinking and submis-sive in behavior.

And there is the added social liability that poor people readily believe that heavenly promises of politicos, well disposed to cling to and depend on their delirious com-mitments to common good and public welfare. What can a very thirsty and hungry man do if not immediately listen to and hope for the loud and repeated vain avowals of fresh water and abundant food made by abominable if not also delusional “professional” politicians? These are elective or elected individuals who simply love and enjoy having credulous and obedient constituents.

Being thus afflicted by continuous poverty and con-sequent credulity in the world of rapacious and deceptive “expert” politicians, people eventually become afflicted too with passivity. Being poor is considered as a way of living and being credulous is felt as a means of hoping and coping, what else is in store for such people if not to be passive in life and thus indifferent to the socio-political pathetic national situation and to the persevering dreadful local conditions.

Come to think of it, a government can be the life or death, the blessing or curse of the people it rules over.

www.ovc.blogspot.com

Three signal attributes of a worthy presidential candidate


to care for and preserve them.People are but stewards of what they have, such as those

temporal goods called their possessions in cash and/or in kind. This is why even their so-called private properties have ingrained social dimension. The truth is that no one, absolutely no one has absolute ownership of anything he/she has—even those stored in their vaults, deposited in their banks or brought to foreign investment houses. The under-lying reality behind this apparently curious if not cryptic truth squarely consists in the long known and obvious fact that no one, no one at all, can bring and keep a miserable centavo with him or her when stiff dead.

The above simple observations and plain reminders bring to fore the following pretty good reminders: First, more people respect and care for the earth and its environ, the better for them, their children and their children’s children to continue enjoying and benefiting from them. Second, more people share possession with others in need, the more their resources become useful and profitable as such goods are made to spread their beneficial purpose and attributes. Third, more people become generous not stingy, some kind of a Santa Claus instead of a Scrooge, the bigger they look, the taller they stand before God and man.

Stewardship is not an option but an imperative.

Stewardship in general refers to someone acting as an overseer, a supervisor, a deputy or a trustee of certain resources, certain agenda or assigned work.

In the temporal world, a steward is a caretaker of material resources that he or she does not really own but simply manages in the name of someone else. In other words, a steward has really no dominion over the assets the same is commissioned to supervise, to safeguard, improve and even upgrade. The striking reality of stewardship has con-tinuous relevance and practical application at all times and in all places. The truth of stewardship specially comes to mind during these days of one big calamity after another in the country.

People are stewards of creation. Nature and its resources, the environ and its benefits, the wealth of the land and the bounty of the sea, the benefits of clean and fresh air—all these are entrusted by their Creator to men, women and children to care for and to benefit from. Woe therefore to people if they merely exploit such wealth and potentials of nature. What a pity if they abuse and misuse the earth’s natural resources, thus leaving them wasted and destroyed. It is no secret that even silent nature and the patient environ can roar, rebel and hit back with a vengeance when so much ill-treated or maltreated by their own stewards who precisely are meant

EDITORIAL

Stewardship

Illustration by Bladimer Usi


FROM THE INBOX

From the e-mail messages of [email protected]

The miracle of a brother’s song

L ike any good mother, when Karen found out that an-other baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new

sibling.They found out that the new baby was going to be a girl,

and day after day, night after night, Michael sang to his sister in mommy’s tummy.

He was building a bond of love with his little sister before he even met her. The pregnancy progressed normally for Karen, an active member of the Panther Creek United Methodist Church in Morristown, Tennessee.

In time, the labor pains came. Soon it was every five minutes, every three, every minute… But serious compli-cations arose during delivery and Karen found herself in hours of labor.

Would a C-section be required? Finally, after a long struggle, Michael’s little sister was born. But she was in very serious condition.

With a siren howling in the night, the ambulance rushed the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary’s Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee. The days inched by… The little girl got worse. The pediatrician had to tell the parents there is very little hope... Be prepared for the worst.

Karen and her husband contacted a local cemetery about a burial plot. They had fixed up a special room in their house for their new baby but now they found themselves having to plan for a funeral.

Michael, however, kept begging his parents to let him see his sister. I want to sing to her, he kept saying. Week two in intensive care looked as if a funeral would come before the week was over.

Michael kept nagging about singing to his sister, but kids are never allowed in Intensive Care...

Karen decided to take Michael whether they liked it or not. If he didn’t see his sister right then, he may never see her alive.

She dressed him in an oversized scrub suit and marched him into ICU. He looked like a walking laundry basket.

The head nurse recognized him as a child and bellowed, “Get that kid out of here now. No children are allowed.”

The mother rose up strong in Karen, and the usually mild-mannered lady glared steel-eyed right into the head nurse’s face, her lips a firm line.

“He is not leaving until he sings to his sister,” she stated.

Then Karen towed Michael to his sister’s bedside. He gazed at the tiny infant losing the battle to live.

After a moment, he began to sing in the pure-hearted voice of a 3-year-old, Michael sang:

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray.”

Instantly the baby girl seemed to respond. The pulse rate began to calm down and become steady.

“Keep on singing, Michael,” encouraged Karen with tears in her eyes.

“You never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

As Michael sang to his sister, the baby’s ragged, strained breathing became as smooth as a kitten’s purr.

“Keep on singing, sweetheart,” Karen said.“The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I

held you in my arms.” Michael's little sister began to relax as rest, healing rest,

seemed to sweep over her.“Keep on singing, Michael.”Tears had now conquered the face of the bossy head

nurse. Karen glowed.“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. Please don’t

take my sunshine away.”The next day... the very next day the little girl was well

enough to go home.Woman’s Day Magazine called it “The Miracle of a

Brother's Song.” The medical staff just called it a miracle. Karen called it a miracle of God's love.

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Heart warmersA four-year-old child had a next-door neighbor, an

elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into

the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, “Nothing, I just helped him cry.”

*****

Teacher Debbie Moon’s first graders were discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had a different hair color than the other members.

One of her students suggested that he was adopted. A little girl said, “I know all about adoption, I was adopted.”

“What does it mean to be adopted?” asked another child.

“It means,” said the girl, “that you grew in your mommy’s heart instead of her tummy!”


Catechism on Consecrated LifeBased on the Code of Canon Law

Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legaspi, O.P., DD

This book is a significant refer-ence material for especially for members of religious communi-ties. Given in a question and answer format, the Catechism delves on selected topics like “matters that define the identity of the consecrated life, issues that relate to the rights and obligations of religious com-munities, and matters relating to religious institutes, secu-lar institutes and societies of apostolic life. Based on the Code of Canon Law, the book provides a clear understanding on the “richness of consecrated life” and the “role of religious communities in the service of the Church.” The Catechism is also an expression of gratitude by the Archbishop to the religious communities serving in the Archdiocese of Caceres in various capacities: schools, mass and social communications, hospitals and health care for the dying, elderly, the specially disabled, youth ministry, rehabili-tation of abused women, orphanages, literacy and livelihood programs and tribal promotion. The volume is a publication of the University of Santo Tomas.

Living Your StrengthsDiscover Your God-Given Talents and Inspire Your

Community Albert L. Winseman, D.Min., Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. & Curt Liesveld, M.Div.

Each of us has been endowed by God with talents uniquely ours. But for most people their talents remain unrecognized and untapped because they are not aware of their gifts or simply they don’t focus on cultivating it. This motivational book will help people discover and develop their signature talents. A prod-uct of Gallup research on the incredible potential each person possesses, the book explains that anyone can be successful in any endeavor as long as the person builds on one’s great-est natural abilities rather than on one’s weaknesses. How does one discover what his/her strengths are? The authors encourage readers to take the Clifton StrengthsFinder, an online talent assessment before reading the book. The tool assessment will help them discover what their innate talents are. In each chapter of the book are stories from people who have discovered their signature talents, who have built on their strengths not only to develop themselves into a better person, but also to become effective ministers in their parishes. Living Your Strengths is an edition of Claretian Publications.

The Making of a Local ChurchFrancisco F. Claver, SJ

In his book ‘The Making of a Lo-cal Church’, Francisco F. Claver, SJ having served as a former bishop of the Diocese of Malay-balay and the Apostolic Vicariate of Bontoc-Lagawe, shares his experiences on his journey with his flock as well as his insights in building up a local church revitalizing the Vatican II teach-ings. His approach is wholistic, dealing with the totality of the person as well as the community in shepherding aimed towards our salvation. The book gives insights in response to incarnat-ing the church through the local church which he had developed during his teaching experience as a professor at a pastoral insti-tute in Ateneo and his hands-on ministry in his diocese. He describes the history and development of the local church and discusses about the ‘ecclesiologies’ that developed as a response to “aggiornamento teachings of Vatican II.” He writes about the basic ecclesial communities, the “expres-sion of the local church in its most fundamental form” which are present in numerous parishes of poor countries. He also discusses the role of the social apostolate, confronting the problems on jus-tice and human rights in forming the local church as well as the relation of social change in its task of evangelization. Endorsed by several prelates as a “vademecum” for priests in their shepherding, the volume is co-published by Claretian Publications and Jesuit Communications.

book Reviews

Natural Family PlanningValues, Issues, and Practices

Chona R. Echavez & Estrella E. Taco-Borja, Editors

The book is a compendium of stories, articles and re-search outputs clustered into four sections. Section one, “Catholic Church Teaching,” articulates the teachings of the Catholic Church on re-sponsible parenthood and NFP based on Humanae Vitae and other church docu-ments. The second section, “NFP and SDM: Issues and Reflections,” explains what constitutes natural family planning and presents the various modern NFP methods including the controversial Standard Days Method. Sec-tion three, “Church and Gov-ernment on Population and Poverty,” situates the significance of NFP pastoral program in the contentious issues of population and poverty and the roles of the church and government. The final section, “NFP in Practice and Lessons from the Field,” presents actual experiences of NFP program from three areas—a rural setting, an urban slum area, and an archdiocesan context. The articles that comprise the book are related but independent works by several authors. Hence the various perspectives are best woven along a discernible problem to which they all seem to contribute in one way or another. The heart of the book is Christian responsibility to the family planning needs of Filipino couples. It calls for pastoral innovation in order to effectively mainstream the Natural Family Planning program as a proactive and moral alternative to contraceptive and abortive practices in Philippine society.


ENTERTAINMENT

CatholiC iNitiative for eNlighteNed Movie appreCiatioN

Bagama't may angking talino ay labis naman ang kapilyahan ni Angelina (Ogie Alcacid) kung kaya't walang tumatagal ditong yaya. Matapos ang pagkuha

ng ilang mga yaya para kay Angelina, tanging si Yaya Ro-salinda (Michael V.) lamang ang makakatagal sa kakulitan ng alaga. Sa umpisa'y maayos ang pakikisama ni Angelina kay Yaya Rosalinda, ngunit hindi magtatagal ay magiging sunod-sunod na rin ang kapilyahang gagawin nito sa yaya hanggang sa dumating ang araw na mapilitan rin ang mga magulang ni Angelina na palayasin si Yaya Rosalinda. Ngunit isang araw ay kakailanganin ni Angelina ang tulong ng yaya nang ito ay makidnap ng mga teroristang gustong patayin ang bibisitang Dukesa ng Wellington. Makaligtas kaya sila at magkaayos pa kaya silang dalawa?

Kahanga-hanga ang talino ng dalawang pangunahing tauhan na sina Michael V. at Ogie Alcacid na mga mismong nakaisip ng karakter ni Yaya at Angelina. Mula sa mumunt-ing mga kuwentong mag-yaya na sumikat sa telebisyon ay nagawang pelikula na ang kanilang mga likhang tauhan. Nakakaaliw silang makita sa sinehan lalo pa't kilala na ang kanilang tambalan. Maayos at manlinaw ang kuha ng kamera at mahusay maging ang pagkakaganap ng mga pangalawang tauhan. May mga mangilan-ngilan ding nakakatawang eksena. Ngunit pawang nasayang ang pelikula dahil hindi nito napalawig ang kuwento at relasyon ng mag-yaya. Tulad sa palabas sa telebisyon, nanatili itong mababaw na walang hinangad kundi ang magpatawa. Hindi naghangad man lang ang pelikula na maglahad ng mas malalim at mas makabuluhang kuwento maliban sa pagpapatawa. Marami pa sanang pwedeng gawin sa kuwento ngunit nakuntento na lamang silang manatili sa manipis na hibla ng kwentong mag-yaya.

Bagama't lumaking spoiled brat at may kapilyahan, kitang dalisay naman ang puso ni Angelina. May taglay man siyang kakulitan, hindi naman niya sinasadya ang mga nagagawang pananakit. May ilang eksena nga lang na nakakababahala tulad ng mga pagsabog at pananadyang pananakot at pagpapahiya sa kanyang mga yaya. Hindi ito dapat tularan ng mga bata at dapat silang magabayan sa panonood. Higit na kahanga-hanga si Yaya Rosalinda na nanatili ang malasakit sa- alaga sa kabila ng kakulitan at kapilyahan nito. Hindi sumusuko si Yaya Rosalinda sa alaga kahit pa hindi niya ito kadugo. Bagay na mahirap hanapin sa mga kasambahay at yaya sa kasalukuyang panahon. Ang nabuong relasyon sa mag-yaya ay dapat magsilbing halimbawa na wala sa dugo ang pagmamahal at pagmamalasakit, bagkus ito ay kusang tumutubo basta't mayroon pagmamahal at mahabang pang-unawa ang mga higit na nakakatanda. Hindi rin magtatagumpay kailanman ang kasamaan sa kabutihan. Kahit pa walang armas, ay na-gawa nila Yaya at Angelina na labanan ang mga armadong terorista sa masama nitong binabalak.

Cast: Ogie Alcasid, Michael V., Iza Calzado, Aiko Melendez, Jomari Yllana, Leo Martinez, Roxanne Guinoo, Sheena Halili, Victor Aliwalas

Director: Mike TuvieraProducers: Jose Mari Abacan, Ogie Alcasid, Mike Tuviera,

Michael V.Screenwriters: Ogie Alcasid, Michael V., Uro Q. dela CruzGenre: ComedyDistributor: GMA FilmsLocation: ManilaRunning Time: 100 min.

Technical Assessment: ½Moral Assessment: CINEMA Rating: For viewers age 13 and below with

parental guidance


ASIABRIEFING

N. KOREA

Gov’t ready to return to talks

North Korea is ready to return to international talks aimed at ending nuclear program, but it wants ne-gotiations with the US first. The country walked away from the talks with five regional powers on end-ing its nuclear weapons program late last year, and since then had repeat-edly said the format was dead.

PAKISTAN

UN shuts office The UN World Food

Program has temporarily closed its office here after a suicide bombing Oct. 5, a day after Taliban’s new leader vowed fresh as-saults on western targets. Authorities said a suicide bomber struck the lobby of the heavily fortified UN headquarters in Islamabad, killing 5 people.

JAPAN

Authorities probes PM over fund raising

Prosecutors are inves-tigating the fund-raising activities of new PM Yukio Hatoyama’s office. In June, he admitted keep-ing accounts for his fund-raising body, which report-edly included the names of dead people and those who had denied giving money. His former accoun-tant, he said, was behind

the problem, in which a total of US$235,000 was recorded incorrectly since 2005.

LAOS

Typhoon Ketsana kills 24

After raging havoc in the Philippines, typhoon Ketsana killed at least 24 people in Laos recently with massive flooding hitting several areas; the worst-hit Attapeu region could only be reached by heli-copter and boat. The UN said canned goods and rice have now been delivered to storm survivors.

INDIA

Floods displace thou-sands

In southern India, hun-dreds of thousands of peo-ple have been displaced and evacuated after torren-tial rains and floods swept away their homes. At least 207 people have died, with the state of Karnataka bear-ing the brunt of the disas-ter. An estimated 100,000 people have been made homeless.

BURMA

UN calls for Suu Kyi’s release

The UN Human Rights Council urged Burma’s authorities to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. A resolution adopted by the Council expressed "deep concern"

at the recent sentencing of Suu Kyi to further house arrest. The court ruling means the Nobel Laure-ate will not be able to contest national elections next year.

CAMBODIA

Thousands lose jobs due to economic down-turn

At least 20,000 workers have lost their jobs in the country’s garment indus-try this year because of the global economic crisis, Cambodia’s Labour Minis-try said. The garment indus-try is Cambodia’s largest source of income, providing 80 percent of its foreign ex-change and employing an estimated 350,000 people last year.

AFGHANISTAN

Recount underway in presidential poll

Election workers here have begun recounting bal-lots following the disputed presidential poll in August. A UN-backed commission ordered a partial recount to resolve allegations of widespread fraud. The re-count could result in a runoff between President Hamid Karzai and his rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

MALAYSIA

Islamic group pushes polygamy

Malaysia's Ikhwan Polgygamy Club is trying

to match several women to one husband, in the name of Islam. They said it's a way to help women who are isolated or marginalized—like widows and reformed or former sex workers—and to promote positive values. It was founded last month by Hatijah Aam, who said she wants polygamy to be seen as something beautiful.

SINGAPORE

Ms. Singapore quits after criminal record revealed

The pageant here has been rocked by scandal, after it emerged that Miss World Singapore 2009 has a criminal record. Ris Low, a 19-year-old student, then give up her crown after be-ing exposed as a credit card cheat when she worked as a receptionist.

VIETNAM

Govt rejects UN propos-als to improve rights record

The Vietnamese gov’t has rejected calls to im-prove its deteriorating hu-man rights record raised during the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review process that ended this recently, Human Rights Watch said. "Shockingly, Vietnam de-nied to the Human Rights Council that it has arrested and imprisoned hundreds of peaceful dissidents and independent religious ac-tivists," said Elaine Pear-son, HRW deputy Asia director.

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