MANY of us are deceived into believing that the evil forces of Satan are using ineffective and obsolete promotional gimmicks to win souls for Satan. Many of us have been brainwashed since childhood to think that Satan is a harmless fellow dressed in a red or black suit with horns, a forked tail, and carrying a pitchfork with no power whatsoever to influence our lifestyles, our values, and our spiritual lives. Many of us are conditioned into thinking that Satan’s interest to lure people to his headquarters in hell is just a hobby and not an obsession. Nothing is farther from the truth.

THE Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nursing (ADPCN) holds its 46th Annual Convention on October 17-18, 2005 at the historic landmark Manila Hotel to exert efforts to address the challenges in the delivery of quality health services here and abroad and help improve the conditions of patients, regardless of gender, race, or financial status.

WE leave the investigation of the rally dispersal last Friday to the proper authorities in order to avoid a repeat. But the police had reason to keep groups away from Mendiola. Mendiola has been the scene of bloody clashes before. Remember the Mendiola massacre?

REACTING quickly to the dispersal of rallyists, Sen. Serge Osmeña said that GMA was "going bananas." Is the good senator saying that the Maximum Leader has converted the Strong Republic into a Banana Republic? If so, the only recourse for rallyists is to start growing bananas.

PRAYER rally led by Vice President Guingona and Jamby Madrigal stopped by water cannon.

POLICE officials said that a group broke away from the small assemblage of protest marchers Friday night and tried to crash into the no-rally Mendiola zone.

(Privilege speech in observance of Prison Awareness Week and the Centennial of the Bureau of Corrections, October 12, 2005, Senate, Pasay City.)

THE group of priests, nuns, and opposition leaders had been repeatedly appealed to stay within Plaza Miranda and not to proceed to nearby Mendiola or other places where the organizers had not gotten a permit to occupy them, all to no avail. Most of the rallies at busy streets where the traffic is heavy have been led by the religious and their followers who call their rally as a prayer march to implore God’s mercy so President Arroyo would step down from office. There are many designated rally sites where they can deliver speeches to high heaven, sing, dance, and do whatever they want to just so not to libel anyone. If they find it cumbersome to secure a permit, then they should stage the rally in their churches not to bother the pedestrians and avoid their curses.

ON October 17 of each year, the United Nations (UN) observes the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty to bring to focus the importance of using world knowledge, resources, and technology to end or at least lessen the incidences of poverty in the world. It is also a time to encourage a process of mutual learning, dialogue, and the sharing of best practices for reducing poverty among member states of the UN.

THAT prospect of government taking over private business is frightening to investors is something that is affirmed by not a few. And the misgivings that it is also notoriously a poor business manager is shared by many.

PRESIDENT GMA has called on the business community to help enhance the country’s competitive advantage and attractiveness as an investment haven to improve the economy.

SOMEONE in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me." He replied to him, "Friend, who appointed Me as your judge and arbitrator?" Then He said to the crowd, "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions."

THERE are some 42,000 barangays, 1,496 municipalities, 79 provinces, and 115 cities that comprise our country’s local government. In the past, they merely served as extensions of the national government. In the process, our country’s political development was skewed in favor of the national government. This pattern of governance discouraged people participation and local initiative and promoted over-dependence on the national government.

JUST say No," the slogan against drug-use of the last century, is this century’s word of choice for the administration.

THE Philippines, owing to the preoccupation of political leaders with politics and self-aggrandizement, is not prepared, in terms of equipment, education, money, training, expertise, and sense of urgency, for massive natural disasters such as the recent destructive earthquakes in Iran and Pakistan, or huge flooding in Vietnam and China, or tsunamis last December in Indonesia and Thailand.

IN the first presidential election of the Commonwealth, General Emilio Aguinaldo, head of the First Philippine Republic, challenged the candidacies of Manuel Quezon and Sergio Osmeña Sr. He lost. But the fact that the anachrontic leader won one of every three votes seemed to prove that the grievances that caused the Philippine Revolution were not being redressed and that the political party system had not gained public confidence. The incandescent issue then was whether independence was to be restored immediately or after ten more years of American tutelage. At that crucial point of our history, it was evident that the issue was being manipulated by foreign vested interests and their home-grown lackeys. Alarmingly, none of the existing political parties had an economic platform which could have guaranteed the stability of absolute political emancipation.

NEW YORK – At a dinner hosted by Ambassador to the United Nations and Mrs. Lauro Baja at the stunning Philippines ambassador’s residence on East 66th Street in New York, for PLDT CEO Manny Pangilinan on September 26th, the Philippine ambassador to Washington, Albert del Rosario, was explaining the record of the OCWs in the United States. A full 50% of remittances to the Philippines from overseas comes from the United States, although this does not represent the numbers that work here. And, contrary to the common impression that remittances represent the earnings of doctors and nurses and other highly skilled professionals, the largest amounts do in fact come from "the blue collar workers" who hold more than one job, and are eager to send as much money to their families back home in the Philippines as possible.

THE Philippine delegation associates itself with the statement by the distinguished representative of Jamaica on behalf of the Group of 77 and of Indonesia on behalf of the ASEAN. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Secretary-General for his reports on the international financial system and development and on external debt crisis and development.

TO complain is not very productive. To try to do something so we would have much less to complain about, this is the productive thing to do.

INCREASINGLY, people are getting confused and many more are being turned off by the political disarray that is dominating the everyday scene.

THE chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schröeder, was persuaded by the Socialist Democrats at a party conference last week to let go of the chancellorship. Schröeder accepted the party’s decision without a frown.

DETROIT, Michigan — IT IS a little past noon on a sweltering day a short ride from downtown Detroit, one of the last gasps of summer before the brutal Michigan winter settles in. Already the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, run by friars from a nearby monastery, is winding down. People tend to get in line for food early. A couple of dozen people, largely but not exclusively African Americans, finish their lunches in a clean but spare dining hall. A large wooden cross is propped up in one corner and photographs on the wall show the facility during the depression.

Luke 10:1-9