Living without destructive plastic

Plastic pollution is destroying many creatures and poisoning our air and rivers and oceans and people don’t seem to care

LICAS News
Father Shay Cullen
July 1, 2021

Greenpeace together with the Break Free From Plastic coalition conduct a beach cleanup activity and plastics brand audit on Freedom Island off the coast of Manila in in 2017. (Greenpeace photo by Daniel Müller)

Plastic was and is a magical invention. It is a material based on oil and has thousands of excellent and life-saving uses. In the medical world, in construction, in tool-making, manufacturing of phones and other gadgets, cars, household items, furniture and almost everything you see has plastic in it.

Our modern world depends on plastic to sustain its present lifestyle. But that lifestyle built on the plastic revolution has its dangerous dark side. Everything we humans use and discard can have dire consequences for the planet.

Garbage is everywhere and it is damaging our health. Plastic pollution is destroying many creatures and poisoning our air and rivers and oceans and people don’t seem to care.

It is dangerous to health because it is a destructive chemical-based pollutant. The one-time use of disposable plastic stuff is so dangerous and damaging to our lives, our health, our environment. The fish we eat have plastic in them because the vast oceans are filling up with discarded plastic.

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The Philippine Terror Law and Implications on Rights and Civic Space

A year ago, in 2020 amidst the pandemic, the draconian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 was enacted into law, despite broad opposition from various sectors, groups and personalities. At least 37 petitions were filed at the Supreme Court seeking that the ATA be declared unconstitutional. The petitions remain pending at the High Court, after a series of oral arguments during the first half of 2021.

During the past months, counter-terror legislations and policies have been increasingly used against religious and civil society organisations, as well as individuals, in a perceived attempt to silence dissent, to impede their work for social justice and human rights, and to further constrict civic and democratic space.

A year after the enactment of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the Philippines, Karapatan together with the Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines will hold a  webinar on the Philippine Terror Law and Implications on Rights and Civic Space  on July 6, 2021 (Tuesday), 3:00-4:30 PM via zoom.

The webinar seeks to inform the public on the dire implications of the counter-terror laws on rights and fundamental freedoms. We invite you to join us in the said webinar. You may register through http://bit.ly/70621ATLvvCivicSpace

Another UCCP Pastor Arrested Early Morning of June 25

June 25 2021

Peasant advocate Carmilo Tabada, a barangay councilor and the program coordinator for Bohol of the Central Visayas Farmers Development Center (FARDEC), was arrested in his home in Trinidad, Bohol at 1:00am today, June 25.

A composite team of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reportedly planted firearms and explosives in his home.

Tabada is now detained at the Trinidad Police Station.

In March 2021, Tabada was subjected to an anti-communist rally in front of his house, with the rallyists claiming that he was hiding firearms. (Read: https://www.facebook.com/…/a.1275…/10157545800062331/…)

FARDEC reports that since this incident at Tabada’s home, red-tagging and surveillance of Tabada has increased.

Tabada has been a member of FARDEC since 1998. According to FARDEC, Tabada has contributed significantly to the rice mill in Trinidad, which aided farmers’ orgs like Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa San Jose (NAMASAJO) in setting rice prices and breaking buyers’ monopolies before the rice mill’s forced closure in December 2020.

FARDEC has previously been red-tagged by government agencies in 2019. In June 2020, Elena Tijamo, the Sustainable Agriculture Program Coordinator of FARDEC, was also abducted from her home in Bantayan Island, Cebu. She remains missing to this day.

Aninaw Productions also earlier reported the arrest of UCCP pastor Nathaniel Vallente in his home in San Jose, Mabini, Bohol at 3:00am today. Vallente is a counselor for NAMASAJO. (Read: https://www.facebook.com/118591512330/posts/10157718393717331/?d=n)

FARDEC says the midnight raids is similar to the Synchronized Enhanced Managing of Police Operations (SEMPO) of Negros Oriental and other parts of the country.

Invitation: National Divestment Learning Event and Dialogue, 29 June 3PM

June 27, 2021

To our Beloved Bishops,
To our Dear Social Action Directors
To our Dear Ecology Desk Ministers

Greetings!

On behalf of the Catholic Church and the ecological defenders in the country, we would like to thank you for your unending support of the programs and activities of the CBCP National Laudato Si Program, and our Eco-Convergence Project. Your initiatives for ecological protection within your dioceses have been instrumental in the over-all success of our ecological advocacies!

During the past two years, we have received numerous requests from several of you to provide more information on our divestment campaign. Thus, with the Withdraw from Coal group of ecological defenders, we would like to invite you to a National Divestment Learning Event and Dialogue on June 29, 2021 at 3:00 in the afternoon.

This is aimed at increasing our understanding of the divestment campaign, and identify concrete and collective action points to further the campaign, especially in the light of the July 2021 CBCP Plenary Assembly.

The program is attached for your reference. The Zoom link for the event is: https://bit.ly/3gJauCA
(Meeting ID: 84839857806, Password: 095391)

Should you have any clarifications, please contact: Jing Rey Henderson @ caritasphilippines@gmail.com or at 09055469977.

We are hoping to see you all at the event! Keep safe!

Sincerely,

REV. FR. ANTONIO E. LABIAO, JR.
Vicar General, Diocese of Novaliches
Executive Secretary, CBCP-ECSAJP

MOST REV. JOSE COLIN M. BAGAFORO, D.D.
Bishop, Diocese of Kidapawan
Chair, CBCP-ECSAJP

Invitation: 15th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the Philippines

Dear fellow youth ministers,

Greetings in our Lord Jesus!

This Thursday, June 24, is not only the Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist but also the 15th anniversary of the signing of RA9346, which prohibited the death penalty in the Philippines.

May we extend these invitations to these two activities relevant to this significant occasion:

  • Thanksgiving Mass and Solidarity Gathering (June 24), organized by the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care (ECPPC)
  • Webinar (June 26) organized by the Coalition against Death Penalty (CADP)

Slots inside Zoom for both events are limited; if registration into Zoom is unsuccessful, then participation may also be via the Facebook Page of CADP, ECPPC or Youth Campaign against Death Penalty.

We trust that your respective youth ministries will work on being represented in these events, as the issue of the death penalty is something affecting our young people (whether as dependents of those in prison or as persons deprived of liberty themselves), and significant for our Christian faith, especially in the light of recent teachings from Pope Francis.

Thank you for your kind attention!

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Fr. CONEGUNDO B. GARGANTA
Executive Secretary

Statement on the 15th Anniversary of Republic Act 9346 (The Death Penalty Prohibition Act of 2006)

The Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP-ECPPC) joins the Coalition Against the Death Penalty (CADP) in the joyful celebration of the 15th year of the abolition of the death penalty in the Philippines.

We at the CBCP-ECPPC maintain that no person is beyond reformation. Every person deserves a second chance in order to correct his/her wrongdoings.

Our Holy Father Pope Francis in his teachings, has constantly stressed that the taking away of life is inadmissible. Every person is valuable as he/she is created in the image and likeness of God.

Thus, we strongly and unequivocally oppose the move of the present Congress to restore the Death Penalty in our Justice system.

We maintain that the death penalty is violative of the inherent dignity of the human person. No person, no matter how evil he is perceived to be, is beyond redemption and reformation.

The death penalty will only mostly victimize the poor. Our past experiences show that most of those who were meted the death penalty were indigent and poor individuals, who simply could not afford quality legal representation to defend them before the courts.

Lastly, the death penalty cannot work in an imperfect judicial system like ours. Once carried out, the death sentence is irreversible, and there is no possibility for rectifying an erroneous judgment.

Let us instead continue affirming our Option for Life, and clamor for the State to pass laws which will make our criminal justice system more restorative and not merely punitive.

We challenge all sectors especially our youth to elect people who will rightfully serve the nation by championing the cause of life and fight the existing culture of death.

Manila, June 24, 2021

Sgd.

+JOEL Z. BAYLON, D.D.
Bishop of Legazpi
Chairman
CBCP-COMMISSION ON PRISON PASTORAL CARE (CBCP-ECPPC)