The creation of a Department of Housing and Urban Development (House Bills 449, 1518, 1721, 3375, 3639, 5114) is an opportunity for transforming our presently anarchic urban development processes and improving the efficiency and quality of government housing programs and services. Unfortunately, the proposed bills leave much to be desired…
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Following the successful pilot seminar in August 2016, JJCICSI and the Department of Theology of the Ateneo de Manila University recently organized a series of one-day Catholic Social Teaching (CST) seminars for the Institute’s long-time partners in its advocacy work. Dubbed “Isiwalat ang Lihim! Mga Panlipunang Prinsipyong Katoliko sa Ating…
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“Any punitive or sheerly pragmatic approach, whether wielded by government or popular opinion in support of death by legal or non-legal means, denies the God-given value of human life, a value that can never be compromised.” As a social apostolate of the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus and…
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At Wacom4, Archbishop Villegas told our young people: “Do not be afraid to wait.” We say to you: “Do not be afraid to wait for us, the faithful.” The Holy Spirit moves ponderously among us, but with certainty. By Gemma Rita R. Marin, Liza L. Lim, and Patrick Z. Falguera,…
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“Paano na ang Pasko? Pinatay na ang tatay ko (What will Christmas be like? My father has been killed),” said one placard at the “Panunuluyan ng Maralitang Tagalungsod,” an annual tradition of urban poor groups reenacting the search of Mary and Joseph for a place where Jesus might be born.…
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A decade after the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act (JJWA) was enacted, it now faces its biggest challenge. Among the priority bills of President Duterte and his allies in Congress is the lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) from 15 to 9 years old. The MACR is…
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John J. Carroll, SJ probes into the Filipino blood lust that clamored for Echegaray’s execution and gives a cultural, social and Christian reflection on the death penalty. First published in the Intersect Volume 14, Nos. 4 and 5 April-May 1999 A witness to a hanging in the Philippines, in…
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I never thought I could be grateful to the Marcoses for anything. But their insistence on burying the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos’ remains in the Libingan ng mga Bayani has given me a precious gift: hope in the next generation. Until the day the Supreme Court ruled to allow the…
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A statement that appeared in an article in The Economist concerning the government’s decision to allow the burial of former president Ferdinand Marcos’ remains in the Libingan ng mga Bayani says it well: “… [A]s one strongman buries another, the Philippines appears to be moving backward, not forward.” It won’t…
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Where was the Church on Edsa anniversary?
Is the Church calling for people to march on the 25th?” a friend asked last week. By “Church” she meant not the community of the faithful but the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, a lapse into which even progressive Catholics can fall. Her hopes, and those of other Catholic…