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Farewell to the first woman Supreme Court Justice and President of the 1986 Philippine Constitutional Commission, Justice Cecilia Muñoz Palma
BORN on November 22, 1913, the late Supreme Court Justice Cecilia Muñoz Palma achieved much in her lifetime. After obtaining a law degree from the University of the Philippines (UP), she topped the Bar examinations in 1937 with a rating of 92.6 percent. She went on to obtain two master of laws degrees. She was subsequently conferred nine honorary doctorates, seven of them in law, by universities here and abroad.
Eid’l Adha
MUSLIMS all over the world, estimated at 1.4 billion by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), including 10 million Filipinos, will celebrate Eid’l Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, today, January 10. The second of Islam’s two major festivals after Eid’l Fitr (Festival of Breaking the Fast), Eid’l Adha commemorates the willingness of the Prophet Abraham (Peace be upon him) to sacrifice his son Ismael in obedience to God’s command. The lunar month of Dhul Hijjah began Sunday, January 1. Arafat Day was yesterday, January 9 and Eid’l Adha is today. Eid’l Adha observance starts with an early morning prayer worship during which the imams narrate to and impress upon the faithful Abraham’s unwavering loyalty to God.
The cure of a demoniac
Mark 1:21-28
Cuba’s billions
CUBA being what it is – direly totalitarian according to its powerful northern neighbor – and pitifully poor due to a 40-year embargo (imposed by the USA), you wonder why they bother making a budget and publicizing it during a press conference, at this far side of the Pacific Ocean. Anyway, for the fiscal year 2006, the approved budget outlay is US.30 billion (exchange rate is US=Cuba R1). For us, that is the pits but Cuba has to make do with shoe string to fulfill the needs of a population of 11.2 million, broken down into 3.5 million households, with an average of 3.16 members per unit. The majority of homes are situated in urbanized areas and 95 percent of these have sufficient water and electricity. Seventy percent of the 2006 budget will be spent on public welfare for a population with an average age of 35 years. As in the Philippines, education gets the lion’s share; in Cuba, health, culture, art, science, technology, and sports are also considered budgetary priorities along job-generation programs.
There were some positives last year
IT’S a cliché that media thrives on bad news and good news is a Pollyanic bore. It doesn’t get your adrenalin going like gory tales of crimes and deaths from disaster and coup attempts. But there are many ways to slant a story. The headlines about the "five most corrupt departments" for example, might also have given plaudits to the five least corrupt, the honor roll of the departments that put in systems to curb corruption. Those were the Department of Health, Social Welfare, Science and Technology, the BIR and the Office of the President.
Bill of Rights edited
WHENEVER documents like the Con-Com’s draft proposal are not discussed in one full publication, there’s always a great risk that one clearly unacceptable part may harm the whole.
‘Belittling’ the new heroes
NO politician would be so politically incorrect as to belittle the contribution of OFWs to the economy but Malacañang had the temerity to claim that Sen. Manuel Roxas did just that when he dismissed as meaningless its "headline (economic) statistics" the other day.
Improbable alliance
THE ultimate poser is not the probable bonding of three surviving former Presidents of the Republic, but the plausibility of the three celebrities forging an "unholy alliance" among them against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo which is not only improbable but also unrealistic.
Council of State
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is set to convene the Council of State on January 24.
Take care, carers
CAREGIVER appears in the dictionary, but carer does not, not yet. In deference to the need to shorten words (and lots of other things) as the world needs to do more things in less time, the word carer has been in use since – well, since caregiver became too long to spell and turned into a full-fledged career of its own.
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