2021 Global Climate Report warns of alarming record temps
In its new ‘State of the Global Climate 2021’ report, the World Meteorological Organization says the past seven years have been the hottest on record and that greenhouse gas concentrations, sea-level rise, ocean heat, and ocean acidification set new records in 2021.
Vatican News
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released the new “State of the Global Climate 2021” report on Wednesday in Geneva, warning that the past seven years have been the hottest years to date and that four key climate indicators set new records last year.
The report will be used as an official document for the UN Climate Change Conference 2022, known as COP27, taking place in Egypt in November.
According to the report’s findings, the indicators of sea-level rise, ocean heat, greenhouse gas concentrations, and ocean acidification, set unprecedented highs in 2021.
Action required immediately
Despite illustrating the grim reality of how climate is changing in unprecedented ways, the report suggested there are “many options to alleviate the impacts, through both mitigation and adaptation.”
Even if adaptation improves, the text cautioned that climate change will worsen unless the underlying drivers are addressed. Only if all sectors and regions greatly and immediately reduce emissions, it stated, will it be possible to keep warming below 1.5° C.
Underscoring the harsh reality presented in the document, UN Secretary-General António Guterres also issued his own video message, stressing, “Time is running out.”
Renewable energy transition
He proposed five “critical actions” to jump-start the renewable energy transition, including renewable energy technologies, such as battery storage, being treated as essential and freely-available global public goods.
While calling for securing, scaling up, and diversifying the supply of critical components and raw materials for renewable energy technologies, he urged governments “to build frameworks and reform bureaucracies to level the playing field for renewables” and “to shift subsidies away from fossil fuels to protect the poor and most vulnerable people and communities.”
Guterres also said that private and public investments in renewable energy must triple to at least $4 trillion dollars a year.
“If we act together, the renewable energy transformation can be the peace project of the 21st Century,” the UN Secretary-General said.
Warning that “without renewables, there can be no future,” he urged both public and private leaders “to stop talking about renewables as a distant project of the future.”
“As today’s report makes clear, it’s time to jump-start the renewable energy transition before it’s too late”
Lasallian brothers elect Filipino superior general
By CBCP News
May 18, 2022
Manila, Philippines
The French-founded Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools have elected Brother Armin Luistro as their new superior general.
Luistro becomes the Lasallian Brothers’ 28th superior general and the first Filipino to hold the global position.
The election took place May 18 at the religious institute’s 46th general chapter in Rome.
Typically held every seven years, the election comes eight years after the previous government was elected in 2014 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Luistro joined the La Salle Scholasticate, the academic training centre of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, in Manila in April 1979, while studying at De La Salle University (DLSU).
He received the religious habit in October 1981, professed his first religious vows in October 1982 and his final vows in May 1988.
The 60-year-old started his teaching career at De La Salle Lipa in Batangas, where he worked as a religion teacher, class counsellor and campus minister from 1983 to 1986.
In August 2000, he co-founded with Indonesian BishopJosef Suwatan of Manado, the De La Salle Catholic University in Manado, now known as De La Salle University-Indonesia.
Luistro has more than 34 years of experience in both the private and public sectors.
From 2010 to 2016, he served as secretary of the Education department. Prior to this, he was at the helm of De La Salle University in Manila, serving as its president from 2004 to 2010.
In previous years, he also served as president of the De La Salle University System and several other La Salle schools. From 2017 to 2019, he returned to serve as President of De La Salle Philippines, the network of La Salle schools in the country.
He is currently a board member of the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), the largest business-led non-governmental organisation in the country. In May 2019, he was appointed Brother Visitor of the Lasallian District of East Asia.
Luistro has also held various positions in other governmental and intergovernmental organisations, such as the Advisory Council of the National Youth Commission, the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines and the South East Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO).
Luistro holds a Doctorate in Educational Management from Saint La Salle University in Bacolod and a Master’s Degree in Religious Education and Values from De La Salle University in Manila. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Humanities from DLSU.
CBCP head: Fight against social evils must go on
By CBCP News
May 18, 2022
Manila, Philippines
The head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has called on the faithful to keep the fight against ‘evil’ in the society going.
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David stressed the need to “keep a good attitude” and remain focused on issues that affect the nation “as we move forward together”.
“We should not surrender our hope to the forces of evil at work in our society,” David said in a message released a week after the country’s local and national elections.
The recent polls, the bishop said, had “made more obvious” the factors that continue “to challenge our democratic institutions”.
He was referring to “well-funded trolls” behind massive disinformation and rampant vote-buying “now made easier by online cash transfers”.
But if there’s anything to be hopeful for, according to him, “it’s the reawakened sense of patriotism among many sectors in Philippine society”.
The CBCP head, who is also the bishop of Kalookan, particularly cited the young people “who have discovered the power of solidarity for the common good”.
“Their desire to give a more concrete expression to responsible citizenship as the key to achieving good governance has been strongly manifested in their many spontaneous acts of volunteerism,” David said.
The prelate even went on to call it as “a rediscovery of what we used to call ‘people power’.”
“Now it has to be harnessed through the creation of well-thought out, well-planned, and better organized mass movement that will not only protect our democratic institutions but will also contribute proactively towards community development on the grassroot level and the formation of a better, more mature political culture,” he said.
New saint’s little miracle from Philippines meets pope
Angel Marie Vier Albaracin, 6, attends canonization of St Marie Rivier who allegedly cured girl of fatal condition
By Joseph Peter Calleja
May 16, 2022
A Filipina child “miraculously” cured by a French nun was presented to the pope on May 15 during the canonization of ten new saints at the Vatican in Rome.
Angel Marie Vier Albaracin was healed in a miracle attributed to Saint Marie Rivier, a French nun who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation, according to the Congregation of Saints’ Causes.
Angel Marie, 6, from Bohol province in the central Philippines had been diagnosed with hydrops fetalis, a serious condition when an abnormal accumulation of fluid builds up around the lungs and the heart.
Angel Marie’s mother prayed to Saint Marie Rivier to heal her, according to Vatican reports.
“At first, the doctors did not believe that she would get well and were surprised when they became convinced that she was indeed free from the condition,” a cousin of the child, who wished to remain anonymous, told UCA News.
Bishop Abet Uy of Tagbilaran diocese in Bohol province witnessed the canonization at the Vatican.
“Who would expect that a little kid from Barangay Nahawan in Clarin, Bohol would walk in St. Peter’s Square and be near the Holy Father. This is called grace, a gift from God,” he said on Facebook.
Continue readingChild abuse spreads like the coronavirus
UCAN News
Fr. Shay Cullen
May 16, 2022 06:19 AM GMT
Child abuse continues to thrive because many in society, including the Church, turn a blind eye
There was a time in 2019 when people were getting the flu and thought little of it until it began to spread and hundreds and then thousands and hundreds of thousands were suffering and dying. No one was ready for what was to become a deadly pandemic that could hurt, wound and kill.
Hospitals and clinics were at full capacity and people were on ventilators and dying at the doors of hospitals. It can mutate, transform itself into another variant, more deadly, more vicious, and find new ways to transmit itself to new victims.
The coronavirus is a perfect simile for the crimes of child sexual abuse. Child abuse is a secret crime hardly ever seen or detected. Abusers change their methods of hiding and covering up crimes, especially in institutions. Schools, colleges and churches have almost perfected the art of covering up such criminal behavior. Most people do not recognize that it is everywhere and children are silent suffering victims. When it is suspected or detected, many people turn away. They do not reach out to the victim, no matter how many symptoms of abuse the child has.
Teachers, parents, duty bearers and child care workers must be taught to recognize the symptoms of child sexual abuse and be open to listening to every child that appears troubled, unruly, disturbed, rebellious and those that withdraw, stop studying, remain silent and stop playing.
Everybody must have the commitment and conviction to help a child get assistance and report the abuse to the authorities.
Online abuse is mostly done by relatives of the children. The acts are videotaped, photographed or sent live over the internet to rich pedophiles getting sexual gratification from the child abuse.
It is allowed, permitted and enabled by the morally bankrupt, uncaring and allegedly a few depraved executives of telecommunication corporations. It is shameful for any Filipino to be employed by them these days. They refuse to obey a law that mandates they install filtering or blocking software to prevent abusive images from passing through their Internet Service Providers. We survive in a corrupt society and must help child victims survive.
The most recent horrific cases involved an 11-year-old girl horribly abused for foreign pedophiles, a Swiss and a UK national. They also paid for young boys seven and 10 to be sexually exploited online by their mother. I hope the legal officers at the Swiss and UK embassies will take an active role in helping get justice for victims. They can get the testimonies of the victims in the care of the Preda Foundation. An average of 16 children at Preda homes in the Philippines get their abusers convicted every year to life in prison.
How wonderful it would be if foreign embassies and their attached law enforcers could investigate their abusive nationals and get convictions, too, and stop their pedophiles raping Filipino children.
The question is how much do they really care? The greed for money and the insatiable demands by rich foreign pedophiles are behind the sexual abuse of thousands of Filipino children. German police found as many as 30,000 pedophiles accessing child sexual abuse material online and identified 70 of them, many connected to the Philippines.
With exceptions, most families, citizens, government officials and agency heads, including many bishops in the Philippines and other churches have an uncaring attitude, indifference and a culture of apathy surrounding the sexual abuse of children. That is because, besides the few eight great bishops, they have many clerical abusers whom they hide away from the law and accountability and are not active defenders of child or human rights. Shame on them.
The clerical abusers are still being allowed to travel abroad, go to another parish or diocese or retire in the comfort of a church-supported rest house, all to avoid the shame, embarrassment and damage to the reputation of the diocesan institutional church.
Just a few brave courageous bishops and priests, from the 90 active and 40 honorary bishops and other clerics, are outspoken against child abuse and stand for human rights. The rest are allegedly silent. The abusers go free and the crimes continue. Only a few clerical child abusers have faced a prosecutor. Not a single cleric has been convicted of child abuse in the Philippines in the past 40 years or more, correct me if I am wrong. The abusers walk free and allegedly the child is thrown aside, their parents paid off.
Children suffer without help because of the apathy and because there are very few professionally accredited child care therapeutic homes for the protection, healing and empowerment of child victims/survivors with legal assistance like the Preda homes. There are thousands of hospitals, clinics, and health care centers for every kind of illness but there are practically no clinics, shelters, or therapy homes for the healing and recovery and legal assistance for child sexual abuse victims.
The reason is that society denies and ignores the pandemic of abuse and the medical profession is primarily a privatized, expensive, money-making business. The majority of child sexual abuse victims/survivors are very poor children — no money to be made there.
Most psychology graduates work for human resources departments in big corporations, no child help centers for them. The rich hide away their victims successfully. The scandal and shame on the family would be too much, the child is left to endure the abuse.
In the Philippines and elsewhere, thousands more are victims of sexual slavery through human trafficking and they, too, are allowed to be groomed, recruited, and lured over the internet and taken by pimps and traffickers into the sex business.
This human slavery is operated in brothels and sex bars and hotels that all have government permits and licenses to operate. Most operate with impunity protected by the local politicians and corrupt police.
Continue readingA Marcos government and the pink movement
PUBLIC LIVES
By: Randy David
@inquirerdotnet Philippine Daily Inquirer
May 15, 2022
Around noon on June 30, a new government headed by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will be inaugurated. At about the same time, a new movement that took shape in the final leg of Vice President Leni Robredo’s 2022 presidential campaign will formally launch its manifold presence in the post-election landscape.
The intertwining of these two modern forms of social organization will determine the future of democracy in our country. How they will relate to one another will test the strength of the nation’s formal institutions and the maturity of civil society.
Marcos Jr. will have at his disposal the enormous powers of the presidency—not the least of which is the power to appoint key officials to the crucial national agencies, including the police and the military—plus the nation’s collective resources and the power to borrow more. He will also have the support of a friendly legislature and a Supreme Court packed by appointees of his de facto ally, outgoing President Duterte.
But he must satisfy the high public expectations that have accompanied his family’s bid to reclaim Malacañang. His first problem will be how to bring down the cost of rice and other basic food items—as he promised—in the face of a global fuel shortage and other supply disruptions resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He will find his efforts constrained by the gigantic public debt he inherits from the Duterte administration, even as he must find ways to speed up economic recovery amid a lingering pandemic.
He must raise the morale of a dispirited bureaucracy that has been mismanaged by incompetent political appointees. He has to rely on local government officials whose corrupt ways have just been reinforced by the pouring of unlimited money during the last elections. On top of these, his every move will be monitored by a vigilant middle class that has overcome its timidity.
In contrast, Leni Robredo’s political capital is much greater now than when she was the country’s vice president. She only needs to make a call to harness the energy that her campaign unleashed. The movement that has grown around her is described as organic because it is self-initiated rather than artificially induced. Volunteer-driven movements of this sort typically become stable constituencies for change. More significantly, Leni’s campaign has awakened the idealism of many young people, most of them first-time joiners in public assemblies.
These strengths, however, also tend to be the sources of a movement’s weaknesses. Brimming with energy and drawing its force from a diversity of personal backgrounds and experiences, a movement usually does not have the kind of discipline that a political opposition needs in order to win elections.
Consistency in messaging, objectivity in processing information, diligence in observing priorities, and ability to make quick shifts in strategy were, for this reason, not the strongest features of the Leni campaign. Winning elections, by nature, is a messy game. It is not for the vain or self-righteous.
In his essay, “Politics as a vocation,” the German sociologist Max Weber famously said: “Only someone who is certain that it will not break him when, from where he stands, the world looks too stupid or mean for what he wants to offer it—that in spite of everything he will be able to say ‘but, still!’—only he has the ‘call’ for politics.” Leni Robredo has shown that she is capable of stirring the emotions of her supporters while keeping herself grounded in cold reason. It is a rare quality.
She definitely has the vocation for politics—the ability to strike a balance between what Weber calls the “Ethic of Moral Conviction” and the “Ethic of Responsibility.” Until new leaders emerge from this experience, Leni has the best credentials among all opposition figures at this point. But, for the moment, she does not have a ready political platform from which to air her views on government. Perhaps another woman, like Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the lone elected opposition in the Senate, might be in a better position to play an overtly political role.
Apart from the nationwide network of volunteers Leni plans to gather under the “Angat Buhay” (Uplift Lives) NGO, the Pink Movement may spin-off two other distinct organizational forms—a new opposition party, and a protest movement that is independent of any electoral or ideological project. I foresee the protest movement differentiating itself into specialized organizations, where activists and experts can work together on specific advocacies. The issues are endless: the environment, education, electoral reform, human rights and rule of law, history and children’s books, the defense of the Constitution, transparency in government, labor rights, the defense of women and children, etc.
A little note, from the work of Niklas Luhmann, on the nature of protest is worth quoting here. “Protests are communications addressed to others calling on their sense of responsibility. They criticize practices or states of affairs without offering to take the place of those whose job it is to ensure order.” Protest movements work best when they are autonomous from electoral party formations. The same applies to NGOs. To be effective, they must keep their independence from electoral parties, from the government in power, as well as from political movements aimed at overthrowing the entire sociopolitical order.
There’s much work to be done. Leni Robredo put it aptly in her Ateneo thanksgiving speech last Friday: “This day is not an ending, but the start of a new chapter.”
public.lives@gmail.com
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
Let Not Truth be Hidden from Our Eyes: A Call for Vigilance
13 May 2022
As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:41-42)
The May 9 polls have left much to be desired.
The Automated Election System (AES) proffered speedy results with uncanny consistency, but these have not generated confidence in a democratic process. Quite the opposite—these have raised both suspicions and a gnawing in the stomach for what is ahead. The wide gap between national contenders is highly suspicious. Our constitution calls for the holding of free, orderly, honest and credible elections. This means secret balloting and transparent counting. The AES system is anything but transparent, especially under weak checks-and-balances in governance.
Before, during and even after the election, the Philippines was and is being drowned by massive disinformation, troll farms, and social-media micromarketing. We were and are an unfortunate example of how those with funds are capable of manipulating the truth. Disinformation maneuvers added to long entrenched political patronage and dynasties, complete with vote-buying, create a formidable foe for genuine democracy.
This being said: As Church leaders, we vow to continue to guard our votes.
The specters of worsening crony capitalism and corruption, rising tyranny and human rights violations, and shrinking democratic space, press freedom, and other civil liberties loom before us. As ruling oligarchs coalesce and join forces, thus heightening prospects for the Philippines to be plunged into another era of darkness and oppression, we stake our claim for truth, justice, and peace.
We stand firmly on the side of democracy and fair play. Our unshakable concern for the rights and welfare of the farmers, workers, fisherfolk, migrants, youth and urban poor impels our advocacy. The future of our people challenges us to greater vigilance.
Applauding the many volunteers who joined in the electoral process, we implore their continued engagement as democracy is under threat. We must speak out. The path before us, though fraught with danger, summons us to continue our watch.
We pray that God’s light will shine upon us and open the eyes of this nation, so that we will choose what makes for peace. We pray for truth to illuminate our hearts and minds, so that we may know and so that truth will us set free.
Signed by:
Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza
General Secretary
National Council of Churches in the Philippines
Most Revd. Rhee M. Timbang
Obispo Maximo
Iglesia Filipina Independiente
Most. Rev. Broderick S. Pabillo, D.
Apostolic Vicar of Taytay, Palawan
Bp. Emergencio D. Padillo
Bishop, Middle Luzon Jurisdictional Area
United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP)
Sr. Ma. Lisa Ruedas, DC
Daughters of Charity
Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation
One Faith. One Nation. One Voice.
Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum
Kalipunan ng Kristianong Kabataan sa Pilipinas (KKKP)
Rural Missionaries of the Philippines
Faith and Bayan
Medical Mission Sisters
Missionary Disciples of Jesus
Sisters’ Association in Mindanao (SAMIN)
Rise Up for Life and for Rights
Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines
Promotion of Church People’s Response Anawim Misyon para sa Mahihirap
Unfinished business of elections 2022: Ten challenges
By Archbishop-Emeritus Antonio Ledesma, SJ
May 11, 2022
Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines
Election Day, May 9th, 2022, has come and gone. We are left with the election results. But who are the real losers and winners? Ten challenges confront us as individuals and as a nation.
1. The massive DISINFORMATION campaign over social media by a particular candidate and his party cannot just be brushed aside. Over the past five to ten years, we are told, this online campaign has been stealthily carried out, reaching the minds and fantasies of cell phone users even in the remotest areas of the country. The dissemination of fake news about the “golden era” of the Martial Law period, the rehabilitation of the Marcos name, the downgrading of the reputations of other candidates, the casting of heroes as villains and villains as heroes — all this was planned with deliberation and strategic targeting of socio-economic classes as well as age groups.
How can the country prevent this form of brainwashing and “vote buying” in future elections? There are cyber libel laws, but can they be easily implemented? Do we require senders of anonymous online messages to identify themselves? Frequent repetition of lies can eventually be accepted as the truth, a lesson from Goebbels of the Nazi regime.
2. The lack of HISTORICAL AWARENESS of the iniquities of Martial Law, particularly among the young voters who were born after the 70’s and 80’s, has been pointed out. Has our educational system failed to instill in the minds of the younger generation the horrors of this period, much in the same way that we have bitter memories of World War II in the Philippines? Have media people also failed to provide an accurate picture of those dire periods in our history? We need to correct these deficiencies for the sake of truth-telling, and also to honor the memory of those victimized by Martial Law. One of these victims was my classmate, Evelio Javier, former governor of Antique, who was killed on the eve of the EDSA People Power Revolution.
3. We hear reports of RAMPANT VOTE BUYING done openly on Election Day, or earlier at nights, or through various ways such as distributing ATM cards, installment payments given before and after voting, etc. Has vote buying become the accepted practice for winning elections? What about the honest politicians that do not allow this? One particular presidential candidate has carried out her campaign with meager means of support, much less by vote buying.
We have existing laws against vote buying. Do we need stricter implementation of these laws? Can COMELEC or PNP itself station special guards that do not simply stand by but keep an eye on lines of vote buyers and sellers in the vicinity of the polls? PPCRV volunteers have tried to take photos of some of these practices, but these are isolated cases.
4. In addition to buying of votes, we are witnessing the buying of mayors and other officials. Several millions of pesos are involved in these transactions. Likewise, POLITICAL DYNASTIES have refined the practice of “winning over” local public officials to their side. The question often raised is: where does the money come from? Is this from the personal wealth of the politician or from the plunder of the public treasury? Are there no longer restrictions to the amount of campaign funds a candidate can spend? And how should these be reported? Is our political culture hopelessly damaged in this regard?
5. Religious leaders on the whole remain non-partisan when they use the pulpit as official representatives of the Christian community. But do they exercise their PROPHETIC ROLE in forcefully denouncing moral issues — such as extra-judicial killings, disinformation, non-payment of taxes, etc.? Many have spoken on pro-life issues, but should the clergy also talk about Social Justice and Option for the Poor, as well as the need for Good Governance?
Continue readingCatholic priest urges Filipinos to respect ‘majority rule’
By Ferdinand Patinio
May 10, 2022, 4:57 pm
MANILA – A Catholic priest urged the people to respect the decision of the Filipinos in choosing the leaders of the country.
Fr. Anton CT Pascual, president of Radio Veritas, said it is important to recognize the result of the election because it is one of the characteristics of an independent society.
“Let’s respect the rule of the majority from a relatively peaceful, clean and credible election,” he said in a radio interview.
“That’s (an) appreciation of the democratic ideals of the foundation of sovereign popular will and rule of law,” he added.
The statement came after presidential frontrunner Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. leads in the partial unofficial count of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), the citizen’s arm of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the May 2022 polls.
Based on the latest count, Marcos already has 31 million votes while his closest rival, Vice President Leni Robredo only has 14.7 million votes.
The former senator’s tandem, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, also leads the vice presidential race with 31.3 million votes. In second place is Senator Kiko Pangilinan with nine million votes.
Earlier, the pastors of the Catholic Church have called on the faithful to respect and accept the outcome of the election and urged them to reunite for restoration especially those who had a conflict due to differences in the candidates they supported.
At present, the PPCRV continues to canvass the fourth copy of the election returns (ERs) at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in España, Manila.
The church is also hoping that truth and justice will prevail in the 2022 national and local elections despite the reported issues including defective vote-counting machines and faulty Secure Digital (SD) cards.
The Comelec estimated that over 80 percent of the registered voters have participated in the polls this year. (PNA)