“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet!” writes Rudyard Kipling in “The Ballad of East and West.” That seems an apt description of the politics in the Philippines. On one side, we have the government and its “diehard” supporters, and on the other,…
Comments closedCategory: Commentary
For a year and a half now, I have watched my country go insane. Thousands of the poor have been slaughtered in the antidrugs campaign, tens of thousands left grieving and destitute. Our leaders threaten to shut down democratic institutions and kill human rights defenders. Yet the latest Social Weather…
Comments closedThe Duterte administration has not had many polite things to say about the Catholic Church. Its rudest assaults on the Church have been triggered by Catholic criticism of its antidrug campaign, in which thousands of mostly poor suspects have been killed. For those Catholics who consider the defense of human…
Comments closedCan a Christian support the government’s war on drugs that has already claimed thousands of lives? If the surveys are to be believed, the majority of this predominantly Christian nation has spoken. Despite the Fifth Commandment, which they have memorized since childhood, and the often-heard Church’s teaching that killing is…
Comments closedAfter that terrible week in August in which the police killed 81 drug suspects, a Roman Catholic friend announced she was about to “excommunicate” herself from her parish. Bishop Honesto Ongtioco had told parishes in his diocese of Cubao to toll their bells each night in memory of those killed…
Comments closedAs the bloody campaign against illegal drugs and crime continues under the present administration, the Church in the Philippines is addressing the mounting mortality by establishing community-based drug rehabilitation programs as a form of compassionate care and systematic intervention in order to reduce those who are being killed. Read the…
Comments closedRice importation has been a hot topic these past months. Last March, the National Food Authority insisted on not allowing private-sector rice imports even if it meant defying the NFA Council’s decision of a month-long extension on rice importation. In April, a Cabinet undersecretary was sacked by President Duterte for…
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BBL before Charter change
As the two chambers of Congress find themselves in an impasse over the convening of a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution, a fortunate digression has brought the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) back on the administration’s priority legislative agenda, where it should be. The Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), which had…