THERE is a clear need for the country to undertake sustainable forest management and development and the government has been moving towards fast-tracking an informed awareness of the importance of the forestry sector in national development.

AS we have lost touch with (and interest in) Cuba, very few of us care to remember that on 6 October 1976, a Cubana Airlines flight from Barbados was sabotaged and blown-up in mid-air. No one survived – the pilot and co-pilot, the in-flight crew and 73 passengers, among them Guyaneses and Koreans – all perished. Among the victims were Cuban youths who had won gold medals at the Central American and Caribbean fencing tournaments held in Caracas. Recently declassified documents of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) confirm that Luis Posada Carriles, an undercover agent of CubanVenezuelan origins, planted an explosive device in that Cuban plane. In the 90s, he master-minded the bombing of several hotels and recreational facilities in Cuba, notably the Ache Discotheque of the Melia Cohiba Hotel in Havana, on 12 April 1997. He was also responsible for the murder of Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, after a CIA-inspired coup overthrew the Salvador Allende government.

THERE are businesses imbued with social dimension, pre-need plans, especially in education, is one. It is one thing to penalize an enterprise for an arguably evasive business practice and another to kill it. This is precisely what the Securities and Exchange Commission has done with Lifetime Plans, Inc.

SINCE his arrival here last October, the new ambassador of Japan to the Philippines, Ryuichiro Yamazaki, has been island hopping, checking up on Japanese ODA projects in the Philippines. Japan is the leading Overseas Development Assistance donor to this country, a position it has held for the past 23 years, and a total of 51 percent of all foreign assistance that comes into the Philippines comes from Japan. The ODA comes in the form of loans (which are repaid at low interest rates or balanced with matching funds) and grants, which are outright aid.

AT first, it may look odd to bring prayer into an undertaking promoting responsible citizenship.

AS we celebrate the 68th anniversary of the GSIS, let me first ask you to pause, ponder, and try to answer this question: What is real service?

(Editor’s note: Donations to public officers and their immediate kin are void and penalized as indirect bribery. Donors are also equally liable as noted in this article.)

TODAY is the 59th anniversary of Italy’s founding as a Republic.

THE confusion created by the testimony of the first witness presented by Archbishop Oscar Cruz at the opening of the Senate hearing on the jueteng issue last Monday was, of course, expected but it could only be the beginning of a protracted and more incriminating legislative adventure, as it were.

THERE’s a sick tale circulating around the "jueteng" clandestine circles on the real reason why Archbishopturnedanti "jueteng" crusader Oscar Cruz is so enraged with the illegal numbers game.

One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well He had answered the Sadducees, asked Jesus, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to Him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than He.’ And ‘to love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that [he] answered with understanding, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask Him any more questions.

THE Philippines has been called a nation of creative people. Many big animation studios around the globe get their talents from the country. With the advent of new technologies for computer-assisted publishing, graphics, and web design, the country has also taken a fair share of this competitive field with many local freelance and established companies taking on major clients.

THINK about yesterday’s headlines.

THE farmer had wanted a son from the very beginning. But as fate would have it, his first five children were all daughters. It was only after the fifth girl and a special trip to the chapel of Sta. Clara did his dream come to pass. There was a big celebration to welcome the much-awaited son.

THROUGH the many years of "French Spring in Manila,’’ it has been the practice of its organizers – the officials of the French Embassy headed by Ambassador Reneé Veyret and of Alliance Francaise de Manille headed by Director Philippe Normand, and not the least of the Francaise d’Action Artisque in Paris – to send over from France the best in music, theater, dance, and the visual arts, or the most brilliant among its young, aspiring artists. The latter holds true in the series of classical music concerts scheduled for June 07, 08, and 09 at the F. Santiago Hall and the Ayala Museum – already mentioned in this column last week – wherein virtuoso, grand prize winning instrumentalists will be featured.

THE entrepreneur is a hero in that he provides the services and goods that the people need with efficiency. He determines the demand, looks for the resources, produces them and sells them. In short he sells them what they want. To do this the entrepreneur needs freedom and resources. In Adam Smith’s "invisible hand," his greed will work out for the good of the community without his intending it. The environment is laissez faire, to each his own, let a thousand flowers bloom.

WITNESS tells all at jueteng probe. He gave us the unadorned truth — how millions of the poor are being bled to support a thoroughly corrupt officialdom.

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First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo’s advice to the Customs Commissioner to disregard persons dropping his name to seek favors from the Bureau of Customs, if also followed by all government agencies by not entertaining persons dropping not only his name, but also those of politicians, high civilian, military, and police officials, and other influential personages, can stop corruption in the government. But simply not to entertain or give credence to the name-droppers may not be enough to attain this end. Those agencies may be lax in observing this policy. Perhaps, one way to deter the public from proposing or persuading the agency’s chief or its staff to act on something illegal should be considered as an attempt at bribery. To be fair, post this caveat on each office.

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The Social Weather Stations recently showed 99 percent of those polled think indeed there is government corruption. This is nothing new. But what is encouraging is that the poll also showed more company executives, now a total 75 percent are willing to finance a campaign to fight corruption by donating an average of 5 percent of their net profits to an anti-corruption campaign. After all, they rationalize that the rampant graft has been raising the cost of doing business by up to 15 percent. More than donation, 48 percent of the company’s senior staff also willing to be trained for anti-corruption work at the firm’s expense. But if only 8 percent who witnessed the act of corruption would report it, knowing nothing would be done or they are afraid of reprisal, what good will there be?

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With 50 to 60 percent of the population in Samar sympathizing with the communist NPA, whose intelligence network had supposedly infiltrated local government units and the military — said Gen. Jovito Palparan, chief of the 8th Infantry Division — which fact was partly proved by 19 of his soldiers who had been suspected of being in cahoots with the NPA rebels, 17 of whom had been transferred, one discharged and the other under investigation. But what he said about the deaths of civilians and local officials during the military’s anti-insurgency campaign in that area were just "small sacrifices" was not welcomed by Western Samar’s two lawmakers who thought otherwise, and blamed him for 199 human rights violations. If found guilty, that certainly will be his sacrifice.

IT has also been said that "failure hardens the heart and dims the eye" which the Philippines seems to have agonized over in the last 25 years.

DEFENDERS of the Ligtas Buntis campaign of the Department of Health emphasize that they have the noble mission of reducing maternal mortality. They cite statistics about the number of women who die at child birth. Their unwarranted conclusion is that women should be protected from being pregnant. Ligtas Buntis is at the bottom of a campaign to make artificial contraceptives as freely available as possible.

THERE were two picturesque words that came out from the Senate hearing in illegal numbers game last Monday: Missile and "bodabil."

Matthew 11:25-30