AS part of the collective effort to assist one another in maintaining each nation’s momentum for economic progress and to ensure that the region continues to be favored as a trading partner of other more developed regions, nine of the ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries are prepared to take the next step in boosting an industry that will allow the regional economies to take a greater share of the expanding global furniture and home decor market. The industry referred to is the rattan production and fabrication industry.

TWENTY two years after his martyrdom, Ninoy Aquino continues to be a model of selflessness, love for country, and heroism. We should not only remember and thank him for his sacrifices for our country, but also honor his memory by emulating him. We are all called to put our country before our personal interests. Even in small ways, we can all make a difference.

THIS month marks the birth and death of two heroes, Marcelo H. del Pilar, famously known by his nom de guerre Plaridel, and Benigno Aquino Jr. The first died in Spain, tubercular and starving, before he could return to a country in the midst of Revolution while the latter was assassinated, triggering the EDSA revolution. The young may be properly instructed about by Plaridel, but it’s arguable that they are so about Ninoy Aquino.

WE know from experience that the opposite of love is pride, and the opposite of patriotism is selfishness.

BROTHER Mike Velarde made no secret of his plan to have President Arroyo and former President Estrada shake hands and reconcile when they would come to attend his birthday bash Saturday.

(Delivered at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, Sydney, Australia, August 11, 2005.)

Memorable statements were issued and conveyed by government officials, NGOs, and, of course, politicians last week that merited their being labeled as remarkable.

RECONCILIATION, Charter change, impeachment woes, oil prices, and energy conservation dominate the national political landscape.

COLOGNE, Germany – Two posters hung on a fence where pilgrims camped out overnight in a field awaiting Pope Benedict XVI’s Sunday Mass: One proclaimed "New York Loves John Paul II," the other, "New York Loves Benedict XVI."

SPEAKER Joe de Venecia could become Prime Minister in a parliamentary government that will replace the present one.

JESUS said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.

THE call center enterprise is one of the fastest growing sectors within the information technology (IT) software and services industry. Since the year 2000, the Philippines has benefited from an unprecedented boom in the call industry which has generated jobs for the country despite the IT global crunch. It has become a major force in the call center segment, and nets a big slice of the tens of billions of dollars earned by the industry yearly.

IN her El Shaddai speech, the President said she would like to "heal the wounds of three EDSAs" — not one, not two, but three — virtually saying that they have divided rather than united the country. If, indeed, that can be pulled off, it will be the Great Reconciliation.

"Thence we came forth to rebehold the starts" – Dante’s Divine Comedy

ESCALANTE is bitter memory that grips the heart and sends cold shivers down one’s spine. To many, Escalante still evokes the tragic 1985 Welgang Bayan — the defiant roadblocks, jets of water from Cadiz City fire trucks repelling rallyists, gas bomb canisters hurled by the police, brutal military fire and hot pursuit in sugar cane fields culminating in that contemptible, unforgettable massacre. Did Escalante survive all that?

FOR years, former Senator Leticia Ramos Shahani has made it her private mission, to try to help build a viable dairy industry in the Philippines. As a senator she authored the "Milk Bill" in support of the smallhold dairy farmer. Since its creation in 1993, she has worked closely with the Carabao Center in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, to build up herds of milk-producing buffalo. The Philippines, ironically enough, is awash with carabao – you see them everywhere in this basically agricultural country – plowing fields, wallowing in mud to scare off the mosquitoes and gnats in the noonday sun. Every farm seems to have one of these great lumbering beasts around. But the bad news is that despite the fact they can produce nearly twice as much milk as milk cows and their milk is 30 percent richer in butter fat content, the majority of the carabaos you see are merely work animals. They are not dairy animals.

THE surging flotsam of rumors and half-truths often repeated by the political opposition has taken a false impression of righteous outrage that is starting to turn off a lot of people instead of rallying them to its cause.

DECADES before the Philippine revolution broke out in 1896, many high colonial officials – Manuel Bernaldez Pizarro in 1827, Sinibaldo de Mas in 1842, Juan Manuel de la Matta in 1843 – and Dr. Jose P. Rizal in his letters to his friend Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt on January 26, 1887, June 6, 1877, and June 23, 1888, warned the colonial government that the Philippines would emancipate itself violently if reforms were not implemented in the country. In its July 7, 1892 issue, the La Solidaridad published this exhortation to the inhabitants of the Philippines: "Long live the Philippines without Spain."

SINCE the 1987 Constitution will be amended, it would be well that this Constitution be fully overhauled to come out with a new Constitution without the need to call for another amendment in the near future while our political development and paradigm are rapidly changing to cope with the social needs of the nation. With this in view, the 50 members to be nominated as members of the officially formed Consultative Commission will have to study, review, and recommend to President Arroyo and Congress what in our present Constitution should be amended. Although, the Commission’s timetable is to do their work from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31 this year is limited, they may have to answer to our people on whether the newly amended Constitution has anticipated all possible political problems that may arise in our country later.

THE government’s campaign against grafters is covered by a long list of laws since the Spanish Penal Code took effect in the country in 1887. The US colonial period further strengthened the code’s provision on malversation cases, followed by more laws and martial law decrees that provide stiff penalties for acts amounting to graft or corruption.

COLOGNE, Germany — Pope Benedict XVI triumphantly ended his four-day trip to his native Germany on Sunday, celebrating an open-air Mass for a million people after a visit during which he reached out to Jews and Muslims and urged Europe to rediscover its Christian tradition.

Matthew 23:23-26