Despite getting only 5 percent of its proposed P77-billion budget for 2021, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), as Secretary Eduardo del Rosario wrote in his column in the Property section of this paper (1/30/21), is “more than ready to face the challenges of 2021 head on.”…
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Who asked for a white sand beach in Manila Bay? Definitely not the 15,000 or so families languishing in poverty, hunger, and joblessness in Baseco, the biggest coastal informal settlement in Manila. Of course, the truckloads of crushed dolomite boulders that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) allowed…
Comments closedI recently came across a news article about the country’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which read, “CARP did more harm than good to farm sector, says economist.” The program, the article said, caused the fragmentation of agricultural lands and the eventual disempowerment of farmers who could not sustain the…
Comments closedI was deeply shaken by the recent torture and death of Randall “Randy” Echanis, chair of Anakpawis and tireless advocate for the poor and landless. When the first reports emerged, I thought it was strange that his killing departed from the usual modus operandi of hired assassins, with which we…
Comments closedIt was with a sense of horror that I read the headline a while ago: US buys nearly all global stock of coronavirus drug remdesivir. “President Trump has struck an amazing deal to ensure Americans have access to the first authorized therapeutic for COVID-19,” the US health and human services…
Comments closedLawmakers defending the anti-terrorism bill have reacted to what they perceive to be exaggerated fears among the bill’s critics. The fears could be exaggerated, but they make a lot of sense coming from a traumatized people. I do not refer to the trauma of martial law to which a number…
Comments closedThe spread of COVID-19 has brought into sharp relief the good, the bad, and the ugly in human nature. To start with the good: We all know the heroic story of whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang in Wuhan, who died in the course of his fight against the virus. We rely…
Comments closed“At sino ang aking kapwa?” (And who is my neighbor?) The title-question of the recent Philippine Conference on New Evangelization (PCNE) VII encapsulates the local Church’s call for “Dialogue Towards Harmony,” as the Church dedicates this year to the Year of Ecumenism, Interreligious Dialogue, and Indigenous Peoples (IPs). In the…
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Social solidarity for real change
In Myanmar a fragile decade of democracy has suddenly been snuffed out by a military coup. The country’s elected leaders were taken away in military vans in the dead of night, and slapped with flimsy charges that do not even begin to obscure the blatant power struggle at play. Water…