ONLY a decade ago, measles killed millions of children each year around the world, especially in the most impoverished areas of Africa. Given the magnitude of the problem, the World Health Organization (WHO), with the assistance of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has implemented since 1999 mass vaccination campaigns with the target of reducing the incidence of measles by half by the end of 2005.

AS we near the final stages of the VAT deliberations, we anticipate that confidence in the economy will continue to run high. The peso has edged closer to R54 while the stock market, despite technical corrections, has remained at historical peak. These developments obviously reflect the market perception that we are really working together to put our fiscal house in order.

ROBERTO Tarongoy and his loved ones now realize what most of us only know philosophically: Life is lived one day at a time.

WITH so much attention focused the past three days on the need to reform the military, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, unless they are pigheaded, will soon show improved performance and the redeeming spirit of reform.

THE farmer had a twin dream since childhood. One was to see the capital city of Manila. The other was to ride an airplane.

(Statement delivered before the Hanns Seidel Foundation at the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium, on March 3, 2005.)

REGULATING outdoor advertising commonly known as billboards should be the responsibility of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority. This will assure uniformity of standards in the medium — fees and licenses, graphic illustrations and copy or text, safety of structure.

CHAVIT Singson may appear to be a tainted saint on the national scene but in Ilocos Sur he is something of a demigod. He has done more for his province and his constituents than any other modern leader.

RECENT statistics or figures coming out about the country are quite interesting.

THE story in today’s first reading of the mass could be made into a movie. It has all the necessary ingredients: Susanna, a young married woman, "very beautiful and God-fearing," two prominent elderly men who lusted after her, and Daniel, a handsome young man, wise beyond his years.

JESUS went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning He arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to Him, and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" They said this to test Him, so that they could have some charge to bring against Him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger. But when they continued asking Him, He straightened up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Again He bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So He was left alone with the woman before Him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She replied, "No one, sir." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, [and] from now on do not sin any more."

Former President Fidel V. Ramos called anew for the amendment of the 1987 Constitution to enable the Philippines to compete globally in the economic arena, hasten the country’s economic growth, and do away with divisive politics.

THE Liga ng mga Barangay sa Pilipinas was created by virtue of Section 491 of the Local Government Code of 1991. As an organization representing the 41,939 barangays throughout the country, the Liga was established to determine the representation of the barangays in the local legislative councils of Sangguniang Bayan, and to ventilate, articulate, and crystallized issues affecting barangay government administration and securing solutions for these concerns.

CAPITALISM without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell. In a fast-moving world, yesterday’s leader becomes today’s alsoran.

THE problem many of us Filipinos have about citizenship is that it is a concept one notch higher than the level we are used to in our everyday life.

THERE is hope for the motherland! That is what came to mind as I applauded enthusiastically, joining the standing ovation given Ryan Cayabyab and the Ballet Philippines dancers. I am quite sure most of the people who went to the Cultural Center of the Philippines this evening (Saturday), to see the mother of all performing arts shows, felt just as elated and euphoric as I did. The dancers of Ballet Philippines should be commended for raising that art form to its most superlative and most refined heights.

BEGINNING last January, the Philippines has been commemorating the final days of World War II that led to the liberation of this country from occupation by the Japanese – from the Leyte landing to the retaking of Corregidor Island, the last major offensive that closed the chapter to the war in the Pacific. Although the final surrender papers were not signed until September 3rd in Baguio City, the liberation of the country was effectively over by March sixty years ago.

A CABINET member, a television network president and general manager, a bureau director, and their driver barely cheated death in the middle of the night on a deserted portion of the national highway in Pangasinan recently.

RENEWED violence on the southern Philippine island of Sulu has killed 100 rebels and soldiers and displaced 27,000 people. Meanwhile, Valentine’s Day bombings in Makati, the Philippine financial district, and cities in Mindanao have killed 13 and wounded over 100. These incidents remind us of the need for an equitable and durable resolution to the decades’ old civil war between the Philippine government and its Muslim minority. They also highlight the fragility of the present ceasefire in other parts of Mindanao.

BEFORE Philippine leaders settle down into a state of reverie and start fantasizing that soon the country will be a strong republic, a tourist mecca, an IT hub, a gastronomic destination, and a genteel haven for the First World’s rapidly retirable and aging population, the Philippines must first return to the basics and get its act together.

LAST week, March 9, two national TV channels had a heyday covering the tragic food poisoning case in Mabini, Bohol, where 28 schoolchildren died. The poison that killed the children will be "eventually identified" according to the authorities. Six days after the poisoning tragedy, the authorities continued to speculate on the kind of poison that caused the deaths.

TWO of the country’s biggest telecom companies have been violating their subscribers’ right to privacy by "spam" texting them on allegedly important events in the country that are either false or irrelevant to public interest. Obviously, the intention of those unsolicited spams is to show their company’s goodwill through subliminal advertisements. And they still have the gumption of charging part of our prepaid cellphone load. "There oughta be a law" – as they used to say in old famous newspaper cartoon pages ­ against this kind of daylight unlawful imposition. Well, LP, Laguna Representative and Deputy Majority Leader, Danton Bueser, must have been a victim himself of this spam to suspect the Dept. of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Nat’l Telecommunications Commission (NTC) of just closing their eyes.

CONGRESS leaders who were obviously piqued by the decision of the Bush administration to cut by some 30 percent its financial aid package to the Philippines are urging the Arroyo government to review its reliance on the United States as a traditional partner.

John 8:21-30