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President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s trip to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal Arroyo leaves today for an official visit to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). President Arroyo will stay in HKSAR for two days to speak before the Credit Suisse’s Asian Investment Conference (AIC) and also meet with HKSAR Chief Executive Donald Tsang.
After Easter, before Bataan
Fidel V. Ramos
A READING of the various Easter messages, editorials, and columns published last Sunday revealed a recurring theme with strong contemporary impact: The Philippine agony of mounting scandals, pervasive corruption, and failing PGMA trust ratings was being compared to the travails of Jesus Christ from His triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to His crucifixion at Golgotha on Good Friday, and His rising from the dead on Easter morning.
Doctors for the barangay
Edgardo J. Angara
OUR country has emerged as one of the biggest suppliers of health care workers in the world. The exodus of nurses and doctors in the last ten years for higher-paying jobs in countries like the US, Canada, and the UK, however, has left our own health system in a state of near collapse.
Divine Mercy Sunday: Jesus, we trust in You. Your mercy endures forever!
TODAY is Divine Mercy Sunday. Since the year 2001, the second Sunday of Easter has been consecrated by the Church to celebrate the Feast of the Divine Mercy. It is a corollary of the devotion started by a Polish nun named St. Faustina Kowalska to whom Jesus revealed the message of His divine and merciful love. This Sunday is specifically dedicated to praise the Love of God, a Love full of compassion for all those who have sinned, and therefore for all of us.
Cellphones, microwaves: Raul Castro starts new Cuba revolution
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA (AP) – First microwaves, now cell phones. Is this the new Cuba?
Aesthetics and Integrity of Direct Composite Restorations Seminar at the historic landmark Manila Hotel
THERE is no stopping the discovery of new techniques and breakthroughs in the field of Aesthetic Dentistry largely due to the demand for services and treatments from patients who want to achieve that "dream smile."
Speaking Out
Ignacio R. Bunye
"LP" Pelayo, who manages the widely-read Filipino Reporter in New York, emailed to us a transcript of the paper’s interview, dated March 28, 2008, with Ambassador to the United Nations Hilario G. Davide, Jr., former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Weighing In
Pat Sto. Tomas
WE bought our first house in Mandaluyong in 1982, a small wooden structure that looked pretty much like the house I grew up in Quirino District, Quezon City. Except that where a door lock was supposed to be, there was a fraying abaca rope that secured entry and exit. It was a basic structure that had two rooms, one toilet and bath and a living room that extended to the dining room that was also the kitchen. I loved that house because for the first time, we were not renting. And it was not too far away from where we worked – he in Makati and I in Intramuros. We have traveled some distance since then and I now live in Antipolo, a widow sharing space with four children who are not my own. I love this house too – but then I have loved each house I have been in for the sanctuary it provided me and my family. And that, I guess, is what housing is all about – protective cover for a social unit that needs to establish its distinct identity.
Tibet’s monk protests reflect rising activism of Asia’s Buddhists
DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer
BANGKOK, Thailand – Tibetan monks hurling rocks in bloody protests against the Chinese and even Buddhist clergy peacefully massing against Myanmar’s military can strike jarring notes.
Business Beat
Melito Salazar Jr.
IN Bacolod City for the graduation of my nephew, Demostenes Hontiveros Sison, I linked up with my H.S.’67 classmates from La Salle- Bacolod. Fidel Rey Soliven manages to contact a good number for this impromptu reunion. The table at Aboy’s barely accommodates Larry Lacson, our Tibong Foundation president Obet Lizares, Macaw Gallardo, Owie Lacson, Alex Abong, Sonnyboy Carpio, Luis Baylon, Manny Belzunce, Leroy Tad-y, Dennis Jalbuena, Taba Medel, and Skippy Zayco. Nesting Jereza is stuck in Iloilo but his son Eric comes to extend greetings.
Second Thoughts
Edilberto C. De Jesus
MANILA, Philippines — Palace officials hailed, as a signal triumph for President Macapagal Arroyo, the Supreme Court decision upholding Acting CHED Chair Romulo Neri’s right to decline answering questions posed by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee by invoking executive privilege. Perhaps so, but it was a Pyrrhic victory, "a victory with devastating cost to the victor."
S. Korean gov’t not afraid of nuclear North
BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea’s new conservative government has shown it’s not afraid to speak up to nuclear-armed North Korea, prompting the communist regime to retaliate with increasingly belligerent threats.
Entrance test in heaven
Fr. Bel R. San Luis, SVD
OUR Lord was worried because there have been too many arrivals in heaven. He called to task St. Peter for the laxity in the screening of new entrants.
A divided society
Rene Espina
AMID the issues and problems that our country is facing, i.e. food crisis, security, territorial disputes, presidential privilege, let me draw a more fundamental aspect that affects all of the above, – the decision makers who have been entrusted by our sovereign people with the temporary authority to deal with such issues must have a strong moral character which is the essential ingredient to solve most of the problems that we face today. For starters, the Spratlys issue: Congressman Antonio Cuenco, Chairman of the House committee on Foreign Affairs, has complained that H.B. 3216 which defines the archipelagic base lines of the Philippines, which he co-authored and sponsored, and which was approved on second reading last December, was suddenly withdrawn by the House leadership and referred back to the committee. He said this was because the Philippine Embassy in Beijing received an unofficial and unsigned document titled ‘‘Talking Points’’ from the People’s Republic of China. Cuenco said that he did not recognize the said document as a formal protest of the PROC. To him, it was a mere scrap of paper.
Weighing the trade-off: Food vs fuel
Emil Q. Javier, President, National Academy of Science and Technology
THE Philippine biofuels program (RA 9367) has three policy objectives, namely: Reduce dependence on imported oil, Mitigate toxic and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and Increase rural employment and incomes.
Appearance to the disciples
ON the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. [Jesus] said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."
Joseph, legal Father of Jesus
JACOB [was] the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.
The judgmental Pharisees
Nelly Favis Villafuerte
MANY of us are often accused of being judgmental. The word ‘judgmental’ refers to making a judgment especially about the moral or personal behavior of others. Many of us have a habit of passing judgment on others. Ignoring and disregarding what Jesus said in the Holy Bible as follows: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: And with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye." (Matthew 7:1-5, King James Version)
Balances: The case of FPD
Jesus P. Estanislao
THE Foundation for People Development (FPD) is long on ideals but short on resources. It means well, aiming to "help people help and develop themselves"; but unlike other foundations, it has no resources of its own – except the spiritual and psychological – to carry out its mission. If for this alone, it needs to put on a precarious balancing act. It has to face up to this question, how to reach out to its high ideals with hardly any financial resources of its own to undertake programs by which to begin to get there.
Overlooked goings-on
LAST week saw an array of significant events that journalists have reported but presumably missed by many. Those news episodes were drowned out in the cacophony of newscasts in broadcast media and buried in the deluge of pages of international news magazines and local broadsheets.
Woman, get a checkup
Dr. Jose S. Pujalte Jr.
“A woman’s health is her capital.”
– Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
US author (and mother of six)
Household Papers and Stories, part 2, ch. 5 (1865)
Executive privilege: A hornet’s nest that keeps buzzing
Floro L. Mercene
60 percent of Filipinos give Manny Villar top performance rating in new survey.
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