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Month: January 2021

Defend our universities as bastions of critical thinking and dissent

Movement Against Tyranny Press Statement

January 29, 2021

The Movement Against Tyranny calls on the Filipino people to come to the defense of our institutions of higher learning, which are now under attack from officials of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and other rabid members of the Duterte administration.

This week, NTF-ELCAC spokesperson Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. revived his list of 18 schools supposedly in cahoots with communists, which he first revealed in his infamous Red October plot expose of 2018.

Not to be outdone, presidential communications office undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, who is also an NTF-ELCAC spokesperson, came out with a longer list of 38 colleges and universities allegedly serving as recruitment grounds of the New People’s Army.

The pronouncements of Parlade and Badoy follow defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s unilateral and arbitrary abrogation of the UP-DND Accord which, for the last 30 years, have protected the country’s premier state university from illegal and unreasonable searches, arrests and surveillance, as well as prohibited state security forces from interfering in peaceful assemblies and protests in campus.

The security sector insists that such means of protecting academic freedom turns our campuses into breeding grounds of rebels and terrorists. This is not only an attack on the reputation of these schools but on academic freedom itself and the role of educational institutions in nurturing critical thinking among our youth.

The freedom to think and challenge the status quo is precisely what makes the academe a dynamic source of novel and radical solutions to such fundamental problems as mass poverty, underdevelopment, systemic corruption, rampant human rights abuses and blatant violations of our sovereignty. It is also this freedom that nurtures righteous dissent against all kinds of tyranny and oppression.

Thus, academic freedom is a key element in any democracy. This is precisely why the Constitution guarantees it. To impinge upon that freedom by stoking the fear of communism is straight out of the fascist playbook. Let us not play into the hands of those who would have us return to the dark days dictatorship. Let us defend academic freedom and say no to tyranny!#

Invitation to People’s Choice Movement Online Assembly

January 21, 2021

Greetings of Christ’s peace!

            We, the People’s Choice Movement (PCM), have been aware of your support for good governance, and your familiarity with our Vision-Mission to select servant-leaders as candidates for public office, given your participation in our past convention, conferences, meetings, or your reading of our Primer, or having been briefed by your friends. We would like to update you on how you can further participate in our patriotic efforts for the good of our country and our people.

            In this regard, we would like to respectfully invite you to join our Online Assembly on January 29, Friday, from 3:00 to 6:00 PM. We are privileged to have as our speaker the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Manila, Bp. Broderick Pabillo, DD. He will help us understand what the recent papal encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, of Pope Francis says about the political involvement of Christians in the context of the upcoming 2022 national elections, considering the renewal of efforts of the allies of the current Administration in pushing for Charter Change.

            The online meeting’s agenda will include updates and discussion of PCM’s key programs to attain our objectives, especially strengthening our ranks and improving our system of operations, building alliances and coalitions, based on common programs and advocacies, to realize our plan of searching, selecting, and electing genuine servant-leaders into public offices.

            Your attendance and active engagement in this important meeting, and in future PCM’s endeavors, will go a long way towards realizing “Our Dream Philippines” in the near future.

Respectfully in Christ,

Laiko Online Conversation 2021

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas is inviting you to the 1st Laiko Conversation for 2021 entitled: “Consecration Conversation with Fr. Calloway”. This will be on Feb 13, 2021 at 2 PM. We have invited the author of the book Consecration to St. Joseph, Fr. Don Calloway, MIC to share with us how to make “The Year of St. Joseph” more meaningful and life-changing.

Fr. Don will be in Texas during that time and 2 pm in the Philippines is 12 midnight in Texas. He is therefore taking this time with us as a joyful sacrifice. We are asking all of you therefore to register ahead of time so we would know how many slots we need for our Zoom meeting, in order to make this short conversation worthwhile. We also ask you to invite your members, especially the youth, to attend either through Zoom or FB Live.

Lastly, below is a link to a video which we are asking you to watch ahead. Please this message and link to others.

For those interested, pls email the Laiko Secretariat (laiko_phils@yahoo.com.ph).

Thank you very much!

Sincerely yours,

Ready to plan for your 2021? We invite you to join the Bible Fest!

Dear Bible Ambassadors,

This we declare with you: we survived 2020, we will thrive in 2021!

As we begin another year, we have high expectations, we make plans, we are hopeful, and we anticipate good things to happen. We are so looking forward to better days ahead!

Would you like to know how you can be confident as you plan for your life, your ministry, your work, your family, and even for your relationships this 2021? Join the Bible Fest 2021 (Jan. 23, 24, and 25, 2021) and reap a slew of blessings!

 The Bible Fest is a collective endeavor of Christian churches and organizations in the country. It is the highlight event in the celebration of the National Bible Month with emphasis on the theme, “God’s Word Restores”. The Philippines is the only country in the world that holds a month-long celebration of the Word of God.

Let us fill our hearts with hope instead of fear! We intend to imbue the social media platforms with the truth from God’s Word. Join our online sessions via Zoom and FB Live! Learn and be inspired in the testimonies and sharing of God’s people about the healing power of God’s Word (Jan. 23), on the uniting power of God’s Word (Jan. 24), and on the transforming power of God’s Word (Jan. 25).  Let us crown the year with God’s promises that He will restore our health, our souls, our fortunes, our society and our nation with immeasurable blessings!

Participate! Register now!  (Registration link: http://bit.ly/BibleFest) 

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. – 1 Peter 5:10 ESV

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