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Month: May 2021

CBCP releases prayer for June 12 Nat’l Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

By CBCP News
May 25, 2021
Manila, Philippines

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on Tuesday released the prayer for the upcoming National Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Shortened and directed to the country’s present context, the prayer was adopted from the “official act of consecration” written by St. John Paul II himself for the Feast of the Annunciation in 1985.

According to the CBCP, the prayer was meant to be offered by the pope himself and all the bishops of the Church.

During that time, Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila and Cardinal Ricardo Vidal took official part of the solemn act of offering in the Vatican.

March 25 of that year was also the day that Vidal and 27 others were elevated to the College of Cardinals.

The bishops, during their 108th plenary assembly in January 2014, approved that the consecration to the Immaculate Heart Mary be renewed every year on her feast day in every diocese until the Jubilee Year of 2021.

This year, the feast day will be on June 12.

The national consecration will be led by Archbishop Romulo Valles, CBCP President, and will be live streamed from the Davao Cathedral at 9:45 a.m.

The Mass in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will then follow at 10 a.m. in the different cathedrals and parish churches led by the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Valenzuela City.

Bakuna, Bakuna, Magliligtas Ka Ba?

As part of our COVID-19 information campaign, we are pleased to share with you our second information, education, and communication (IEC) material on the COVID-19 pandemic entitled, “TUNGO SA PAGHILOM: “Bakuna, Bakuna, Magliligtas Ka Ba? Mga Katotohanan at Impormasyon Hinggil sa mga Bakuna para sa COVID-19”. This is available in Tagalog and Cebuano languages.

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines aims to make reliable information on the COVID-19 vaccines more accessible to the communities. Churches, organizations, and families can use this comprehensive briefer on COVID-19 vaccines to hold discussions within their households and communities. NCCP hopes to encourage communities to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and to become allies in ensuring accountability and transparency in the national response to the pandemic.

Download the attached files or Access the digital copies here: https://bit.ly/3uSy3gO

For inquiries and updates, please coordinate with us at nccp.actalliance@gmail.com

Padayon!

Program Unit on Faith, Witness and Service
National Council of Churches in the Philippines

Caritas Philippines Academy Re-opens as the Philippine Church’s Learning and Teaching Institute

Caritas Philippines
May 7, 2021

Caritas Philippines Academy, formerly the Center for Resiliency, Empowerment and Integral Development (CREED) of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace, re-opened today as CBCP’s social action teaching and learning institute.

“We are very proud of our Caritas Philippines Academy. During the last six years, we are able to serve 507 scholars from 45 dioceses in the country. This means that during these periods, notable positive changes in our diocesan social action centers were observed, especially on how we implement our humanitarian, development and advocacy services and programs,” Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo mentioned during the opening of the virtual class.

In 2016, Caritas Philippines started with the Lead to Heal Transformational Leadership Program through a 14-month certificate course in partnership with the Development Academy of the Philippines and the Future by Design Pilipinas.

In 2018, a masteral degree on Social Services and Development was offered with the Asian Social Institute, and in 2020, eight short courses were offered covering topics like resource mobilization, communications, safeguarding and protection mainstreaming, ecology protection and advocacies, and social enterprise development.

“The academy was established mainly to instill professional competence within the Social Action Network, and among the partners of Caritas Philippines, as emphasized by Pope Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est. We also want to develop the academy as the national repository of important social action documents, best practices and studies which will make sure we have the needed baseline data to inform and improve our program implementation,” Fr. Antonio Labiao, Jr., Caritas Philippines Executive Secretary, added during the opening program.

“The Caritas Philippines Academy is our legacy, our contribution to the on-going formation and development of the social action works in the Philippines. As the mandated arm of the Catholic Church to form the social conscience of the country, we hope that our academy will be able to firstly help form the heart and improve the competence of our social action and development workers,” Bishop Bagaforo said in closing.

This year’s introductory course on Pastoral Management is availed by more than 70 social action directors, workers, and partners. The course will run for 14 days before the specialization courses that will be offered for the remaining of the school year.

An Open Letter to the Filipino People

March 10, 2021  

QUO USQUE TANDEM, CATILINA, ABUTERE PATIENTIA NOSTRA  
(How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience?)

A Statement of Concern of the Episcopal Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace  on the Killings in the Philippines

Dear fellow Filipinos, our brother Bishops, and our political leaders,

I was unable to sleep last night fully disturbed by the killings on Sunday, March 7, 2021, and the arbitrary executions before that. Then, I was alarmed by the realization that violence, which was incited at first by harmful, pervasive and deeply damaging rhetoric of the government’s highest officials, has become a daily fixture in the Philippine society.

Everything seemed to be fixed by the barrel of a gun. Insurgency and terrorism are equated to activism, defense of human and nature’s rights, and the call to respect freedom of speech, and the right to selfdetermination.

We have seen no government, after the Marcos dictatorship, such as this one urging openly and repetitively the military and the police to “kill, kill, kill.” But what is more dangerous to my mind is the fact that seemingly, we have grown to be accustomed to tolerating this blatant disregard to the rule of law, by disrespecting the integrity of public office. 

For almost five years we have let our leaders take command of our collective silence. They interpreted our inaction and passive nature as explicit permission to stir unlawful behavior as long as it is covered by legal orders and memorandum.

The quote from Cicero’s first speech against Catiline in 63 BC detailing conspiracy, abuse of power and reign of impunity still holds true in our present political environment: “When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now?”

But we must also be asking ourselves: “Quousque nos tacemus?” How long will we be silent in the face of threats and harassments, of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings, of red-tagging and arbitrary detentions.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have spoken for us. The farmers in Negros, the Tumandok IP leaders in Capiz, and the activists in Southern Tagalog have died already fighting for their cause. So what about us? What is our conscience telling us?  If you are disturbed as much as I was, now is the time to create a culture of peace. Let’s start within each Filipino family.

May the Blessed Mother Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede for us. Amen.

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Wakasan Na! Movement

Dear Friends,

On June 3 at 5 p.m., we are launching Wakasan Na!, a movement to end President Duterte’s rule and his legacy of failed and detrimental policies. This will be an online event via Zoom, livestreamed over various social media platforms and covered by the press.

Wakasan Na! is an offshoot of the “Save the Nation! Duterte Resign!” petition initially signed by 500 personalities and which has gathered more than 69,000 at the change.org site. It aims to hold Duterte accountable for his failed leadership and usher in a change in leaders and policies if not now then by the 2022 elections. It is an effort to help the nation out of the rut and spur us into recovery (please see attached concept note).

In this light, we would like to invite you to be part of Wakasan Na! by joining our online launch on June 3 at 5 p.m. (please register using this link: https://bit.ly/2QTEdhX) and by clicking the “Like” button at the Wakasan Na! Facebook Page (https://tinyurl.com/pckacm6p).

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2 Farmers Shot in Capiz Province

Peasant group condemns continued attacks on peasants, says former landlord’s greed, oppression must end now

Task Force Mapalad
May 25, 2021

National peasant federation Task Force Mapalad on Tuesday condemned the violence and lawlessness being carried out by anti-agrarian reform forces in a sugar plantation in Capiz province that have kept farmers in the area in constant fear, danger, and hunger.

“These brazen acts of injustice and mockery of the rule of must stop now. The greed of landlords has reached the level of madness. They have taken the law into their own hands. They are acting like oppressive mini-gods in their bailiwicks, fearing no one, threatening, hurting, and killing anyone who catches their ire,” said Teresita Tarlac, president of TFM’s Negros-Panay Chapter.

TFM issued the statement following the May 24, 2021 shooting of two of its farmer-members, Jose Sony Billonid, 49, and Bernard Amistoso, 51, in Brgy. Dulangan, Pilar, Capiz by assailants believed to have links with the former owner of a 188-hectare hacienda in the area.

The plantation, used to be owned by Nemesio Tan and managed by his administrator Ferdinand Bacanto, who is also the village chief of Culilang, is already owned by about TFM 100 farmers belonging to the Montecarlo Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organization (Montecarba).

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SemNet’s call for a clean, honest, accurate, meaningful, and peaceful election

We are once again at a crucial point in history. Under the helm of Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines had been living in a bed of untruths. The last presidential election saw the rise to political power of Rodrigo Duterte, a man who touted himself as capable of saving the Filipino people from the country’s longstanding problems of inequality and poverty. A plurality of 16 million Filipinos believed that Duterte was the man who will give voice to their desire for a better future. But his self-fulfilling prophecy was a big lie and his promises were empty rhetoric. Instead of uniting the Filipino people in a massive war against a dehumanizing poverty, Duterte divided the nation by creating a moral “us” against an immoral “them,” thus treating human life arbitrarily. This narrow moral worldview motivated Duterte to demonize minorities, silence dissent, weaken checks and balances, repress media freedom, and pursue discriminatory legalism. Yet Pope Francis sends out a strong reminder in Fratelli Tutti: We are either all saved together or no one is saved (FT 137).

The raging pandemic is an eye-opener to the catastrophic hubris of Duterte. The population is starving, people are dying, and Filipinos are desperate. Every Filipino bears the brunt from the consequences of our poor choice of leadership. But in the bleakness of our situation, a few good Filipinos choose to respond with empathy. The valor of our self-sacrificing frontliners and the emergence of kindness stations and community pantries all over the country has rekindled the bayanihan spirit that empowers communities to take responsibility for their most vulnerable members. The power to transform hopeless circumstances lies within ourselves. This grassroots effort is an antidote to apathy and frees us from dependence on savior figures. We need to establish a network of empowered communities, and they need to be sustained by national leaders who will build the enabling structures that provide communities the agency to improve their situation for a long-term common good. This is a mission which our Church shares, and we can make significant contributions.

We, the Seminarians’ Network of the Philippines, believe in the capacity of the Filipino’s bayanihan spirit to restore the civil society that Duterte sought to dismantle. The national elections in 2022 offer us the opportunity to embark on a common project of rebuilding our nation based on high principles (FT 178). The values of honor, integrity, compassion, and solidarity that have always sustained the Filipino spirit are at stake. We need to go beyond short-sightedness, petty provincialism, and mere superficiality in order to make better choices with far-reaching responsibilities and impact.

We call on all theology seminarians in the country to exercise their right to suffrage by registering and voting in the coming elections. We encourage each seminary to work with the local governments, social action centers, and communities to ensure that the election will be clean, honest, accurate, meaningful, and peaceful. We urge everyone to engage their circles of influence, especially our youth, in conversations that will help form their conscience in choosing leaders who live out their values. We enjoin each one to help build communities of solidarity and form leaders who will enable their flourishing. We need to learn from this populist regime how to build an inclusive political system in which no voice is silenced and wherein no Filipino is left uncared for. Only then can the Filipino nation reclaim its soul that was lost under the failed messiah that is Duterte. The Filipino is not a lost cause.

Seminarians’ Network of the Philippines
13 May 2021

PMPI Statement on construction of a mega vaccination hub in Nayong Pilipino

The Partnership Mission for People’s Initiatives (PMPI) is concerned about the recent decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) to construct in Nayong Pilipino a mega vaccination hub funded by billionaire Enrique Razon Jr.’s International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI). The proposed facility if erected in one of the remaining green spaces in Parañaque is set to destroy the existing grassland ecosystem, mangrove and the beach forests that function as habitat, nutrient sink and filter to land-based pollutants aside from acting as buffer and natural defense against storm surges as many have seen after Typhoon Yolanda.

We find the decision unreasonable given that many open spaces like arenas, empty hotels and even malls are opening up to a vaccination center, so why construct a new one that would again destroy the few remaining ecosystems in cities like Paranaque? Replicating the idea behind existing city vaccination hubs like Makati Coliseum, Ospital ng Maynila, Ayala Malls Manila Bay, and such would be much more time efficient, cost effective, and accessible, and thus more apt in the nation’s interest to be COVID19-free.

A plan that would involve loss of green spaces and disruption of ecosystems is a plan that is doomed to fail. This apparent disregard for ecosystems and nature only confirms that even after a year in the pandemic, this administration has yet to understand COVID-19 and its zoonotic nature. Its misplaced priorities reflected how it failed to comprehend the interconnected strings of societal issues — overwhelmed health care system, low vaccination rate, failed education system, lost livelihoods, and deepened economic and social inequality — that have made the country a most favorable hotspot for the spread of the disease.

The location of Nayong Pilipino is an apt ecological buffer zone to protect the Las Piñas–Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA), a Ramsar site declared for conservation under the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). A projected environmental degradation in the area will strip off its natural barriers against hazards, making the already vulnerable reclaimed land of Parañaque even more prone to disasters..

Additionally, it is counterproductive to construct the proposed mega vaccination hub in an area that is inaccessible to individuals without a private car. Further, the likelihood of virus spread is high due to the proximity of the hub to a quarantine facility also located in Nayong Pilipino. Too far from being able to manage the pandemic, plummeting economy, and increasing higher rate of poverty, this administration does not have the luxury to undertake reckless decisions anymore.

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Online Conversations on the 2022 National Elections

Sangguniang Laiko

One of the main concerns that we should be updated and be prepared upon is the forthcoming 2022 National Elections. The result of next year’s election will once again shape our nation’s being and future. We hope that this conversation will inspire and moved us to do our part in effecting authentic social transformation in the field of governance.