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…
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“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,…
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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…
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The 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…
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JJCICSI gathered NGOs workers, academics, and community leaders on November 18, 2017 for a forum titled “Do We Need Duterte’s Federalism and RevGov?” at the Walter Hogan Conference Hall, Ateneo de Manila University. The speakers were Atty. Christian S. Monsod, former member of the 1987 Constitutional Commission, and Dr. Ronald U. Mendoza,…
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Can 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…
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On November 18, 2016, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB). On this tragic day, people spontaneously expressed dissent, outrage and indignation at this betrayal of our beloved country by going out into the streets. We went out because we had not forgotten.…
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INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS are a glaring manifestation of poverty and inequality amid the growth and prosperity brought by urbanization, the spatial concentration of diverse populations and economic activities. Meeting the housing need of informal settlers, who make up a significant proportion of the urban population, has been and remains a daunting…
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After 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…
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Urban poor commission needs a champion
Hopes rose among the urban poor when President Duterte declared, during his first month in office, that his administration would not treat them like dogs by allowing the demolition of their houses. If relocation cannot be avoided, he said, he would be “very generous” and ensure the presence of job-creating…