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Year: 2021

Duque Must Resign Immediately

August 20, 2021

Instead of reproaching the independent state auditing body for doing its job, President Duterte should have called for an investigation on the alleged deficiencies of the Department of Health (DOH) in the use of its P67.3-billion funds for the Covid-19 pandemic response.

The Commission on Audit (COA) said “the deficiencies in the handling of the P67.3-billion pandemic response fund were caused by noncompliance with pertinent laws, rules and regulations, and undermined the timely and efficient response to the pandemic last year.”

It said “the DOH failed to utilize P59.124 billion of its 2020 budget and was unable to use as much as P11.8 billion of the COVID-19 funds, which meant that these “were not translated [into] much-needed health supplies, equipment and services that could have benefited both the health workers and the general public during the critical times of the pandemic.”

To COA’s credit, it has flagged to the taxpayers what they should rightfully know. What is appalling is not the flagging of the COA report but the reaction of the President who said on national television that COA’s report allegedly implies corruption, particularly in connection with a P67.3-billion fund for pandemic response. The President even told Duque to “ignore the COA report, obviously unmindful if not oblivious, that COA is an independent constitutional body whose mandate includes publicly disclosing expenditures by state agencies.

At the start of his presidency, one of Duterte’s avowed commitments is to rid the government of corruption. He even declared that he would fire officials even with just a whiff of corruption.  Why is he now muzzling the agency that guards against corruption, and shielding those who committed irregularities in using public funds?

What we see in all these is a colossal reek of deficiencies, mismanagement and even clear and present signs of corruption that warrant the resignation of Secretary Duque. In the best interest of the suffering Filipino people, he must resign immediately even if his “boss” tells him no to. And if the president cannot or will not rid the government agencies of corrupt officials, he must resign too!

Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum

Standing Up for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Shay Cullen
20 August 2021

Indigenous peoples are under threat as never before and need the international community to stand with them as they demand justice, their ancestral land rights and an end to the exploitation and abuse they suffer in many countries.

They suffer discrimination, stigmatization and racism. How disingenuous that is since all people in the world today descended from some indigenous tribal people through the ages. In fact, DNA tests show that everyone in the world is descended from one common ancestor in Africa. Real science does not lie. The human species emerged in the Makgadikgadi-Okavango wetland. It was not just any home, but the ancestral “homeland” for all modern humans today. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/controversial-study-pinpoints-birthplace-modern-humans

Today, there are more than 476 million indigenous peoples that live in 90 nations around the world. According to the United Nations, they make up 6.2 percent of the world population. They have their own unique languages, culture, customs and traditions and have ancestral rights to their lands having possessed these from time immemorial. They are people that are capable of self-governance and have survived for many thousands of years before nations emerged in history. In the last 500 years, colonialism spread across the world and foreign nations invaded the lands of indigenous people, killed millions and stole and occupied their lands. The indigenous people were infected with western diseases against which they had no defense and millions more died. Others were massacred and driven to the edge of extinction.

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Roundtable Discussion on Integrating Labour Migration Reporting in the Journalism Curriculum in the Philippines

Colleagues:

The Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) is organizing A Roundtable Discussion on Integrating Labour Migration Reporting in the Journalism Curriculum: The Philippine Experience. The event is supported by the World Journalism Education Council (WJEC) and UNESCO.

The forum will feature the experience of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC) in crafting the Labour Migration Reporting syllabus with support from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Please join us in this live virtual event. This is scheduled on 02 September 2021 at 15:00 TO 16:30 (Manila Time).

Registration is free.  To register, visit https://amic.ac-page.com/labor-migration-reporting

Among the discussion points are: the need to offer Labour Migration Reporting in the Journalism Curriculum; main lessons learned in the crafting of the syllabus which can be useful to other countries; challenges journalism educators will likely encounter when they roll out the syllabus; and outcomes expected from journalism students after taking up the course.

Invited to this forum are journalism educators, media and other stakeholders from the Philippines and the Asia Pacific region.

A certificate of participation will be issued to those attending the webinar.

For other concerns, please email IMELDA SAMSON at i.samson@amic.asia.

Solidarity Statement on the Killings in Apayao

We, the One Faith, One Nation, One Voice (OFONOV) – Cordillera Chapter, coming from different Christian traditions, sects and denominations, declare our solidarity with the people of Apayao, in a prophetic chorus proclaiming that we choose life (Deuteronomy 30:15-29), to defend the rights of the poor and the needy (Proverbs 31:9), and to announce the favourable year of the Lord for justice and freedom.

We lament the brutal killing of Atty. Victor Domingo Begtang Jr., assigned to the City Prosecutor’s Office in Ilagan City, Isabela. He was shot dead by unidentified men on June 23, 2021 in his hometown in Sitio Hanhan, Barangay Malama, Conner, Apayao. We mourn over the merciless killing of Enrico “Ike” Cabasag, a Barangay Councilor of Barangay Ripang, Conner, Apayao and an environment defender. He, together with the peoples’ movement, was a vocal opposition to the river dredging project in the municipality.  Some unidentified men murdered him right there in their house in the evening of March 14, 2013. His death inspired the people of Barangay Ripang to continue with their struggle and give justice to his death. 

We strongly condemn these senseless and barbaric killings that took the lives of these civil servants who have dedicated their lives to the welfare and development of their hometown. It has become a deplorable pattern that government critics and political dissenters are silenced through extra-judicial killings. This is unacceptable for us in the religious sector and for the people of Apayao who believe in the rule of law and due process.

We call for a stop to the extra-judicial killings in the Province of Apayao and in the country as a whole. We believe that peace-loving civil servants of Apayao don’t deserve this. We have faith that the people will stand up for truth and justice to reign in our midst.

Let us join the peace-loving people of Apayao in their call to end the killings of critics and political dissenters. Let us support the people to speak out and make known what they believe in, and fight for what they think would benefit their generation and the future. Let us unite and stand up in pursuing justice to the killings and put those responsible behind bars.

Let us work together for it is our Christian duty to safeguard the rights of indigenous peoples, to protect them from those who would curtail their collective and basic human rights and freedoms, and to defend land, life and resources from corporate greed and plunder. 

Let our voices be heard like the sound of the gongs reverberating its call for justice and peace in our land.

STOP THE KILLINGS!
STAND UP FOR JUSTICE!

But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream

– Amos 5:24

Pope: Laudato si’ is not only a ‘green’ Encyclical but also a ‘social’ Encyclical

Pope Francis greets members of the Laudato si’ Inter-University Congress and highlights the importance of promoting social awareness to the care of our common home.

By Vatican News staff writer

August 24 2021

Pope Francis has sent greetings to the members of the Laudato si’ Inter-University Congress scheduled to hold from 1-4 September in Argentina.

In the video message delivered in Spanish, he expressed hope that the initiative will “advance social awareness and consciousness” for the care of our common home.

“The Encyclical Laudato si’ is not only a ‘green’ Encyclical, it is also a ‘social’ Encyclical,” the Pope said, hoping that the Congress will help its scope and consequences to become more visible.

Finally, with a request for prayers for himself, the Pope blessed the participants at the Congress.

Laudato si’ Congress

The Congress is organized by the National Inter-University Council (CIN) and the Council of Rectors of Private Universities (CRUP), in conjunction with the Bishops Conference of Argentina (CEA) on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the encyclical Laudato si’.

The conferences, talks, and other activities, put together under the theme “Caring for the Common Home,” will promote dialogue on some of the main themes of the 2015 encyclical, including fraternity, personal dignity, intercultural dialogue, the environment, and integral development of people, among others.

The Congress will bring together both national and international experts that will share their expertise on the multidimensional complexities of the various themes in order to foster dialogue about joint action in the future.

The Laudato si’ Congress will be accessible virtually to facilitate participation from all over the country.

Oppose GENED Dams 1 & 2 in Apayao!

Uphold IP rights and welfare for sustainable environment & development!

9Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there…
12On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food.
Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail,
but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary.
Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

(Ezekiel 47: 9, 12)

“We irrevocably reject, once and for all, the proposed construction of hydroelectric power projects along the Apayao-Abulug River by Pan Pacific Renewable Power Corporation (PPRPC).” This is the resolution emphatically expressed and signed by more than 250 Isnags, consisting of tribal elders, leaders, and members of the Indigenous Peoples of Kabugao, Apayao on April 28, 2021.

Because the Isnags have safeguarded their ancestral territories, the province of Apayao remains a key biodiversity area and is home to one of the last remaining original forests of the Philippines. There are about 105 plant species, 91 bird species including the endangered Philippine eagle, 22 species of amphibians and reptiles, 13 species of bats and 19 mammal species that abounds in Apayao. The Isnags and the whole ecosystem of the province will be brought to naught when such hydroelectric power projects would push through.

If the Gened 1 and 2 dam projects would push through, not only the municipalities of the province of Apayao, particularly the towns of Calanasan, Kabugao, Pudtol, Flora, Sta. Marcela and Luna, would be affected but also the downstream four (4) municipalities of the province of Cagayan: Abulug, Pamplona, Ballesteros and Allacapan.

The PPRPC benefitted from the $3 billion loan between the Philippines and China in October 2016 during Pres. Duterte’s state visit to China. The Bank of China, one of the largest state-run financial institutions, funded the deal. PPRPC is one of firms that will implement the Build, Build, Build projects of the present regime.

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Celebrating 100 years of M.I.C. Presence in the Philippines

By: Bec L. Yao, Ph.D., AsMIC

August 8, 2021 is a remarkable day for the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (M.I.C.) as they commemorate the arrival of the first M.I.C. Sisters in the Philippines. A Eucharistic Celebration was held at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish Church, Davao City on that day officiated by Archbishop Romulo Valles, D.D., head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and on August 9, 2021 at Mary the Queen Parish, Greenhills, presided by Fr. Guy Peter V. Guibelondo, SJ, the Parish Priest. This momentous event was celebrated with grace and thanksgiving by the M.I.C. Sisters and their benefactors, alumni of their schools and their lay associates, the AsMICs.

Interestingly, Archbishop Valles and Fr. Guy have known the M.I.C.’s in their personal capacity. Archbp. Valles gave testimony to the grace of celebrating 100 years of MIC missionary presence in the Philippines, as part of a tapestry intertwined in the last 100 years of the quincentennial celebration of Christianity in the Philippines. While the celebration is during the days of the pandemic, the Archbishop exhorted the faithful to imagine how daring MIC sisters were, to travel all the way from Canada at that time after World War I and the widespread of the Spanish Flu to come to the east. In his homily, he expounded on the theme of the celebration with the readings of the 19th Sunday in ordinary time:

  1.          Go to the peripheries. This has been the character of the church … and that is what the M.I.C.’s did 100 years ago, to go nowhere …. to people they don’t know.
  2.          Walk for a Mission. From the first reading from the Book of Kings, Elijah walk for a mission…exhausted….to go up to the mountain of the Lord… to find the Lord. When the M.I.C. Sisters arrived in Mati, Davao Oriental in 1947, exhausted from travel, the first order of the day was to go to the presence of the Lord.
  3.          Christlike attitude. In the second reading, St. Paul exhorted the Ephesians to be kind to one another, do away with anger, and every kind of malice. This was paramount in the lives of the M.I.C. Sisters, so that they can become Christlike when they go out and serve… bearing the aroma, the atmosphere, the aura of Christ. On a personal note, Archbp. Valles related his personal experience when he served in Mati in the 70’s as a young priest on how the Sisters educated him in good manners and right conduct and even making sure that his English was impeccable.
  4.          Daily Holy Eucharist.  Jesus is the Bread of Life. We are asked to become one, to be familiar with the people. Though we smell like sheep, our service should be bringing people to heaven.

Fr. Guy on the other hand, congratulated the M.I.C. Sisters on their 100 years of missionary presence in the Philippines. He reminded the M.I.C.’s to always remember: “who chose you”, “why you were chosen” and “what you should do”. He also stressed on the need of a re-examination of hearts; to go back to what you learned in the Novitiate, in the initial formation; to adapt without losing one’s soul. Above all – Edification! To be mindful of your spiritual attractiveness…. because before we can inspire others, we have to inspire each other. Most importantly, do not lose hope!

Presently, the M.I.C. Sisters have three schools, two in Metro Manila and one in Mati, Davao Oriental. These are Immaculate Conception Academy, Greenhills, Immaculate Conception Academy of Manila in Gagalangin, Tondo and Immaculate Heart of Mary Academy in Mati, Davao Oriental. They also engaged in the evangelization among indigenous people in the parish of Kiburiao, Quezon, Bukidnon and on the defunct mission with the Mangyans in Mindoro Occidental that enabled the Mangyans to secure ownership of their ancestral lands.

In Davao City, the MIC Retreat House (MRH), beside Our Lady of Assumption Parish, is a preferred place for spiritual renewal among many groups not only in Davao but also from other parts of the country .

One hundred years ago, on August 8, 1921, five (5) Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (M.I.C.) arrived in the Philippines upon the request of Dr. Jose Teehankee, one of the community leaders of the Manila Chinese, to take charge of the Chinese General Hospital and the new School of Nursing. Dr. Teehankee found an ally in Msgr. Michael O’Doherty, archbishop of Manila who sent a cablegram to his counterpart in Montreal, Canada, Archbishop Paul  Bruchesi. The M.I.C.  foundress, Venerable Delia Tetreault  moved by the Spirit, responded favorably to Msgr. O’Doherty.

MICs have embraced the theme for their platinum jubilee, “In joy and thanksgiving!” which the present pandemic have not managed to dampen.