Category: Commentary

In a society where economic injustice has virtually become invisible because it assumes the form of massive and persistent poverty inflicted by faceless forces and institutions, the idea of justice for all rings hollow. When one listens to what poor people want for themselves and for their children, one rarely…

One of my 20 readers recently alerted me that Lisandro Claudio, a young advocate of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, had likened a Commentary of mine (“Those who can’t, can teach Natural Family Planning,” Inquirer 04/18/11) to sugary pork fat. This metaphor is found in a GMA News blog, “Church…

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is offered by some as a “silver bullet,” an alternative to contraception, and scorned by others as an unreliable game of “Vatican roulette.” Claims on both sides are made easier by the scarcity of reliable data from the field on how acceptable it is to ordinary…

It is so easy to go into microfinance. With a small amount of capital, minimum policies set on the loanable amount that can be as low as P3,000 per client, interest rate, period of payment, mode of regular repayments, loan security which need not be hard collateral, savings or capital…

While in Jakarta for the ASEAN meeting, the President Aquino announced that the government plans to make available 1.5 million hectares of agricultural lands to be leased to 560,000 Metro Manila informal settlers. (Inquirer, 5/9/11) The news item drew reactions ranging from surprise to disbelief. Evidently it was a serious proposition.…

As I watched Christ’s faithful gather symbolically in the Upper Room on Holy Thursday, around Calvary’s cross on Good Friday, and at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday, a wave of joy flowed over me. Swept up like a chip of wood on the surface of a boiling wave by…

To put me off a teaching career, Mom would say: “Those who can’t, teach.” The adage took on new meaning when Sister Gloria taught us sex education in high school. I salute her for grace under fire. We greeted with mocking incredulity her lessons on the mysteries of reproduction. By then…

Bishop Teodoro Bacani had almost 250 priests in stitches with the following anecdote. A religious sister stayed for a few weeks in an urban poor community. With each scene of abject poverty she encountered, she would inevitably say, “Kawawa naman!” (What a pity!) Stumbling upon a naked, soot-covered child, she…