Month: March 2020

A rejoinder from the Health Sector of the province.

27 March 2020

Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, Diocese of San Carlos, calls for extraordinary measures to release Political Prisoners

We can all attest that these are not ordinary days.  The entire nation seeks to cooperate with social/ physical distancing protocols. Yet, cases of COVID-19 infections are increasing everyday around the archipelago. This is a time for saving lives through much-needed grace and ingenuity.  An undeniable threat of catastrophe hovers over jails, filled far beyond capacity in the Philippines.  Decongesting facilities will help secure the lives of detainees and jail personnel. We must muster courage to address the glaringly high-risk of a COVID-19 outbreak, now forced upon those behind bars. For all that is humane, good, and loving, now is a moment for urgent action. This is also the call of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Peace advocates appeal that political prisoners should be “top of the list” for release. In light of the unilateral ceasefires called by the Duterte administration for the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), release of political prisoners will be a strong confidence-building measure towards the fruition of the peace process between the two parties.   During this COVID-19 pandemic, we can be embracing efforts to inspire mutual-cooperation and community- preparedness.   The more than 600 political prisoners, detained under often questionable and dubious charges, comprise a sector of the prison population that can and should be released on humanitarian grounds. The sick and elderly, among them, are at extraordinary risk for severe cases of the novel corona virus. With outbreaks of COVID-19 sweeping the nation, exposing “prisoners of conscience” to life-threatening peril is, frankly, unconscionable.

For the Island of Negros, the plight of political prisoners is apparent.  Most of the more than 90 political prisoners were arrested in the last 18 months. Included among these are Church people, activists, and members of farmers’ organizations.  Also under detention in Manila is Francisco “Fr. Frank” Fernandez, Jr., a frail and elderly NDFP peace consultant, who was in Luzon for medical consultation and treatment at the time of his arrest.

Peace advocates continue to believe that a just and durable peace can be achieved by addressing the roots of the armed conflict.  A key component to such belief is a recognition and respect that human life is sacred. The Geneva Convention and the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) give ample basis for such releases, as under a COVID-19 outbreak, detention facilities will be rendered grossly inhumane. In contrast, saving lives through the release of political prisoners will send a strong message of the Duterte administration’s desire for peace and goodwill throughout the country. 

The Duterte administration should act with utmost urgency to decongest prisons as well as engage mass testing and provide separate quarantine facilities; or else, God forbid, prisons and those in them may sink like the ill-fated Diamond Princess and other cruise ships, as social/physical distancing and self-isolation are spatially impossible.  Political prisoners, the sick, the elderly and those detained on petty crimes and misdemeanors may all be considered for release—this is a matter of life and death calling for extraordinary measures. Such call is integral to our dream of “a loving, merciful, pardoning, welcoming church.” 

MOST. REV. GERARDO A. ALMINAZA, D.D.
The Roman Catholic Bishop of San Carlos

‘Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?’

ZENIT
March 27, 2020  Jim Fair 

Pope Francis on March 27, 2020, asked of the world the question Jesus asked of the apostles who cowered in fear in a storm-seized boat on the Sea of Galilee: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”

Following is the Holy Father full address, provided by the Vatican

“When evening had come” (Mk 4:35). The Gospel passage we have just heard begins like this. For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets, and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by; we feel it in the air, we notice in people’s gestures, their glances give them away. We find ourselves afraid and lost. Like the disciples in the Gospel, we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat… are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying “We are perishing” (v. 38), so we too have realized that we cannot go on thinking of ourselves, but only together can we do this.

It is easy to recognize ourselves in this story. What is harder to understand is Jesus’ attitude. While his disciples are quite naturally alarmed and desperate, he stands in the stern, in the part of the boat that sinks first. And what does he do? In spite of the tempest, he sleeps on soundly, trusting in the Father; this is the only time in the Gospels we see Jesus sleeping. When he wakes up, after calming the wind and the waters, he turns to the disciples in a reproaching voice: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” (v. 40).

To All the Bishops and the Diocesan Administrators
Your Eminences, Your Excellencies and Reverend Administrators:

Re: A Call and Invitation to a Special Day of Prayer for Our Frontline Medical Personnel in this Time of Crisis

Although I am quite sure that many of us, if not all, have been remembering and keeping in our prayers, like our Oratio Imperata, those who are in the medical frontline of our collective efforts to face the menace that the Corona Virus disease has brought to our people, we make this call and invitation to all our bishops, clergy and religious, and to all our faithful, to be united in a

 Special Day of Prayer for All our Frontline Medical Personnel in our fight against the Corona Virus Disease Pandemic

 On March 29, 2020, the 5th Sunday of Lent

 We do this in all our Masses, our Rosaries, during our Holy Hour, and in our moments of Personal Prayer.

OUR FERVENT PRAYERS FOR THEM:

For our doctors, nurses, medical staff, all people working in hospitals and clinics, all our medical specialists and researchers, and all those personnel in our DOH:

• Our prayer of gratitude to the Lord for their heroic service to our people in these difficult times.
• Our prayer to the Lord for their continued safety and well-being.
• Our prayer to the Lord for those among them who lost their lives, having been infected by the disease itself, the disease that they were precisely fighting against. Let us pray for their grieving families and loved ones.
• Our prayer to the Lord for those among them who are sick and those who are getting over-fatigued.
• Our prayer to the Lord that they may receive the much-needed material support and assistance to perform their duties as medical frontliners in this crisis situation.

We leave it to each diocese and its parishes to concretize this general call to prayer in your liturgies and pastoral directives. This may be articulated in our introduction to the masses, homilies, prayers of the faithful, and intentions in our rosaries and holy hour. Of course we continue praying our Oratio Imperata.

MAY OUR PRAYERS MOVE US TO ACTION:

Among the actions of support we can do is to remind ourselves and our people to cooperate with and obey and follow the quarantine measures that our local government directed us to follow, most especially the directive to stay at home.

Another action we can do: It has come to our attention that many medical personnel, doctors, nurses, and medical staff are now in a problematic situation. They are hesitant to go back to their families, and their families and children are hesitant to receive them at home – for the simple obvious reason: they fear that the Corona Virus Disease might be transmitted to them. Also we heard that some landlords are now becoming hesitant to allow them to come home to their rented places for fear of the transmission of this disease.

May our prayer move us to action: As dioceses and parishes, can we start assisting them by providing facilities for them to go home to, some place for rest and sleep, and perhaps some meals – a second home for our dedicated medical frontliners – like some available buildings and rooms in our dioceses and parishes, for example, formation centers, retreat houses, and pastoral centers? And of course, with well-prepared hygienic protocols as we make these places available for them.

Thank you very much for your kind consideration of this call and invitation. Let us continue praying for each other.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

March 26, 2020

My dear people of God in the Archdiocese of Manila,

When people are in the dark, they need light. When people are weak, they need strength. We are in the dark. We do not know when this pandemic will be over and what will happen to us and to our world after this. We are weak. Do we still have the strength to carry on in this way for two more weeks, and perhaps longer? We need light. We need strength. We identify with the Psalmist: “My heart shudders, my strength forsakes me; the very light of my eyes has failed”

(Ps. 38:11). The Word of God in the Bible provides light and strength.

The Bible gives us light because it points Jesus to us. He said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12). Because Jesus is our Rock we can say with St. Paul: “I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me” (Phil. 4:13).

The Bible is such a great gift of God and gives us a lot of spiritual benefits that the Church attaches a plenary indulgence to it whenever we read it in a prayerful way for at least 30 minutes.

We all wanted to read the Bible, but somehow the busy lives that we led prevented us from doing so. We had no time. Now suddenly, in these quarantine weeks, we have time, a lot of time! In fact we are considering how we can spend our time meaningfully at home. We do not want to squander this rare commodity that we have now.

Take time to read the Bible. You will never regret the time you give to be in touch with God by reading his Word. Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “The disciples in a certain sense become drawn into intimacy with God by being immersed in the word of God” (Verbum Domini #80).

How to immerse ourselves in the Word of God in the Bible? For more than 1500 years we Christians have developed a simple but effective way to do this. We call this Lectio Divina. It is a prayerful and spiritual way of reading the Bible. With time in our hands, we can try this out daily until it becomes a habit.

Take a biblical text, say the Bible reading of the day. Read it slowly, paying attention to each word. Read it several times, and as you read, ask yourself the question: What do these words say? You can stay on this, reading the passage three, five or even seven times. You then close the Bible and meditate on what you have read, asking the question: What does this passage say to me? When you are able to say in a sentence or two the meaning of the text for you, turn to God and pray. The message is God’s word for you and your prayer is your answer to God.

This prayer answers the question: How does this Bible passage lead me to address God? Your prayer may be a prayer of praise, or thanksgiving, or petition, or contrition – depending on how God spoke to you in the text.

After having prayed, now keep silent. Contemplate. It is creating a space of deep awareness of God’s presence. Just open yourself to him. Finally, reflect and answer this question: What does God ask me to do today? This is the action part. The Word of God leads us to action.

Read. Meditate. Pray. Contemplate. Act. These are the simple steps to read the Bible in a prayerful way. It can be done approximately between 30 minutes to 45 minutes depending on how long is the passage you have chosen.

The Word of God is very appropriate in our situation. Not only do we have the time. We need light to understand our state, and strength, to hang on in the face of boredom and weakness, especially for the sick. Again Pope Benedict tells us:

“It is in times of pain that the ultimate questions about the meaning of one’s life make themselves acutely felt… Faith born out of an encounter with God’s word helps us to realize that human life deserves to be lived fully even when weakened by illness and pain”(Verbum Domini #106).

The Bayanihan to Heal as One Act grants President Rodrigo Duterte 30 special powers, and excludes the proposed contentious provisions on the takeover of private businesses

Sofia Tomacruz
Published 12:56 AM, March 25, 2020
Updated 1:35 AM, March 26, 2020

MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte signed on Wednesday, March 25, the bill that grants him 30 special powers to address the novel coronavirus outbreak in the Philippines.
Duterte’s former aide and now Senator Bong Go confirmed this in a message to reporters.

Duterte signed the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act of 2020 past midnight of Wednesday – a day after Congress passed the bill, a result of a special session that ran from Monday morning until past 3 am Tuesday. A copy has yet to be released to media.

The law was parsed through by lawmakers, who removed unconstitutional budgetary provisions and controversial provisions on the takeover of businesses. The earlier version of the bill had proposed to grant Duterte emergency powers.

Provisions that would have given the President authority to extend his special powers were also deleted.

The law declares a state of national emergency, which comes on top of a month-long Luzon-wide lockdown, and earlier declarations of a state of calamity and a state of public health emergency in the country.

To stay updated on news, advisories, and explainers, check out our special coverage page, “Novel Coronavirus Outbreak.”

What are Duterte’s special powers? Based on a final version of the measure passed by the Senate and adopted by the House of Representatives, Duterte is allowed 30 powers.

Among the items listed in the law is the authority to give 18 million low-income families P5,000 to P8,000 in emergency cash aid, depending on the prevailing minimum wage in the region.

The measure also ensures that health workers get a special risk allowance on top of their regular hazard pay. It also directs the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to shoulder all medical costs of workers exposed to the coronavirus during the duration of the emergency.

The law also mandates that P100,000 be given to public and private health workers who contract severe coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Families of health workers who died of COVID-19 in the line of duty will receive P1 million, effective retroactively.

Congress removes Duterte’s authority to extend special powers, but does it ease fears?

‘Congress has proven that it will follow and obey the President’s wishes and submit to his commands,’ says human rights lawyer Edre Olalia

The powers outlined in the Bayanihan Heal as One Act are based on Article VI, Section 23 (2), of the Constitution. This provision allows Congress “in times of war or other national emergency” to pass a law authorizing the President “to exercise powers necessary and proper to carry out a declared national policy.”

The law grants Duterte the power to take over private medical facilities and public transportation. Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea earlier said the provision was merely to provide Duterte a “standby power.”

This was based on Section 17 of Article XII of the Constitution, which allows the State “during the emergency and under reasonable terms prescribed by it, [to] temporarily take over or direct the operation of any privately owned public utility or business affected with public interest.”

My dear people of God in the Archdiocese of Manila,

During these quarantine days most of our attention is riveted to COVID 19. This is understandable because it is an invisible enemy perceived to be everywhere. This great concern on the coronavirus, however, may cloud our mind from other important matters that should call our constant attention. I speak most specifically of our care for Mother Earth, our common home. The global damage that COVID 19 does should make concrete to us the global destruction that will come upon us if we do not care for our common home.

In a way, this coronavirus phenomenon inadvertently has some positive effects for Mother Earth. The forced rest imposed on us by the virus also gives rest to Mother Earth. The factories that are shut down, the air, land and sea travels that are cancelled, the business buildings that are quiet – all of these, at least momentarily, bring down the CO2 emissions that we spew out to our skies. But more than these, we are forced to face some important realities of life. For one, that we are all interconnected. What happened in Wuhan, China is now affecting all the world, and almost all aspects of our life. And if it is true that this virus came from animals, exotic at that, this tells us that we humans are bound to other living creatures as well.

Now that our life is constricted, we are seeing that it is possible to live an alternative lifestyle contrary to that which we had been so used to, and we thought we could not do without. We thought that we need to be always on the go, that we could buy things that we wanted, and easily throw away those that we do not want. Pope Francis told us in Laudato Si’: “Christian spirituality proposes an alternative understanding of the quality of life… one capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption.” (LS #222) Now we see a glimpse, and in fact, we may already enjoy it, that “LESS IS MORE.” It is spelled out thus: “Christian spirituality proposes a growth marked by moderation and the capacity to be happy with little. It is a return to that simplicity which allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be grateful for the opportunities which life affords us, to be spiritually detached from what we possess, and not to succumb to sadness for what we lack.” (LS #222) Let us go through this again and reflect on it. Is this not what we are living now? Is it not liberating?

Hopefully these days of forced quarantine can help us see life anew and inculcate in us a way of life that is more friendly to our family and to our beloved Mother Earth.

To home in on us our responsibility to the environment, providentially we have EARTH HOUR this year on Saturday, March 28. EARTH HOUR started in Sydney in 2007 when businesses and residential houses turned off all lights for one hour to make a stand against climate change. Since then, it has been done annually all over the world, participated in by more people in all countries. In the Philippines this year we will be turning off the light from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm. It will be very dramatic and felt by all families because we will all be at home. We will stay in darkness and in silence for an hour, hopefully to make us appreciate the importance of energy. If we squander it, we will be forced to do without it because energy too is scarce resource. As Christians let us spend this hour in prayer for our Mother Earth and for all those who defend and care for it.

Let us not be myopic. We are not only fighting against COVID 19. We are fighting for a better and healthier life. We cannot achieve this without a cleaner and healthier Mother Earth. We are reminded that: “The effects of our encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in our relationship with the world around us. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or secondary aspect of our Christian experience.” (LS  #217)

In Mother Mary, the Word of God took flesh. Because of this “creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God.” (Rom. 8:19) Together with us, creation awaits salvation.

Yours truly in Christ.

Bishop Broderick Pabillo
Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Manila
March 25, 2020