Category: News

(Revised January 2021)

Merciful and compassionate Father,
we come to you in our need to seek your protection against the COVID 19 virus that has disturbed and even claimed lives.

We ask you now to look upon us with love and by your healing hand,
dispel the fear of sickness and death, restore our hope, and strengthen our faith.

We pray that you guide the people tasked to find cures for this disease
and to stem its transmission.

We thank you for the vaccines developed made possible by your guiding hands. Bless our efforts to use these vaccines to end the pandemic in our country.

We pray for our health workers that they may minister to the sick
with competence and compassion. Grant them health in mind and body,
strength in their commitment, protection from the disease.

We pray for those afflicted. May they be restored to health.
Protect those who care for them. Grant eternal rest to those who have died.

Give us the grace in these trying times to work for the good of all
and to help those in need. May our concern and compassion for each other
see us through this crisis and lead us to conversion and holiness.

Grant all these through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

We fly to Your protection, O Holy Mother of God. Do not despise our petition in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.

Our Lady, health of the sick, pray for us.
St. Joseph, pray for us.
St. Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
San Roque, pray for us.
San Lorenzo Ruiz, pray for us
San Pedro Calungsod, pray for us.

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,

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,

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

HEAR THE CRY OF THE PEOPLE

The Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas stands in opposition to the current moves in both houses of Congress to change the constitution.

Clearly, this is not the opportune time to deal with Cha-cha! We are in the midst of a pandemic with millions of our countrymen suffering from lack of food, shelter, job, education and a decent and comprehensive health care system. This is our priority! The whole exercise posed by the resolutions advocating for charter change is a sheer waste of our precious time, energy, effort and money! With the 2022 elections just about a year and a half away, who will not suspect other underlying political motivations?

We cry out in a loud and categorical manner that we oppose these moves! We urge our countrymen to be Vigilant, Pray, Discern and Speak Out!

We call on our lawmakers: address the needs of the people now. They need your attention.

Hear the cry of the people!

For the LAIKO Board of Directors,

18 January 2021

Kalipunan ng Kristiyanong Kabataan sa Pilipinas (KKKP) statement on the unilateral termination on the UP-DND Accord

The Kalipunan ng Kristiyanong Kabataan sa Pilipinas (KKKP) stands in solidarity with the University of the Philippines system in resisting the Department of National Defense’s unilateral termination of the long-standing UP-DND Accord.

Until this termination, the agreement prohibited police and military forces from entering 17 UP campuses without prior notice to the school administration. This gesture has served to memorialize the violence UP and its students were subjected to by state forces during the dark days of Marcos’ martial law. Activists, school officials and the general student body, among other groups, exerted efforts to forge this agreement in 1989.

Schools are said to be marketplaces of ideas. Filipino colleges and universities aim to foster critical and free thinking, and have generally encouraged academic freedom. Schools like UP hone a sense of nationalism, excellence, and service in large part because they have been deemed as safe spaces to discuss and debate ideas.

Labor groups want religious leaders to bring Duterte back to negotiations with communist rebels

Joseph Peter Calleja, Manila
January 12, 2021

Two Filipino labor groups have urged the Catholic bishops’ conference and other faith-based organizations to intervene in unofficial peace talks with communist rebels and encourage President Rodrigo Duterte back to the negotiation table.

Duterte broke off official talks in 2018 after both sides accused each other of launching attacks and the president has become increasingly hostile to the rebels since then.

However, the Federation of Free Workers and the Nagkakaisa Labor Coalition say that allowing bishops, imams and pastors to become involved in peace efforts could make ending the decades-long armed-conflict easier and avert what they said was an imminent and deadly threat.

“We call on our faith leaders to remind our national leaders, the military, the police and the rebels, that peace based on social justice and the common good cannot be achieved through the barrel of a gun,” said Sonny Matula, chairman of the two labor organizations.

Matula, who also heads the Federation of Free Workers, the biggest labor coalition in the country, said the labor sector has been the “ultimate” victim in the war between government forces and the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

“We’ve received reports that the NPA is planning to revive its urban partisan hit squads … if this happens, it is inevitable that the Defense Department would counter this threat with force. There would be a cycle of violence that would eventually lead to the loss of many lives and livelihoods, especially among the poor,” Matula told UCA News.

Matula said that in order to avert this escalation religious leaders must intervene to appeal to both parties’ faith and sense of religiosity.

“The problem we anticipate with this kind of bullet-for-bullet and tit-for-tat scenario is that nobody will be a winner and many will probably become victims of violence, involving collateral damage on both sides. We need faith leaders to intervene to appeal to the conscience of both parties,” he added.

The labor groups said President Duterte’s “militarist regime” would otherwise take advantage of the situation to militarize the country further.

“It is highly probable that killings will see more repression and the further militarization of social conflicts that a militarist regime like President Duterte’s will enjoy taking advantage of,” the labor coalition said in a statement.

KODAO Productions
January 12, 2021

The Australian nun deported by the Rodrigo Duterte government condemned the string of assassinations and massacres of indigenous peoples, farmers, and critics during the holiday season.

Sr. Patricia Fox, NDS, deported in April 2018 on allegations she attended a protest rally in Davao City, said the Duterte government rushed to commit more human rights abuses before the year 2020 ended.

Speaking as spokesperson of the Asia-Pacific Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (APCHRP), Sr. Fox said President Duterte took advantage of the Covid-19 lockdowns to orchestrate a crackdown on activists, with many being arrested on dubious charges while several others were killed.

“Two days before the year ended, the Duterte regime’s armed operatives launched simultaneous police and military operations in the islands of Panay and Bohol that resulted in the death of 10 people and the arrest of 17 others,” Sr. Fox said.

The nun cited the massacre of nine Tumandok tribespeople and the arrest of 17 others in Panay Island and the assassination of activist farmer Lorenzo “Dodoy” Paña in Bohol province last December 30.

Sr. Fox echoed reports by local human rights organizations that the simultaneous raids in Tapaz, Capiz province and Calinog, Iloilo province were cold-blooded execution of the victims.

“Family members of Eliseo Gayas, one of the men killed, narrated how they were ordered to go out of their house. When armed operatives entered, they killed Eliseo outright with four gunshots. Two other victims – Mario Aguirre and Roy Giganto – had their houses forcibly entered as operatives shot them dead inside while they were asleep, in the presence of their respective families,” Sr. Fox said.

Paña, like those massacred and arrested in Panay, was a red-tagging victim and no stranger to harassment by State forces, the nun pointed out.

“These senseless murders are a continuation of the string of human rights attacks we have witnessed this year against activists, lawyers, farmers, trade unionists, and even health workers,” Sr. Fox said.

In the same statement, the APCHRP said it strongly condemns the killing of nine Tumandok in Panay Island and the assassination of Dodoy Paña in Bohol.

“We also call for the immediate release of the 17 indigenous activists arrested in the same operation in Panay,” the APCHRP said.

The year 2020 will be forever remembered as the year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic recessions it caused. However, it should also be noted as the apex of the Duterte regime’s barbarity and utter disregard for human rights, the group added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

KODAO Productions
January 11 2020

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) revealed it is being kept out of the review of the first partial report of the deaths resulting from the conduct of the Rodrigo Duterte government’s anti-illegal drug operations.

The CHR said the snub is contrary to the commitments and assurances of the government during the 44th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last year.

“This is an unfulfilled promise to Filipinos and the entire community of nations,” CHR Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit said in a statement Monday.

In his speech delivered online during the UNHRC’s 44th general session last June 30, Guevarra said the Duterte government established an inter-agency panel, chaired by his office, “that is quietly conducting a judicious review of the 5,655 anti-illegal drugs operations where deaths occurred.”

The members of the interagency panel are the Department of Justice, the Presidential Communications Operations Office, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat, the Presidential Management Staff, the Dangerous Drugs Board, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the Philippine National Police, and the National Bureau of Investigation, Guevarra later revealed.

The government assured the international community that the CHR would play a role in the panel.

“As with all human rights-related mechanisms in the country, the Commission on Human Rights would be involved in its capacity as an independent monitoring body,” it said.

But Dumpit said the CHR has not been involved despite “respectfully, diligently, consistently, and repeatedly asked the Department of Justice” concerning its role in the said panel, to no avail.

Nonetheless, Dumpit said the CHR strongly urges the Government to publicize the findings “as transparency is key to ensure the credibility of the said report.”

“This will allow victims and their families to access crucial information in the process of obtaining justice. We reiterate our openness and willingness to engage with the government in this process,” Dumpit said.

What the UNHRC said

In a 26-page report last June 4, the UNHRC said the Duterte government’s heavy-handed focus on countering national security threats and illegal drugs has resulted in serious human rights violations, including killings and arbitrary detentions, as well as the vilification of dissent.

The report also noted that the anti-drug killings range from “at least 8,663” to possibly triple the number.

In examining key policy documents of the Duterte government relating to its campaign against illegal drugs, the UNHRC found a troubling lack of due process, protections, and the use of language calling for “negation” and “neutralization” of drug suspects.

“Such ill-defined and ominous language, coupled with repeated verbal encouragement by the highest level of State officials to use lethal force, may have emboldened police to treat the circular as permission to kill,” the UNHRC report stated.

In a separate statement issued last June 26, various UN special rapporteurs said the UNHRC report confirmed their findings and warnings issued over the last four years: widespread and systematic killings and arbitrary detention in the context of the war on drugs, killings and abuses targeting farmers and indigenous peoples, the silencing of independent media, critics and the opposition.

“The reports also finds, as we had, stark and persistent impunity,” the UN experts said.

The experts highlighted “the staggering cost of the relentless and systematic assault on the most basic rights of Filipinos at the hands of the Government”:

Based on the most conservative assessment, since July 2016, 8,663 people have been killed in the war on drugs and 223,780 “drug personalities” arrested, with estimates of triple that number.

At least 73 children were killed during that period in the context of a campaign against illegal drugs. Concerns have also been raised about grave violations against children committed by State and non-State actors in the context of military operations, including the recruitment and use of children in combat or support.

The lasting economic harm and increased poverty among the children and other family members of those killed is likely to lead to further human rights violations.