Approaching
heaven by doing good on earth
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
November 16, 2022
THAT parable Christ told
his disciples about a certain nobleman who was in a journey to
obtain a kingship somewhere and leaving his servants with certain
amounts for them to do business with (cfr. Lk 19,11-28), gives us
the precious lesson that the way to heaven is through the path of
generosity and fruitfulness in our earthly affairs.
The parable was occasioned
when the people thought that with Christ speaking to them, the
Kingdom of God would appear there immediately. It was meant to tell
them that the way to heaven was to take care of their earthly and
temporal affairs.
It was meant to tell us
that our earthly affairs are actually designed by God to bring us
back to him, and it would be up to us to follow that design or not.
Of course, knowing how we are, there is always the tendency to
follow simply our own designs rather than God’s. And that’s
something we have to be wary of and to correct.
We should be very clear
about this basic truth about the world in general or about the whole
of nature that has been created by God. We need to realize that as
God’s creation, the whole world of nature has been imprinted with
God’s laws that are meant to give glory to God and to lead us also
to him, giving him glory as well. In other words, depending on how
we see the world, it is actually a pathway to heaven, to God.
Everything that we
discover and make use of in the world should lead us to ask
ourselves whether what we are discovering are truly in accordance to
God’s will, to his true designs of the world, and whether we can
discern how they can be used to give glory to God, which is a matter
of loving him and serving the whole of humanity.
We have to be wary of the
danger of discovering and using things simply in accordance to our
own understanding of them and also to our own interest only. This is
a common and abiding danger that we have to be most wary about. We
have to do everything to avoid and overcome that danger.
Thus, we have to develop
that strong and deep attitude of always referring things to God
before we put our hands on them. That way, we would be putting
ourselves on the right track that hopefully will lead us to God and
to see and use things the way they should be seen and used.
This attitude, of course,
would require of us to be guided always by our Christian faith,
instead of just being guided by our human estimation of things. And
for that faith to be effective in us, we obviously need to be
humble. Without humility, there is no way faith can have any effect
on us.
Everyday, we should be
keenly aware that we need to be fruitful and productive. That’s
simply because even from the beginning of our creation in Adam and
Even, this has always been God’s will for us.
We should be looking for
God always in everything that we get involved in. In all the things
that we do or handle, we should be conscious that all those things
are for God, rather than being interested only on what are there in
those things that are for us.
Let’s always remember what
Christ himself said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Mt 6,33)
Tall tales on
human rights situation expected from PH gov’t on 4th UPR
A press statement by
KARAPATAN Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights on the 4th
cycle of the Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights
Council
November 14, 2022
There is nothing new with
the Philippine government’s report on the human rights situation in
the Philippines, when it is subjected to the 4th cycle of the
Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council.
We expect the tall tales
and big words – “transformational reform,” “real justice in real
time” – which are empty rhetoric. The same words were used during
diplomatic briefings, statements, and reports to the UN Human Rights
Committee.
But facts, experiences and
implementation of policies on the ground reveal the realities.
According to the UP Third
World Studies Center, from July 1, 2022 to November 7, 2022, 127
individuals died in Marcos Jr.’s drug war. Majority of them were
killed by state agents, despite the Philippine National Police’s
claims of “bloodless” anti-narcotics operations under the Marcos Jr.
administration.
There is almost no
successful prosecution and zero final convictions of perpetrators in
the sham drug war of former President Rodrigo Duterte. The drug war
review panel has been reporting investigations on a number of cases
– but then again, investigations on extrajudicial killings incidents
since 2016 can barely be considered as “real justice in real time.”
Karapatan agrees with
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan, in his
statements in September 2022, that the Philippine government has not
demonstrated that it has conducted or is conducting national
investigations on the thousands of cases of extrajudicial killings
in the drug war that mirror the probe previously authorized by the
ICC’s pre-trial chamber. And hence, the ICC chamber should commence
investigations, despite the Philippine government’s refusal to be
subjected to such.
Karapatan documented 442
civilians, mostly peasants, indigenous and Moro peoples killed
during the Duterte administration’s counterinsurgency campaign. At
least 222 of them are human rights defenders. Ten civilians have
been reportedly killed by elements of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines during the first three months of the Marcos Jr.
administration, while four defenders have been forcibly disappeared.
According to a report in
June 2020, the Task Force on Administrative Order 35 mechanism,
which has been mandated to solve cases of political violence in the
form of extra-legal killings (EJKs), enforced disappearances (ED),
torture and other grave violations of the right to life, liberty and
security of persons, handled 385 cases since 2001, with 270 cases of
extrajudicial killings, 28 cases of enforced disappearance, 7 cases
on international humanitarian law, and 80 cases of torture. During
the said period, Karapatan has documented 1,953 extrajudicial
killings, 252 enforced disappearances, and 1,570 victims of torture.
In the TF’s ten years, it
has attained convictions in only 13 cases, that is about only 3% of
the 385 cases. It was also cited that in at least 127 cases,
perpetrators have been cleared through acquittals and dismissals in
court, or through dismissals by the Ombudsman, or through dismissals
or provisional dismissals by the prosecution. This number comprises
33% of the 385 cases being handled by the AO35 IAC, while the rest
continue to be under investigation.
Injustice and the climate
of impunity clearly prevail, and the Marcos Jr. administration
perpetuates it by continuing Duterte’s draconian policies. There
have been no reversals of police memoranda on the drug war, nor is
the administration backing down on the existence and operations of
the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
To date, there are 842
political prisoners in the Philippines, with 15 of them arrested and
detained under the current administration. The government continues
the practice of filing trumped up charges against political
dissidents through spurious search warrants, planted evidence,
perjured testimonies and inaccessibility of due process, and thereby
putting more human rights defenders in jail.
Red- and terror-tagging,
along with the use of terror laws, have become the default responses
of the government against any form of dissent and criticism. Freedom
of expression and press freedom remain in peril, with journalists
among those killed in the first months of the Marcos Jr.
administration. There is gross disregard of international
humanitarian law as bombings, forcible evacuation and forced or
coerced surrenders of poor civilian communities continue.
All these occur amid an
intensifying economic crisis and the pandemic affecting the poorest
of the poor, with high inflation rates, unemployment and
underemployment rates, dirt-poor wages and decreased public funding
for social services.
The Marcos Jr.
administration cannot hide behind empty platitudes, nor can it be
window-dressed by a Joint Program with the UN. It cannot sugar-coat
the dire lack of effective domestic mechanisms for redress, nor can
it spin tales using a religious fundamentalist network, trolls, and
disinformation machines. The bare, glaring realities are there.
In this 4th cycle of the
UPR on the Philippines, we expect various States to once again call
for an end to the killings and all human rights violations. We
expect stronger demands for justice and accountability. We expect
stronger advocacy for the issuance of standing invitations to UN
Special Procedures. We call on the UN Human Rights Council to walk
the talk in their recommendations in the UPR, and finally pave the
way for the long overdue independent investigation on the Philippine
human rights situation.
Marriage and
human sexuality
By Fr.
ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
November 6, 2022
THAT gospel episode where
Christ was asked about marriage and divorce (cfr. Lk 20,27-38) gives
us an occasion to clarify the true nature and purpose of both human
sexuality and marriage. It’s a clarification that, I believe, is
most urgent these days, considering the widespread ignorance,
confusion and error these aspects of our human life now suffer.
Our main problem with
respect to our understanding and attitude toward human sexuality is
that this has been reduced to a purely biological and human aspect
of hormones, passions, urges, instincts, sensual stimuli and genital
activity, and a naturalistic sense of decency and nothing more.
This is giving it an
incomplete, inadequate if not distorted and dangerous treatment. We
need to bring it to the terra firma of its true nature and
character, its authentic beginning, purpose and end, away from the
swamps and marshes of the sensually, if not genitally, dominated
aspect.
Sexuality is reduced to
sex. Worse, sex is made the end-all of our sexuality. All other
considerations are made secondary, and even ignored, ridiculed and
finally rejected. Thus, there is that growing, headlong drift toward
an erotic and pornographic culture, at first hidden and later open.
Because of this
phenomenon, sexuality is not anymore inspired by reason, let alone,
by faith and love. Instead, the savagery of the passions and urges
is given free rein, with the matching fruits of all kinds of
anomalies and perversions.
Many people are abandoning
even the basic natural idea of masculinity and femininity. That our
sexuality is first of all a gift from God, meant to enable men and
women to complement each other not only for human development but
ultimately for the final communion among ourselves and with God, is
forgotten.
As to marriage, there is
no doubt that we need to revisit its true nature and purpose, since
this basic human and Christian institution is now besieged with so
many misconceptions and malpractices.
There is a need to realize
and appreciate more deeply that marriage, not only as a natural
institution but also and especially as a sacrament, is a path to
sanctity not only for the husband and wife but also for the family,
and from the family, for the society and the Church in general.
We need to see the organic
link among these key elements: the marriage between man and woman,
and the family they generate, as well as the society of which the
family is the basic cell and the universal Church of which the
family is considered the domestic church.
Seeing that link, we would
appreciate the strategic role that marriage plays in the life of men
and women in the world. We would appreciate the tremendous potential
good that marriage can give to all of us.
That is why everything has
to be done to make marriage achieve its fullest dignity. And that
means that we have to purify and elevate the love that is the very
germ of marriage to the supernatural order.
That love has to develop
from simply being natural and body-emotion-world reliant to being
more and more spiritual and supernatural, driven by grace rather
than by merely natural forces.
With the sacrament of
marriage, the love between husband and wife is already guaranteed to
have all the graces needed to make that marriage reach its fullness.
What is needed is the faithful and generous correspondence of the
parties concerned to those graces.
The art of holy
insistence
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
October 9, 2022
YES, there is such thing
as the art of holy insistence. This was shown, for example, in that
story Christ told his disciples about someone who went to his
friend-store-owner in the middle of the night asking for bread
because a friend of his just arrived and was hungry. He was refused
at first by the store-owner, but due to his insistence, he was given
what he asked for. (cfr. Lk 11,5-13)
The lesson Christ wanted
to impart to his disciples in this particular gospel is encapsulated
in these words of his: “And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and
to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
And the reason why such
insistence is recommended is because God is always a father who can
never be indifferent to the needs of men. He may ask us for some
requirements or choose to test us for a time, but he in the end will
always give what is best for us. This point was articulated by
Christ in a most dramatic way when he said:
“What father among you
would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a
scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the
Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
This truth of our faith is
also highlighted in that gospel episode about a Canaanite woman who
begged Christ to drive the demon that vexed her daughter. (cfr. Mt
15,21-18) Christ at first did not respond favorably. He even sounded
harsh on her. But due to the faith-driven insistence of the woman,
Christ finally gave in.
We should just be
insistent in our petitions to God. No matter how hard or even
impossible our requests would seem, we should not hesitate to go to
God to present such petition. God will always listen and answers us
in the way that is best for us, which may not be the one we like or
expect.
We should never think that
we are bothering God by asking for some favors. Our prayers will
never go unnoticed with God who is all generous with us. In fact, he
will give us much more than what we may be asking for.
So, let’s just be
insistent and persevering in our prayer. Besides, doing so will
eventually give us new lights, insights and impulses that will leave
us amazed at the goodness and kindness of God, his mercy and
all-embracing love. It will rekindle or at least fan into a flame
our dying fire of love for God and for others.
When we persevere in
meditating on the words of God found in the gospel, for example, we
would be astonished at how old familiar passages and ideas acquire
new meaning and open to us practically a whole new world of insights
that can inspire us to action and different initiatives.
And if God seems to ignore
us, we have to realize that he is simply testing us for a number of
reasons – to strengthen our faith, to purify our intentions, to grow
in the other virtues, etc.
Deepening our
belief in angels
By Fr.
ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
September 27, 2022
WE might wonder why on the
Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, celebrated on
September 29, the gospel reading used is about the vocation of
Nathanael as one of Christ’s apostles. (cfr. Jn 1,47-51)
As that gospel narrates,
Nathanael who was praised by Christ as a man with no guile since he
said that famous line, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
referring to Christ, finally came to believe in Christ when Christ
told him that Christ saw him under the fig tree. That was when
Nathanael recognized Christ as the “Son of God, the King of Israel.”
The only reference to
angels in that gospel episode was when Christ said, “Amen, amen, I
say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man,” addressing these words
to the bewildered Nathanael.
So, the thought can come
to us that the reason Nathanael came to recognize Christ was because
he must have seen some extraordinary things while he was under the
fig tree. And the possibility of angels ministering to the Son of
God who is also the Son of Man must have taken place there.
Whatever may be the case,
we cannot deny that there must be some relation between being
transparent and simple like Nathanael, even to the point of being
childishly impertinent, and the capacity or the privilege to see
some extraordinary events.
It’s always worthwhile to
remain simple and humble like children because, as Christ himself
said, the things of God are hidden from the wise the learned and are
revealed instead to the little children. (cfr. Mt 11,25)
In any event, it is also
important that our belief in angels and archangels grows strong and
abiding. In fact, we have to popularize their devotion. The
archangels, for example, are great allies that we can count on
especially during our difficult moments. They are so close and so
identified with God that we can refer to them as God’s organic or
vital extensions of his own self, if we may describe them that.
Remember what Christ said
about angels in general? It was when he talked about the angels of
little children whom the disciples wanted to shoo away from Christ
for being a disturbance. “See that you do not despise one of these
little ones,” he said. “For I tell you that their angels in heaven
always see the face of my Father in heaven.” (Mt 18,10)
Angels, to be sure, are
real beings. They are not fictional, figments of our imagination,
projections of what we like to have. They are pure spirits who have
entirely identified themselves with God. They are not God
themselves, but creatures of God who upon their creation have chosen
to be with God for all eternity.
And among them are the
archangels. They are especially chosen by God to undertake some
special tasks. They help us in our constant struggle against
temptations and sin, in receiving some special messages from God and
in healing some difficult sicknesses.
It’s important that we be
aware of the existence of these very powerful archangels who, for
sure, would be most willing and most happy to help us in their own
way. We just have to enliven our faith in them and develop the
appropriate devotion.
Observing the
International Day of Peace in the context of the 50th year of
Martial Law
A statement by the
Citizens Alliance for Just Peace on the 50th year of Martial Law
September 21, 2022
Today, September 21, 2022,
the world will observe the annual International Day of Peace.
Forty-one years ago, in 1981, the United Nations issued the
“declaration on the right to peace” which affirmed peace as a sacred
right of all people and a primary prerequisite for the material
wellbeing, development and the progress of countries. The UN also
emphasized that the preservation of the right of peoples to peace
and the promotion of its implementation constitute a fundamental
obligation of each state.
While this year’s theme,
“End racism. Build peace.” is not directly related to the internal
armed conflict in our country, the United Nations´ message of ending
discrimination and intolerance resonates in our context in terms of
the rampant red-tagging and vilification often directed towards
critics of the immediate past administration and even under the
current dispensation. Many government officials especially those
involved in the National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed
Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) have resorted to demonizing human rights and
peace advocates as “communist terrorists” instead of nurturing a
culture of dialogue and principled negotiations.
In the Philippines,
September 21, 2022 is also the 50th anniversary of the imposition of
Martial Law by the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. In those
dark years, many fell victim to human rights violations. Many others
also died defending our democratic rights. Marcos Sr. imposed
Martial Law to “nip the communist insurgency in the bud,” however,
it only fanned the flames of the armed conflict between the
government and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s
Army (CPP-NPA).
Now, 50 years later, and
after succeeding administrations intensified their respective
counter-insurgency programs aimed at defeating the communist
rebellion, the armed conflict has continued to rage particularly in
the countryside causing internal displacement in the most vulnerable
communities. This long-running conflict only mirrors how deeply
embedded are its roots in social and structural injustice.
This is compounded by the
Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (ATA), with its vague and broad
definition of terrorism. Red-baiting is now paired with terrorist-labelling.
The draconian law grants police and military personnel the power to
detain suspects “for investigation” without a warrant or charge up
to 24 days. Moreover, the ATA virtually negates the accountability
of law enforcement agents for violating the rights of suspects.
The NTF-ELCAC and the ATA
have brought about stepped-up political repression against the
political opposition, trade unionists, community organizers,
journalists, artists and writers, peace and human rights advocates
and ordinary people. This includes red-tagging of social activists
including church people and churches; attacks on indigenous
communities and their schools; and harassment of humanitarian aid
groups and their workers. Sadly, the wielding of both the NTF-ELCAC
and the ATA continue under the administration of President Ferdinand
Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte.
It was thus a breath of
fresh air when Sen. Loren Legarda called for the resumption of the
GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and a review of the ATA at the Senate
floor. Her speech is a call for sobriety, unity and openness amidst
an atmosphere of hatred and war that is being pushed by war mongers
even among her colleagues.
Let us mark the
International Day of Peace and the 50th year of Martial Law on
September 21 with the call for the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace
talks. Peace is a continuing aspiration of our people. Calling for
the ways of peace through principled negotiations is to reject a
militarist solution, of martial rule in any guise.
Thus, the Citizens
Alliance for Just Peace, the biggest network of peace advocates in
the country, enjoins the public in this historic occasion by calling
on the GRP and NDFP to return to the negotiating table and together
put an end to the increasing human rights violations and the loss of
lives as a result of this conflict and arrive at a just and enduring
peace in the country.
Issued and signed on this
day, 21 September 2022.
Archbishop Emeritus Antonio J. Ledesma, S.J., D.D.
Co-chairperson, PEPP
The Rt.
Revd. Rex B. Reyes, Jr.
Co-chairperson, PEPP
Dr.
Carol Araullo
Convenor, Pilgrims for Peace
Ms. Karen Tanada
Convenor, Waging Peace
Mike Pante, Ph.D.
Act for Peace
Even Christ
needed to pray
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
August 2, 2022
“JESUS made the disciples
get into a boat and precede him to the other side of the sea, while
he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain
by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone.” (Mt
14,22-23)
As can be clearly seen in
this gospel passage, even Christ had need to pray. As God, we can
say that he had no need to pray. As man, of course, he had to. But
Christ is one divine person. When he prayed, we have to understand
that he prayed both as God and man.
This consideration can
only mean that prayer is an essential and indispensable element in
God and man who has been created in God’s image and likeness. We
need to realize that prayer is an essential and indispensable
element in our life. Without prayer, we would actually violate our
humanity.
We need to understand that
we need prayer more than we need air or water or food. Prayer is
what connects us and likens us to God. Prayer is what makes our life
a life with God as it should be. We should, therefore, cultivate a
life of prayer, making prayer like an instinct, such that whatever
we are doing, whatever situation we may be in, we should be praying.
To be sure, prayer can be
done anytime, anywhere. Praying is not simply a matter of reciting
some vocal prayers or participating in liturgical prayers. It is not
only a matter of meditating on some truths of our faith. All of
these are very important, of course, and highly recommended. They
are the basics to learn if we wish to develop a working life of
prayer.
The ultimate prayer is
when our very consciousness always has God in Christ through the
Holy Spirit as its core. This may be described as contemplative
prayer which will have its definitive state in heaven when we see
God face to face and when our identification with him becomes
perfect. This is when we will have the beatific vision.
We have to understand that
it’s when we pray, that is, when we truly pray and not just going
through the motions of praying, that we would be engaging ourselves
with the most important person in our life, God himself. He is
absolutely our everything, without whom nothing and no one has any
importance.
It’s when we pray that we
manage to relate who we are, what we have, what we do, etc. to our
ultimate end which, to be sure, is not something only natural but is
also supernatural. Nothing therefore can rival the importance of
prayer. In other words, prayer is irreplaceable, unsubstitutable,
indispensable. It’s never optional, though it has to be done freely
if we want our prayer to be real prayer.
The absolutely important
thing that makes prayer real prayer is when we manage to give all
our mind and heart to God in whatever thing we do or in whatever
situation we may find ourselves in. That’s why St. Paul once said,
“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thes 5,17) That’s simply because our
whole life has to be a prayer, since it is meant to be in constant
and intimate relationship with God.
So, even our work and all
our earthly concerns can be made into prayer as long as we have the
proper motive and frame of mind.
‘Absolute Savagery’
Philippine
solidarity groups denounce Myanmar junta’s execution of four
democracy activists
Statement by the Burma
Solidarity Philippines (BSP) on military junta’s execution of
activists in Myanmar
July 29, 2022
We, members of various
civil society and solidarity organizations belonging to the Burma
Solidarity Philippines (BSP) coalition, today join the world and the
international community in strongly condemning the illegitimate
military rulers of Myanmar for its ‘barbaric’ execution of four
pro-democracy activists and extend our deepest condolences to their
families and heartfelt solidarity to the peoples of Burma/Myanmar in
their continuing quest for genuine democracy, peace, and social
justice.
The international
community, particularly the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), must hold the junta accountable for its casual disregard
for human life and for its continuing violation of human rights as
part of its crackdown on dissent after illegally seizing state power
from the democratically elected civilian government in February
2021.
Among the four who were
sentenced to death after series of secretive military trials were
democracy campaigner Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Jimmy, and former
lawmaker and hip-hop artist Phyo Zeya Thaw, an ally of ousted leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw. All 4 were
accused by the junta of aiding ‘terror acts’ which reportedly
stemmed from helping the protest movement sparked by last year's
military coup and bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.
Solidarity movements like
the Burma Solidarity Philippines (BSP), have been calling out the
ASEAN to swiftly act to de-escalate the political crisis which has
now become a full-blown human rights crisis, and ‘to save the
peoples of Myanmar’ from the onslaught of its errant member Myanmar
under its coup rulers.
The military junta in June
announced that it will resume executing prisoners with 113 more who
have been sentenced to death, although 41 of those were convicted in
absentia, according to the Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners (AAPP), a non-governmental organization that tracks
killing and arrests of activists in Myanmar. At the same time, 2,120
civilians have been killed by security forces since the military
takeover according to AAPP.
The execution of the 4
martyr-activists in Myanmar is a clear indication that the military
rulers of Myanmar have zero intent to heed international appeals to
even try to implement the five-point consensus it has committed to
achieve with the ASEAN last year calling for dialogue among all
concerned parties, provision of humanitarian assistance, an
immediate cessation of violence and a visit by a special envoy to
meet all parties.
The execution is just
another proof of the junta’s absolute savagery in ruling the country
and the people through lies, impunity and massive human rights
violations. The international community, including the ASEAN, must
instead ensure that the junta will not be accorded any semblance of
legitimacy.
Certainly, the execution
of activists is a death sentence to democracy in Myanmar and may
derail any attempts to peacefully resolve the crisis but we hope
that this would serve as an eye-opener for those who have been
treating the junta with kid gloves. Another dialogue initiative,
without a clear framework for exacting accountability from the
military rulers will only mean condoning and becoming complicit of
the junta’s murderous actions.
We call on the ASEAN and
the international community to help in amplifying the demands of the
peoples of Myanmar for the immediate return to democracy,
investigation of crimes against humanity, release of all political
prisoners and those who were tortured and illegally detained, and
protection to human rights by applying more pressure to the junta.
Today, the Burma
Solidarity Philippines stands united with the peoples of
Burma/Myanmar.
The cost in
pursuing heaven
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
July 27, 2022
CHRIST said it clearly. To
pursue the kingdom of God, we should be willing to rid ourselves of
things that can cause us some drag in that effort, or to sell off
what we have at the moment to get the real thing.
Thus, he said: “The
Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a
person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that
he has and buys that field.” Reiterating the same idea, he continued
to say, “Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching
for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and
sells all that he has and buys it.” (Mt 13,44-46)
There will always be some
sacrifice involved in pursuing our ultimate goal which is to be with
God, our Creator, in whose image and likeness we have been created,
and in whose life we are meant to share. In this regard, let’s try
to be generous, not sparing in our effort. It’s all worth it!
We have to be wary of our
tendency to get attached and trapped in the things of this world at
the expense of our real treasure. We have to remember that it is
actually the best deal we can have to “sell off” what we have in
this world to be able to get the real thing.
Some words of Christ can
be relevant in this regard. He said: “Everyone who has left houses
or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or
fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will
inherit eternal life.” (Mt 19,29)
All these Christ-dictated
indications do not mean that we have to hate the things of this
world. The things of this world are also God’s creation and
therefore are good. God created them in such a way that they become
pathways for us to go to God. They too deserve to be loved in a
certain way. They are means to get to God, and not the end itself.
Thus, we should be careful not to get entangled with them.
How important therefore
that we realize that our first priority should be God and our
relationship with him which should be sustained with the constant
effort to know, love and serve him! We should be ready to throw away
everything else that can stand in the way.
We have to make some
adjustments in the way we order our objective needs. We have to
distinguish them from our subjective likes and desires that can only
be the product of some personal or social preferences. In this we
have to employ the appropriate means, the relevant programs and
operations. We should be demanding on ourselves insofar as this
matter is concerned.
We have to do some drastic
effort here because we cannot deny that nowadays, there are just too
many things that can seduce us and take us away from God.
We need God first of all,
and, in fact, all the time. He is our most important objective need,
much more and infinitely more than we need air, food, rest,
pleasures, etc. For without God, we are nothing. But with him, we
can have everything. That is why, St. Teresa Avila boldly said: “He
who has God lacks nothing. God alone is sufficient.”
Act of Terror and Brutality
Tatmadaw
execute four pro-democracy activists
A press statement by the
Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
July 25, 2022
The Asia Democracy Network
and its members all over Asia condemns the execution by the Myanmar
Junta of four Myanmar activists. The four activists – former NLD
lawmaker and hiphop artist Phyo Zeya Thaw, democracy campaigner Kyaw
Min Yu also known as "Ko Jimmy ", activists Hla Myo Aung and Aung
Thura Zaw – were executed by the Myanmar Junta for their roles in
the anti-coup protests, an act which the Junta deemed as "terror
acts". All four were sentenced to death by hanging in closed-door
and largely unfair trials held sometime January to April this year,
with their exact date of execution kept secret.
Such brutality is an
escalation of the Tatmadaw's reign of brutality in Myanmar,
something which has already claimed the lives of more than 2,100
since the coup started, according to Assistance Association of
Political Prisoners (AAPP). We ask the international community to be
more resolute in their actions regarding the situation of democracy
in Myanmar. This hesitance to act only provides the Military Junta
to claim more lives and enact more suffering to the people of
Myanmar whose freedoms continue to be held captive. We send our
condolences to the family of the four victims, and we pledge our
resolute effort and solidarity with pro-democracy forces in Myanmar
who continue to work to attain freedom from the Tatmadaw's
brutality.
ADN
Seoul, South Korea
Paglambo Project:
Promoting financial inclusion for Muslim communities
By
JAIME ARISTOTLE B. ALIP,
PhD
July 11, 2022
President Ferdinand
Marcos, Jr. has declared July 9 a regular holiday in observance of
Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), one of the two greatest Islam
holidays. Eid al-Adha marks the end of hajj, a key pillar of Islam
that able-bodied Muslims must undertake at least once in their
lives. This observance of an important holiday for our Muslim
brothers and sisters is good for inclusive development. Islam is
practiced by roughly five percent of Filipinos from a variety of
ethnolinguistic groups, over half of whom live in Mindanao.
Beyond the observance of
holidays, however, is a serious need for the government to address
the poverty situation in Muslim communities. The three poorest
provinces in the country are predominantly Muslim. Based on the 2018
Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) of the Philippine
Statistics Authority (PSA), the poorest regions are ARMM, Region 9,
Region 8, CARAGA, and Region 12. Four of these regions are in
Mindanao, but the most impoverished is the Bangsamoro Autonomous
Region, which has a poverty incidence of 61.3 percent. This means
that three out of every five persons in the region are poor. The
situation is even worse in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Sulu, and
Basilan, where nearly two out of every three people are poor.
Financially Excluded
According to the Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), about 7 in 10 adult Filipinos are
financially excluded and do not have accounts, or access to
much-needed financial services. Financial exclusion affects millions
of Filipinos in the lower income class, the youth, the unemployed,
and the less educated. Financial exclusion is also prevalent among
senior citizens, migrant workers and their families, persons with
disabilities, indigenous peoples, forcibly displaced persons, and
others who are unable to get access to finance due to their
religious beliefs.
There is a religious and
cultural dimension to the issue of Muslim Filipinos’ lack of access
to financial services which could help raise their productivity and
standard of living. Sharīʿah (also spelled sharia) is the Islamic
religious law that governs the day-to-day life of Muslims. The
sharia prohibits interest charging, as this equates with usury (riba).
It forbids speculative transactions involving risks (gharar), and
avoids transactions on sinful things (haram), such as pork, alcohol
and gambling. These tenets limit Muslims’ participation in the
formal financial system.
A truly inclusive
financial system necessitates sharia-compliant financial services
for Muslims. This is problematic because there is only one Islamic
bank in the country, the Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank. In the
meantime, a few microfinance institutions (coops and NGOs in
Mindanao) supported by Peace and Equity Foundation; the ASA
Philippines Foundation; and the Center for Agriculture and Rural
Development (CARD) are filling in the gap, making banking, credit,
microinsurance, remittance, and other financial services available
to Muslim communities.
The Paglambo Project
The Paglambo Project is a
sharia-inspired microfinancing program that CARD started in 2018. It
resulted from a series of dialogues and learning visits between two
Ramon Magsaysay awardees: the Dompet Dhuafa, an Indonesian
non-profit organization, which won the Magsaysay Award in 2016, and
CARD MRI, which won the Magsaysay Award for Public Service in 2008.
CARD developed the Paglambo Project based on the Dompet Dhuafa’s
successful Islamic microfinance and banking scheme in Indonesia.
Starting with only two
units composed of clients from 56 Muslim families in Marawi, Lanao
del Sur and Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, the Paglambo Project
expanded quickly. Attesting to the urgent need for financing in the
area, clients grew to more than 4,000 after only a year of
operation. As of June 2022, the Paglambo Project has 54 units in
Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Zamboanga City, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.
There are now more than 76,000 clients, with a capital build-up of
more than 164 million pesos. Their average loan repayment rate is
very high, at 99.35 percent. In 2021, its unit in Kapatagan,
Maguindanao had a 100% repayment rate despite the COVID pandemic.
Sharia-Compliant
The success of the project
lies in its sharia-compliant financial products and services. For
instance, it has an education loan program based on Islam’s
Murabahah. The Murabahah concept allows the borrower to obtain money
from the lender to buy goods for his business. The parties agree on
the mark-up on the goods, thus, the lender gets a fixed profit based
on the agreement. This eliminates the interest system, which Islam
prohibits. A Kafalah Islamic contract was added to the existing
financing contract, since many Muslim families also needed funds for
their children’s school expenses.
Apart from designing
financial products suited to the needs of the community, all staff
are trained to observe cultural sensitivity. Courtesy calls to
Muslim elders were made to introduce the program, as well as
coordination with village leaders and local organizations.
Communication was key, as attested by the manager in Kapatagan,
whose unit clients grew because she was able to explain that the
financial products under Paglambo is halal or in accord with the
Islamic faith.
The Paglambo Project shows
that financial inclusion in Muslim areas is possible via Islamic
microfinance. The government can assist community-based
organizations that deliver sharia-compliant products by putting up
needed infrastructure to make hard-to-reach areas accessible. Apart
from providing more funds for financial services targeting the poor
and vulnerable, it could also set aside Islamic financing to help
micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) offering halal products
and services. Partnerships between public and private providers
should be encouraged, to serve more Muslim communities.
Again, Eid al-Adha Mubarak
to our Muslim brothers and sister! Wishing your families peace,
harmony, happiness, good health and prosperity!
Make war to gain
peace
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
July 10, 2022
THAT is not a smart-alecky
statement. It has to be taken seriously, since in a sense it comes
from Christ himself. Note what he said in the Gospel of St. Matthew:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have
come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man
against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be
those of his household.” (10,34-36)
But lest we think such statement is just a capricious, if not evil
desire of Christ, he made some clarification. “Whoever loves father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take
up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds
his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will
find it.” (10,37-39)
It’s clear that Christ wants us to make war against anything that
would prevent us from being with him. And it is only with him when
we can have our true and lasting joy and peace.
We just have to make sure though that when we wage war as suggested
by Christ, we do it not out of hatred against anybody or anything,
since God loves everyone and everything that he created. We have to
do it with the same love God has for everyone and everything. It’s
actually a war of peace and love.
We have to understand that in this life we have to make war to have
peace. And peace can only come about, at least in this life, as a
consequence of some war. Our life here on earth will always be a war
of peace. We should not be surprised by this phenomenon anymore. It
should be a given.
The war we will be waging here on earth will be a constructive war,
not destructive. It is a war to win our way toward heaven. It is a
war to make ourselves “another Christ,” a new man, stepping out of
the old man that we all are due to sin. Any obstacle along the way,
including those who are very close to us but who compete with God
for our love, should be fought and rejected.
We have to remember that we always have to contend with powerful
enemies in our spiritual life. The first one would be our own
selves, our own flesh that has been weakened by sin. There is such
thing as concupiscence, a certain attraction to evil that leads us
to have a lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and the pride of life.
Yes, our Christian life here on earth will always involve some war,
some struggle and effort, some combat. But all of this would be done
in peace and for peace. The combination may sound incredible, but
that is what Christ is showing and telling us.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace,” he
told his disciples. “In this world you will have trouble, but take
heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33) If by faith and
effort, we do our best to stick with Christ, we know that victory is
always assured for us. Peace is gained by making some war.
Christ’s real
presence in the Eucharist
By Fr.
ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
June 14, 2022
WE have to make sure that
our faith in the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is
always kept alive and strong. Let’s take advantage of the Solemnity
of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord (Corpus Christi) to
check our faith in this most crucial truth. We know that we never do
enough in this regard, since what we have before us is truly
tremendous and overwhelming a mystery.
In the gospel of this
year’s celebration of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, we are
presented again with that story of the multiplication of the 5
loaves of bread and 2 fish. (cfr. Lk 9,11-17) We are made to
understand that the mystery of the real presence of Christ in the
Eucharist goes far beyond what we can see and understand. We have to
go strictly by faith.
It’s when we can capture
this truth of our faith that we become Eucharistic souls. To be
Eucharistic souls means to be a real person who is both grounded and
oriented properly. Yes, we need to be Eucharistic in mind and heart,
because the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is where we have our
most precious treasure, our everything, our light, our purification,
our salvation.
That’s where we have
Christ not only in real presence, as in the Blessed Sacrament, nor
as spiritual food, as in the Holy Communion, but primarily as our
savior who continues to offer his life on the cross for us, as in
the Holy Mass.
We need to be theological
in our thinking to capture this reality and live in accordance to it
not only from time to time, but rather all the time and everywhere,
whatever our situation is.
We have to overcome the
very common phenomenon of treating the Holy Eucharist as just a
special part of our life that we may attend to in some special
moments of the day or on Sundays and holy days of obligation only.
If we believe that God is
everything to us, then we have to believe also that Christ, the son
of God who became man, is also everything to us. That’s why he said
he is “the way, the truth and the life, no one goes to the Father
except through me.”
Now, if we believe in
Christ as everything to us, then it follows that we have to believe
in the Holy Eucharist also as everything to us, since it is the Holy
Eucharist where the whole redemptive life of Christ is summarized
and sacramentalized, that is to say, made present to us through
time.
With the Holy Eucharist,
we become contemporaries of Christ in his most supreme act of
salvific love for us. But, alas, how many of us realize this, and
among those of us who do, how many have the skill to turn this
realization into a living reality?
We need to do a lot of
catechizing and discussion if only to air out the many possibilities
and practical considerations we can have to make the Holy Eucharist
everything to us not only in theory and aspiration, but also in
practice in our daily grind.
We therefore need to
enkindle our Eucharistic amazement and to intensify our Eucharistic
piety. In this matter, we can never overdo things. We should try our
best that our Eucharistic piety continues to grow strong and deep.
What does
Pentecost mean?
By Fr.
ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
June 1, 2022
EVEN if Christ already
died and ascended into heaven, his presence and mission continues to
be with us, this time through the Holy Spirit. “I will not leave you
as orphans,” he said. “I will come to you.” (Jn 14,18) It is the
Holy Spirit who will make Christ present in us and who will involve
us in the continuing redemptive work of Christ.
We have to understand that
the Holy Spirit perpetuates the presence and redemptive action of
Christ all throughout time, with all the drama, vagaries, ups and
downs that we men make in our history.
It has been prophesied
that God will pour out his Spirit upon all men. The Holy Spirit is
intended for all of us. We are all meant to be filled with the Holy
Spirit. But this divine will obviously has to contend with the way
we receive and do things, and that is, that we take to this reality
in stages involving a whole range of human means of teaching,
evangelizing, etc.
We need the Holy Spirit
because only in him can we truly recognize Christ. Only in him will
we be able to have Christ in our life, to remember all his words and
even to develop them to attune them to current needs and situations.
Only in him can we see
things properly. Especially these days when truth, justice and
charity have become very slippery, and people are left confounded
and vulnerable to fall into scepticism and cynicism, we need to be
in the Holy Spirit to be able to sort things out and stay away from
the mess.
We need the Holy Spirit to
be able to read the signs of the times properly. The world is
getting very complicated, and we definitely need the Holy Spirit to
guide us. We cannot rely anymore on our politicians and other
leaders. We, including politicians and especially them, actually
always need the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit acts on
each one of us in different ways but always for the common good. St.
Cyril has this to say about how the Holy Spirit comes to us:
“The Spirit comes gently
and makes himself known by his fragrance. He is not felt as a
burden, for he is light, very light. Rays of light and knowledge
stream before him as he approaches.
“The Spirit comes with the
tenderness of a true friend and protector to save, to heal, to
teach, to counsel, to strengthen, to console. The Spirit comes to
enlighten the mind first of the one who receives him, and then,
through him, the minds of others as well.”
We have to understand that
Christ’s redemptive mission is very much an ongoing affair, and he
involves all of us actually in this business. Those words that he
addressed to his apostles, giving them their mission, can be
considered as addressed to us also. And we can carry out that
mission because of the abiding work of the Holy Spirit in us. All we
have to do is to correspond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
We need to be familiar
with this Christian duty. We have to do apostolate, and we need to
see to it that the zeal for it is always nourished, stoked and
fanned to its most intense degree.
Yes, we are all meant to
be “another Christ” through the Holy Spirit, with the lifelong
concern for our sanctification and apostolate, taking advantage of
all the occasions and situations in life to pursue those goals!
Why it’s
difficult to believe in Christ
By Fr.
ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
May 10, 2022
“HOW
long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ,
tell us plainly.” (Jn 10,24)
Perhaps we too can ask the same question. In spite of what we
already know about Christ, we may still be harboring doubts as to
whether Christ is really the one he presents himself to be.
I believe the simple answer is that to believe in Christ requires
the grace of God. If we just rely on our human faculties, like our
intelligence and common sense, we would actually not go very far. At
a certain point, we would start to entertain doubts about who Christ
really is.
And that is also simply because Christ, while truly a man, is first
of all divine. He is a supernatural being. In fact, he is the
Supreme Being who has no beginning and no end. While we can know him
through his words and deeds as recorded in the gospel, he will
always remain a mystery still to us. He overwhelms our capacity to
know him.
With him, what we have to do is to believe first before we can start
to understand him more deeply. With him, we need to have faith first
before the operations of our intelligence and our other faculties do
their thing.
Thus, both St. Augustine and St. Anselm enunciated the proper way to
understand and believe in Christ. “Credo ut intellegam” (I believe
that I might understand) was what they were saying. They made an
appeal to follow first our faith before we start to use our
intelligence. Or better said, we have to make our reasoning be
inspired by our faith first.
We therefore have to see to it that we develop an operative faith.
Our faith should not remain only in the theoretical, intellectual
level. It has to be a functioning one, giving shape and direction in
our thoughts and intentions, our words and deeds. In fact, it should
shape our whole life.
The ideal is that we feel it immediately. Indeed, it should be like
an instinct such that whatever we think, say or do, or whenever we
have to react to something, it is our faith that should guide us.
We have to understand that it is our faith that gives us the global
picture of things, since it is God’s gift to us, a gratuitous
sharing of what God knows about himself and about the whole of
creation. It is meant for our own good, for us to live out our true
dignity as children of God.
It is a kind of knowledge that will lead us to our eternal life. It
will make us relate everything in our earthly life, both the good
and the bad, to this ultimate goal in life which is to be in heaven
with God, a state that is supernatural. But it is a divine gift that
we need to take care of. It is like a seed that has to grow until it
becomes a big tree and bears fruit.
For this, we really need to have a living contact with Christ who is
the fullness of God’s revelation to us. He is the substance, the
content and the spirit of our faith. So, the first thing that we
have to do is to look for him always whatever we may be thinking,
saying or doing. Never mind if we do not understand him fully. We
should just follow him!
The praises of
womanhood

By
LANCE ENAD,
lancivspatricivs@gmail.com
April 30, 2022
Dietrich Von Hildebrand, a
christian philosopher, once explained that by nature women are
superior to men. They are more gentle, they are more sweet, they are
more beautiful, they have more charm etc. The only area perhaps in
which men are more right than women is that men love women while
women love men.
Such praises to women have
been sung by the wise, since philosophy has begun. Admittedly, there
are those who degrade womanhood. Nonetheless, it is interesting to
note that virtues -the paragon of moral perfection- are portrayed by
women.
The four cardinal virtues
of Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Fortitude are portrayed by
women. Even Severinus Boethius expresses most eloquently his
adoration to wisdom in person: Lady Philosophy.
The wise have always
adored women. And if women are indeed better, the failure to adore
them would be unwise.
After all, who else can be
mothers but women? Who else can be wives but women? Who else can be
daughters but women? Whose was the face that could launch a thousand
ships but that of a woman? Who else can have men at their fingertips
but women? Who else did God choose to be his Mother but a woman.
Edith Stein, a
Philosopher, Student of Edmund Husserl, and contemporary of
Hildebrand explained that the Woman is better. “Women,” she said,
“understand not only with the intellect but also with the heart.”
“Women naturally seek,” she continues, “to embrace what is living,
personal, integral.” Most beautifully, she explains that “To heal,
watch over, protect, nourish, and favor growth is her natural
maternal desire” because “The soul of a woman is fashioned as a
shelter in which other souls may unfold.”
It seems, therefore, to be
a great absurdity for some who pose under the guise of
pseudo-intellectualism to hiss at women who prefer to be mothers,
who prefer to be a wife, who prefer to perfect their womanhood in
such noble a state. Women, they say, must have a career, must have
glittering achievements. Women must not only be house wives, must
not only be mothers, must not be homemakers because these, they say,
degrade her womanhood. In short, to them, unless a woman is like a
man, she does not have a life worth living. This is tragic
considering how they think that to be fulfilled woman must be like a
man.
It is interesting to note
that the same pseudo-intellectuals hold it as unquestionable and
absolute dogmatic truth that all the evils of the world are caused
by the patriarchy. They further say that all evil actions are in
substance misogyny. This they hold with religious assent and
unquestioning faith.
How can it be, as these
insist, that having a full time career, no time for family, no time
to personally raise their children be more ontologically valuable
for a woman that being a mother who raises and looks after the
children -the future citizens of the earth and of heaven-? How is
the task of raising up great men and women of virtue so demeaning
and so worthless compared to working for a company, to working for
some corporation? How can one say that being a mother and wife is so
demeaning when studies have shown that a great majority of those who
have problems in adulthood are those who did not have good family
lives as children?
How can these be demeaning
when these are the most perfect exercise of the characteristics
endowed on a woman’s soul? “Woman,” says Edith Stein “naturally
seeks to embrace that which is living, personal, and whole. To
cherish, guard, protect, nourish and advance growth is her natural,
maternal yearning.”
And that women in top
positions is not an issue here. One cannot but admire Margaret
Thatcher who stirred Britain so well, or Catherine the great who
reformed Russia, or Olga of Kiev who ruled a kingdom, or Teresa of
Avila or Catherine of Sienna who reformed the Church. But let no one
tell mothers, wives, and daughters that they do not have a life
worth living simply because they chose a more domestic life.
Thus, Edith Stein
beautifully puts it: “Each woman who lives in the light of eternity
can fulfill her vocation, no matter if it is in marriage, in a
religious order, or in a worldly profession.”
Let us keep these in our
minds in this month of May, the month of the greatest woman who ever
lived and will ever live.
Never doubt God’s
love for us
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
April 26, 2022
“JESUS said to Philip,
‘Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?’ He said this to test
Philip, because he himself knew what he was going to do.” (Jn 6,5-6)
With these words, we
should realize that we should never doubt God’s constant love for
us, especially when we encounter difficulties and severe trials in
our life. God allows these things to happen if only to test us, that
is, to see if we also truly love him in return, a love that is
expressed in complete trust in God’s will and ways.
Yes, we have to be clear
that there in nothing in our life, no moment or situation where God
does not test us. We have to explode the myth that consists in the
thinking that there are times when we are freed from this test. Even
in our moments of rest and recreation, we are being tested.
And that’s simply because
the only purpose of these tests is to see if we keep ourselves
always with God as we should. In this regard, let’s remember these
relevant words of Christ. “He who is not with me is against me, and
he who does not gather with me scatters.” (Mt 12,30) There is no
neutral ground in our relationship with God. We are either for him
or against him.
And being created in the
image and likeness of God, we are meant to be always with God, much
like what Christ himself said about the vine and branches. (cfr. Jn
15,5) Otherwise, we die in the sense of living a life that is not
proper to us, like the branches that are separated from the vine.
So, we cannot
overemphasize our need to do everything to always be with God. We
know very well how easily we can think and live as if we can simply
be by ourselves. Especially when life seems to be going well for us,
we easily tend to take God for granted. We usually go to him only
when we find ourselves with difficulties.
Yes, we have to understand
that God’s tests us not only in our difficulties, but also in our
good and easy moments of our life. In fact, the latter tests can be
more difficult to tackle.
It’s always good to
frequently meditate on what God has done for us, if only to enjoy
the confidence he has put in us. This is to help us repay his love
with our love. Thus, Christ told us, “Without cost you have
received. Without cost you are to give.” (Mt 10,8)
For sure, with these words
of Christ, we are strongly reminded to be generous, to give
ourselves completely to God and to others, sparing and keeping
nothing for ourselves, because God has been generous with us. He
gave nothing less than himself to us. And he wants to share what we
have with everybody else.
Thus, in Christ’s
commissioning of his disciples that should include all of us, his
believers and followers, he encourages us not to worry so much about
what to have or what to bring. “Do not take gold or silver or copper
for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or
sandals or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep.” We need to
develop a keen sense of generosity and self-giving that is also a
result of detachment.
Investing to make
a difference
By
JAIME ARISTOTLE B. ALIP, PhD
April 20, 2022
The annual inflation rate
in the Philippines rose to 4.0% in March from 3.0% in February. The
increase in the prices of goods is at an all-time high as Russia’s
attack on Ukraine sent oil and commodity prices soaring worldwide.
In an environment where inflation risks are high, oil prices are
surging and current macroeconomic forecasts paint a challenging
picture, there is a popular Filipino proverb or salawikain that
comes to mind:
“Kapag may itinanim, may
aanihin.”
This gem of folk wisdom
literally translates to “if you plant, you will harvest something,”
but it actually means “your future will be the result of the effort
you put in today.” Its message is the same as that of the classic
Filipino tale, Si Langgam at Si Tipaklong, where the ant stacked up
grains in anticipation of the rainy days while the happy-go-lucky
grasshopper danced the day away. Unlike the frugal and industrious
langgam, the tipaklong suffered when the rains came.
The question now is this:
do we want to become ants or grasshoppers?
These uncertain times
demand that we prepare for the rainy days. We need to be like the
ant and allocate a portion of our present income for future needs,
like the education of our children, sickness or emergencies, and
even retirement, as there will definitely come a time that we will
grow old and can no longer work.
Aside from savings, we can
also make sound investments. While many Filipinos believe that the
only way to make money is by working for it (either by being paid
for one’s labors or by running a business), there is another way: by
making your money work for you. This entails investing your money so
that it earns more money.
Investments,
Benefits and Risks
According to the Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) 2019 financial inclusion survey, only 25%
of Filipinos have some sort of investment. An investment is an asset
purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate
in the future. You invest when you buy an asset and sell it later,
when its value has increased. You also invest when you put your
money in ventures that earn interest over time. There are two key
factors: time and appreciation. When you invest, you open up
multiple income streams. You get something extra, aside from what
you earn from work or business. It allows you to meet your financial
goals faster. It also helps build wealth, because over time, you
accumulate assets that increase your net worth.
Risk, of course, is part
of investing. There is the risk of capital loss. There is also the
risk of not meeting your expected returns. Knowing that there are
risks should not stop you from looking into investment
opportunities. Instead, you should learn and find the best ways to
manage them.
Investment
for Beginners
There is a wide range of
investment opportunities available for beginners. Investment
decisions are based on one’s goals (short, medium, or long-term) or
risk appetite (conservative or aggressive). There are many options,
but a beginning investor may look into:
• PAG-IBIG and SSS
Investment Programs - The BSP financial inclusion survey shows that
SSS (88%) and Pag-IBIG Fund (52%) are the most common types of
investments for Filipinos. The SSS PESO Fund starts for as low as
P1,000, while the Modified Pag-IBIG II starts for as low as P500,
making them one of the cheapest investments for beginners.
• Stock Market – When you
buy stocks, you buy shares in a company, giving you the right to a
portion of the company’s value and income. Stock investments have
high income potential. They are also considered to be the riskiest,
thus, suited for aggressive investors. One needs to monitor business
developments to invest and learn when is the best time to buy and
sell stocks.
• Bonds and Mutual Funds –
The risk-averse can try investing in bonds, which are debt
obligations issued by companies. Bonds are low-risk but low-profit
investments, paying a set amount over a certain period of time.
Mutual funds are pooled from different investors and invested in
various assets by professional fund managers.
• Variable Life Insurance
- These are combined life insurance and investment products that are
ideal for first-time investors.
Investing
for Social Inclusion
The options above are
commercial investment opportunities. There is another path which a
beginning investor may consider. It is called microfinance, which is
distinguished from traditional finance because of its social
dimension. Microfinance is a form of impact investing. It caters to
the poor and marginalized sectors, making sure that those who do not
have access to banks would have access to much-needed financial
services. Aside from the financial gain, microfinance measures the
social impact of its performance.
Microfinance Institutions
(MFIs) provide loans, savings, micro-insurance and related products
to low-income groups, as well as micro, small and medium enterprises
(MSMEs). This is important, particularly in the Philippines, where 7
out of 10 adults are financially excluded. Thus, MFIs are crucial to
the BSP’ National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI), which
outlines a financial landscape with 4,450 microfinance
non-government organizations and 23 mutual benefit associations
targeting the unserved and underserved: the poor, the unemployed,
MSMEs, and the informal workers, especially those living in rural
areas and far-flung communities.
A beginning investor may
look into MFIs as an opportunity not just to earn money, but to help
others. MFIs, after all, enable income-generating activities that
help people to break out of poverty. They are regulated by the
government, with adequate safeguards imposed for the public’s
protection. Let us look at CARD MRI, for instance. This is one of
the biggest microfinance groups in the Philippines, with 7.9 million
clients and 3,391 offices nationwide. It has a loan portfolio of
P33.4 billion, with savings or capital build-up of 32.7 billion. It
has more than 76 billion in assets, with a financial
self-sufficiency ratio of 118%. CARD has maintained a loan repayment
rate of 95.73% even at the height of the COVID pandemic.
Social impact investor and
worldwide cooperative Oikocredit is also a case in point. For 46
years now, Oikocredit has been funding organizations that promote
financial inclusion, agriculture and renewable energy. It provides
loans, equity investments and capacity-building support to enable
people on low incomes in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to
sustainably improve their living standards. Oikocredit has financed
563 partners, with total outstanding capital of €845 million in
2021. Its partners served 32.2 million individuals and 770,000 SMEs.
The network bolstered agriculture by assisting 542,000 farmers; it
also provided 68,000 households with clean energy. Private and
institutional investors can invest in Oikocredit via its network of
support associations. One of the world’s largest financiers of the
microfinance sector, Oikocredit has been financing partners in the
Philippines since 1983.
Apart from the financial
returns, microfinance also offers diversification benefits that are
important in the current environment of slowing economic momentum.
You can put your money in any BSP-registered MFI and watch it make a
difference in the lives of others. CARD, for example, provides
microfinance loans for household expenses, housing, education, and
microinsurance. It helps micro-entrepreneurs by providing business
loans as small as P1,000. Just imagine the multiplier effect of your
investment on the lives of these people! Investment returns are
good, yes, but at the end of the day, it is about human beings,
about individual stories, and about families. Impact investing,
after all, is really about the transformative power of hope.
By investing to make a
difference, not only are you making your money work for you; you are
making it work to help others and to build a better world. As
businessman and author Robert Kiyosaki once said, “It’s not how much
money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for
you, and how many generations you keep it for.”
Do we really
believe in Christ?
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
April 7, 2022
IT’S a question that we
have to ask ourselves, since there are many indications that even
those who profess to believe in Christ do so more out of formality.
They do not really know him, much less, love him, because if they
do, they would be burning with desire to follow him and to bring him
to others.
In the gospel, many of the
leading Jews during Christ’s time were always skeptical of him. They
even went to the extent of doing him harm, and eventually of putting
him to death. (cfr. Jn 10,31-42) Some of the people, of course,
believed in him, due to the miracles and the splendid preaching he
did. Truly, Christ was and continues to be a sign of contradiction.
We have to understand that
with Christ, it is not enough to know him. We also have to love him.
With Christ, to know him truly is to love him also. In fact, we
cannot say we really know him unless we love him too, that is, we
become like him.
With him, these two
spiritual operations of ours merge into a unity, although they have
different directions. In knowing, the object known is in the knower.
It has an inward movement. The knower possesses the known object.
In loving, the lover is in
the beloved. It has an outward movement. It is the beloved that
possesses the lover. The lover gets identified with the beloved. The
lover becomes what he loves.
In knowing, the knower
abstracts things from his object of interest and keeps them to
himself. In loving, the lover gives himself to the beloved. In a
sense, the lover loses himself and identifies himself with the
beloved.
Of course, there are many
things that we know but which we do not have to love, or even that
we should not love. We can know a lot of evils, but we should never
love them. If anything at all, our knowledge of them is just for the
sake of prudence.
But whatever good we know,
we should also love, otherwise we would fall into some anomaly of
inconsistency. In whatever is good, we should not be contented with
knowing it only. We should love it. Let’s remember what St. Paul
said in his first letter to the Corinthians in this regard:
“Knowledge puffs up, but
love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does
not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is
known by God.” (8,1-2)
And we can add that if one
is known by God, he somehow already knows everything that he ought
to know since God, who possesses him because he loves God, knows
everything. In other words, he shares in the knowledge of God.
Since Christ is for us the
highest good we can have, we should both know and love him to the
max. We should not just know him and not love him, nor should we
just love him without knowing him—or at least, trying to know him
the best way that we can, since being God, Christ has aspects that
are a mystery to us, that is, beyond our capacity to know him fully.
We can know Christ by
studying the gospels and the Church’s teachings about him. But in
order to love him, we should put this knowledge of God into
practice, converting it into our life itself, to such an extent that
we become “another Christ.”
Believe in Christ
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
March 31, 2022
“IF you had believed
Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. But if
you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (Jn
5,46-47)
With these words, it’s
like Christ is begging that we believe in him, for he truly is our
savior, the very pattern of our humanity, our everything, in fact!
It’s like he is trying to identify himself to us and how we need
him. He should be the very center of our life.
We should therefore
develop the instinct of always looking for Christ, making him alive
in our life and patterning our life after his. This business of
always looking for Christ is a basic duty of ours, a grave
responsibility, in fact.
We have to understand that
without him, we would just be on our own, relying simply on our own
light and powers that, no matter how excellent, can never accomplish
our real ultimate need of our own salvation, our own perfection as a
person and as a child of God.
We need to look for Christ
so we can find him, and in finding him, we can start to love and
serve him which is what we are expected to do to be ‘another
Christ.’ This has basis on what Christ himself said: “Ask and it
will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door
will be opened to you…” (Mt 7,7)
And finding him means that
we make Christ alive in our life. He is not just a historical
figure. Let’s remember that before he went up to heaven, he promised
the coming of the Holy Spirit who would bring to us everything that
Christ did and said. More than that, the Holy Spirit brings Christ
alive in us.
We just have to exercise
our faith to the hilt. With it we enter into a reality that goes
beyond what we simply can see and touch and understand. With it we
can feel at home even with the mysteries which, by the way, abound
in our life since we are not confined only to the sensible and
material realities. Our world includes the spiritual and the
supernatural.
But we also have to
realize that with Christ, it is not enough just to know him. We also
have to love him. With Christ, to know him truly is to love him
also. In fact, we cannot say we really know him unless we love him
too.
With him, these two
spiritual operations of ours merge into a unity, although they have
different directions. In knowing, the object known is in the knower.
It has an inward movement. The knower possesses the known object.
In loving, the lover is in
the beloved. It has an outward movement. It is the beloved that
possesses the lover. The lover gets identified with the beloved. The
lover becomes what he loves.
In knowing, the knower
abstracts things from his object of interest and keeps them to
himself. In loving, the lover gives himself to the beloved. In a
sense, the lover loses himself in the beloved.
Of course, there are many
things that we know but which we do not have to love, or even that
we should not love. We can know a lot of evils, but we should never
love them. If anything at all, our knowledge of them is just for the
sake of prudence, so we can truly be with Christ and become “another
Christ” as we should be.
We stand with
Ukraine
TUCP supports the global
call condemning Russia’s violent and abhorrent aggression of Ukraine
March 24, 2022
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the country’s
largest labor group, stands in solidarity with our Ukrainian
brothers and sisters as well as our brothers and sisters in the
international trade union movement in calling for the global
condemnation of the abhorrent aggression of the Russian Federation
against the people of Ukraine.
TUCP also urges the Philippine Government to reiterate its position
condemning the Russian Federation’s unlawful acts of war – being
against the principles of international law and undermining the
sanctity of global peace.
“We stand with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he calls
for the global condemnation of Russia’s actions. It has been exactly
one month since the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine, which has
resulted to the unnecessary loss of thousands of innocent lives, and
millions of homeless refugees seeking safety. This mindless war must
be stopped,” said TUCP President Raymond Mendoza.
As of the writing of this article, there has been an estimated 977
civilian casualties, 1,594 wounded, and around 3 million Ukrainian
refugees. Add to that the thousands of military casualties that
increase as the war continues.
“TUCP stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the
trade union movement of Ukraine in calling for peace, reason, and
restraint. We firmly believe that the way to justice is through
peace. We cannot allow violence and aggression to dictate
international and local public policy – democracy must always
prevail,” added Mendoza.
“Moscow has claimed that the presence of its troops in Ukrainian
soil is for the purpose of defending its “independent states under
attack from Ukrainian Aggression”. But make no mistake, it is
Ukraine which is under attack. It is Ukrainians who are being
bombed. It is Ukrainians who are seeking safety in bomb shelters,
desperately praying not to be hit by missiles. It is Ukrainians who
are fleeing the country, entering foreign land homeless as
refugees,” further said Mendoza.
The actions of the Russian Federation do not reflect that of a
peacekeeping mission. These are acts of war, not only against
Ukraine but also against democracy and the very fabric of the free
world.
“In this day and age, there is no longer room for violence and war.
This is, and should continue to be the era of truth, peace, and
freedom. We will not stand idly by as this misguided aggression
continues to trample our fellow human’s rights. And as Ukraine
continues to fight for its integrity and sovereignty, we continue to
call for justice through peace,” said the lawmaker.
In these trying times, may the spirit of brotherhood and democracy
prevail.
God will always
forgive us
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
March 23, 2022
NEVER doubt this truth of
our Christian faith. As illustrated in that beautiful parable of the
prodigal son (cfr. Lk 15,11-32), God is always ready to forgive us,
no matter what sin we commit. All we have to do is just to go back
to him in repentance, just like what the prodigal son did.
In life, anything can
happen. We try to do what is good, but sometimes our idea of what is
good can actually be bad. We just have to remember that even in our
worst possible scenario, we can always count on God’s ever-ready
mercy as long as we decide to come home to him.
We should always
strengthen our faith in God’s mercy and compassion. Of course. We
should also try not to abuse God’s goodness, even if we know that
despite our best efforts we may end up abusing it just the same. But
whatever happens, we should come home. Just come home to our Father
God. That’s what matters in the end.
We need to strengthen our
spirit of divine filiation—that God is our father who is all
merciful and compassionate, who is all willing to do anything for us
just to get us back to him. He knows that even if he has made us to
be his image and likeness, that dignity often spoils us, and so we
get into trouble.
This truth about our
divine filiation is worth reiterating. It is what truly grounds us
to the foundation of our life and nature, giving us the meaning and
purpose of our existence. It’s a source of joy, confidence and
serenity. It tells us what our filial rights and duties are.
More importantly, it tells
us who we are and gives us an abiding sense that we are never alone,
or worse, just on our own. It fills us with the conviction that we
are children of God, that no matter what happens, God will always be
with us and for us unless we reject him.
We have to be wary of our
tendency to think that we are just on our own. That would be an
attitude that can be suggested only by the devil who will always
tell lies. Sad to say, many people are succumbing to this trick of
the devil. That’s why many now fall into some deep despair when
misfortune comes their way. They feel there’s no one else to run to
anymore. We should do everything to strengthen our spirit of divine
filiation.
Let’s always remember that
God “takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that
they return from their ways and live.” (Ez 33,11) And as shown by
Christ, God does not wait for man to turn back to him. He takes the
initiative to reach out to us, sinners.
In all the miracles that
he performed, Christ was more interested in forgiving the sins of
those involved than in healing them of their infirmities and
predicaments. His love and compassion went beyond the concern for
the bodily health of those characters. He focused more on their
spiritual recovery.
We have to see to it that
in proclaiming the gospel to the others, in our effort to present
Christ to the others, we should not simply talk about the strictness
of God’s demands and expectations from us, the high standard that he
is setting for us. This will scare people more than attract them to
Christ. We should always include God’s mercy in all our preaching
and counseling.
Creating Jobs
By
JAIME ARISTOTLE B. ALIP,
PhD
March 21, 2022
Like breathing fresh air
after being cooped up for too long, people rejoiced after Alert
level 1 was declared in NCR and many regions this month. Mobility
has returned to pre-pandemic levels, a clear signal that the country
is recovering from the COVID-19 Omicron surge. Of course, optimism
is offset by concerns about developments in Ukraine and its global
repercussions. Right here and now, we are reeling from the dramatic
increase in fuel prices and bracing ourselves for the expected surge
in the cost of basic commodities.
The news that the
Philippine unemployment rate dropped to 6.4% in January 2022 as
against the 6.6% in December 2021 is, thus, welcome. This is
equivalent to 2.93 million jobless Filipinos, lower than the 3.27
million unemployed in December last year. It is also lower than the
3.96 million jobless Filipinos in January 2021. The employment rate
increased to 93.6%, higher than the 93.4% in December 2021 and the
91.2% in January 2021. In terms of magnitude, the number of employed
persons increased by 1.77 million. This increase in our labor
participation rate is a sign that our economy is beginning to
recover. The declaration of the lowest quarantine restrictions in
Metro Manila and nearby provinces, which account for about
two-thirds of the economy, raises hope for our economic recovery.
Emilia Gabin is one of the
many Filipinos who hope that the reopening of the economy will not
only help recover losses, but also bring back the jobs wiped out by
the pandemic. Emilia is a micro-entrepreneur from Barangay
Alejandrea in Jiabong, Western Samar. Her food processing enterprise
produces adobong tahong, tahong and shrimp crackers, and squid
chips. Emilia started her venture by selling the snacks at P1 per
pack in nearby schools and bus stations. She joined CARD, a
microfinance organization which lent her money to increase
production, and her micro-enterprise grew.
Misfortune touched
Emilia’s business in 2013, when Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda)
devastated Visayas. With perseverance, she and her family were able
to turn things around. The capital infusion and marketing support
from CARD helped them open branches in Tacloban and Catbalogan.
After the products were registered with the DTI in 2015, her
business expanded, and she opened more stores to sell her brand of
JJED Food products. She developed new seafood-based products,
sourced raw materials from the community, and her micro-enterprise
provided jobs and livelihood to many. She even started to market
their products in Metro Manila.
Then the pandemic
happened. At that time, JJED was heavily into production, preparing
for a DTI Trade Fair in Manila. This did not push through due to the
pandemic, and the lockdowns had devastating effects on the
micro-enterprise. Product distribution became difficult, and
eventually, they had to close stores because there were very few
walk-in customers. When their stocks expired in storage, they
decided to just stop production. The business stoppage was
heartbreaking for Emilia, not just because of worries for her
family, but because her workers and their families also lost their
livelihood. Her suppliers also lost their source of income.
COVID-19 concerns
aggravated their economic woes, but Emilia did not lose hope. She
reopened her business as soon as the quarantine restrictions were
lifted in 2020. Her employees happily returned to work and resumed
production. But everything has changed due to the pandemic: mobility
remained limited, and safety concerns made everything difficult. So,
Emilia decided to diversify, and thought of products which she can
easily sell to neighbors and nearby communities.
She made lumpia, mixing
JJED’s main ingredient, tahong and other seafoods, with local
vegetables in their area. It was a hit, and soon, Emilia was selling
lumpia even in places as far as Leyte. This product allowed Emilia’s
enterprise to survive and serve many areas which remained on high
community alert levels throughout the pandemic. Eventually, the
economy began to reopen and her clients from NCR and other provinces
returned. With the support of CARD, she re-opened her stores and
actively sold her products online. Soon, she has resellers from as
far as Canada and Dubai.
Emilia and her family
admit that 2020 and 2021 were difficult years for their small
business. But they never thought of giving up it up, thinking of the
workers and suppliers who depend on them for livelihood. And so,
they plod on, participating in DTI Trade Fairs, exploring new
markets opportunities and developing new products. Their food
production enterprise is not big, but the employment and livelihood
opportunities it provides cannot be gainsaid.
Enterprises like those of
Emilia’s, with an asset size of up to P100 million and less than 200
employees are classified as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The sector is responsible for 40 percent of our Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) and employ more than 5 million workers or
approximately 63 percent of our workforce.
We need to support MSMEs,
as they are the key to economic recovery. They are engines of
growth, helping in poverty reduction by creating jobs for our
growing labor force. How can we help Emilia and entrepreneurs like
her? There are a few things we can do:
1. Provide financial
support – the government can provide loans, grants or subsidies to
provide MSMEs immediate relief. As proposed in the Bayanihan
stimulus package, it should incentivize financial institutions to
provide credit to give the sector much-needed capital infusion. In
the long-term, tax relief and wage subsidy programs for key
industries may even be considered.
2. Ease the regulatory
burden – simplify registration requirements and reduce the cost of
doing business. This is important, especially since majority of
MSMEs are into food production.
3. Business development
support – provide financial literacy and business development
training to help MSMEs access credit, ensure viability and address
liquidity issues. Given the pandemic-shaped landscape, they also
need training on how to operate in a digitalized market environment.
Big things often have
small beginnings. Let us support our MSMEs.
The true value of
suffering
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
March 16, 2022
“BEHOLD, we are going up
to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief
priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and
hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and
crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.” (Mt 20,18-19)
With these words, we have
to understand that like Christ we have to learn to suffer, to see
the redemptive value of suffering. We have to realize that in this
life of ours in this world, we can never avoid suffering in one form
or another.
Suffering is part of our
human condition that is wounded by sin and all sorts of weaknesses
and our natural human limitations, and the fact that we are meant to
live a supernatural life which we can never attain unless we are
truly with God, and the fact is, we seldom are truly with God. We
can only be completely suffering-free when we are with God in
heaven.
But we are given a way of
how to handle our suffering properly, to the extent of converting
our suffering as a way to our own salvation and eternal happiness.
And that is always to follow the example of Christ as he went
through all the suffering in his redemptive life here on earth.
We have to be willing to
suffer the way Christ suffered for all of us. That way, we attain
the true essence of our humanity which is love, channeling the love
of God for us in us. No wonder then that Christ himself said:
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s
friends.” (Jn 15,13)
No wonder also that as St.
Peter said in his first Letter, “He (Christ) did not retaliate when
he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his
case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.” (2,23) We have
to learn to restrain our urge to make revenge whenever we are
offended in some way by others.
It is this willingness to
suffer that would show how, like Christ, we can go all the way to
giving ourselves completely to everyone, irrespective of how they
are. That is also why Christ commanded us, as an integral component
of true love, that we even love our enemies.
In true love, the lover
goes all the way to identifying himself with the beloved with the
view of giving the beloved what is objectively good for both the
lover and the beloved. There is a kind of unification between the
two that is based on what is objectively good for both.
We have to train ourselves
to develop this kind of love. And we can use the usual conditions,
concerns and circumstances in our daily dealings with others to
develop that kind of love. Whenever some differences and conflicts
occur among ourselves, we should be willing to suffer for the
others, bearing their burdens, even if we also try to sort out and
settle these differences and conflicts as peacefully and charitably
as possible.
This willingness to suffer
should be an active thing, not a passive one, waiting for suffering
to come. We have to look for the opportunities to suffer. That would
be a real proof that we are truly in love. What is more, such
attitude would help us in protecting ourselves from temptations,
sins and all other forms of evil!
NAMFREL welcomes
the new COMELEC Chairman and Commissioners as it urges more
transparency in the 2022 elections
A press statement by the National
Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL)
March 10, 2022
NAMFREL wishes the new
Chairman and Commissioners of the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
all the best in their new posts. Their appointment comes at a
crucial period as the Commission prepares for the upcoming May 9,
2022 elections.
Foremost of the challenges
ahead is securing the elections and ensuring that it is conducted in
a fair and free manner. The Automated Election System Law requires
that the electoral process "shall be transparent and credible, and
that the results shall be fast, accurate and reflective of the
genuine will of the people" (Section 2, Republic Act No. 9369).
NAMFREL believes that the
Commission's adherence to this policy of transparency and
inclusivity is important in order to earn public confidence and to
boost the integrity of the Commission, and of the elections.
NAMFREL commends efforts
by the Comelec, the Department of Education, and the Department of
Information and Communications Technology to require teachers who
will serve in the Electoral Boards (EBs) to enroll in the Philippine
National Public Key Infrastructure (PNPKI). The enrollment would
have allowed them to use their personal digital signatures on the
Election Returns. This would have enhanced the security of the 2022
election results compared to previous elections, when only a
pre-generated signature of the vote-counting machine was used.
However, with only nine
weeks before election day, NAMFREL expresses concern on the
following issues in the preparations by the Comelec, as observed by
stakeholders, and which were made public during the March 9, 2022
Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation
hearing.
1. The difficulties met by
Comelec in procuring the cable assembly needed to connect the
I-Button readers to a server in order to produce the I-Buttons for
digital signing. This has reduced the adoption of digital signing by
the teachers who will serve as EBs merely to a pilot test in some
areas, instead of nationwide. NAMFREL urges the Comelec to pursue
other alternatives like seeking local companies with the capacity to
fabricate the required cable assembly. A last resort, NAMFREL
recommends making the election results transmission package -- which
shall include the electronically transmitted election returns – in
protobuf format, which shall include the xml sig and public key
certificates for validation available through the transparency
server.
2. Observation of the
ballot printing at the National Printing Office and in the
operations at the Comelec Sta. Rosa warehouse has not been opened to
election observation groups, including accredited citizens’ arms.
NAMFREL observers were invited to these in previous elections.
NAMFREL urges the Comelec to open the ballot printing and the
operations at the Sta. Rosa warehouse for observation by
stakeholders, including accredited citizens' arms.
Stakeholders’ request for
information on the regional hubs which the COMELEC plans to set up
with DOST and DICT, and to allow observation on election day,
remains pending. NAMFREL recommends opening up the facilities for
observation during the election period until termination of
operations.
3. The unresolved issue of
the alleged hacking reported on January 10, which may impact on the
credibility of the election results, and which has the potential of
inviting questions on the ability of the Comelec to secure the
elections. NAMFREL recommends speedy resolution of the issue.
4. The lack of guidelines
as of this date to open up observation by accredited election
monitors of the operations in the various data centers where the
Comelec Central Server, backup server, and the transparency server
are located, including access to regional hubs. NAMFREL recommends
the issuance of such guidelines and to allow stakeholders, including
accredited citizens' arms, to field observers in the various data
centers and regional hubs during the election period until
termination of operations.
NAMFREL understands the
challenges that the Comelec is facing as it prepares for the
elections given the varying COVID-19 alert levels. However, this
should not be an excuse to curtail observation activities and to
deny access to pertinent data. The Comelec may livestream
activities, such as ballot printing, logistics, and Pre-election
Logic and Accuracy Test (preLAT), which is not new to the
Commission, as it already streams on social media the e-Rallies of
national candidates daily, and its Memorandum of Agreement signing
events.
The Comelec should be
commended for finding ways to ensure that voters and election
workers will be safe on Election Day. However, it has been
recommended that the Comelec extend this diligence to the
pre-election and post-election periods, ensuring the safety of other
election stakeholders like election monitoring organizations, media,
political parties, and other concerned groups, without preventing
said stakeholders from doing their monitoring work. The cornerstone
of the trust and confidence bestowed on the elections is anchored on
the inclusiveness and visibility of these various processes and
information to the voting public.
Our inherent
desire for heaven
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
February 27, 2022
THAT’S true. Despite our
weaknesses, mistakes, sins, etc., we have in our heart of hearts an
inherent desire for heaven. As the Catechism would put it, “This
desire (for happiness) is of divine origin: God has placed it in the
human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill
it.” (1718)
This truth of our faith is
illustrated in that gospel episode where a rich young man approached
Christ, asking what he had to do to gain eternal life. (cfr. Mk
10,17-27) As that gospel story unfolded, Christ told him first to
follow the commandments, and when the young man said that he had
observed all those, Christ then told him to “sell what you have, and
give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come,
follow me.”
Well, we know how the
young man reacted to that response of Christ. It was a sad ending,
precisely because the young man found it hard and was unwilling to
follow what Christ told him. That’s when Christ said, “How hard it
is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!...It is
easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one
who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”
We have to realize that to
meet our inherent desire for eternal happiness, for heaven, we need
to free ourselves from any attachments to earthly things, even as we
use them and even enjoy them in our earthly affairs. The things of
this world should be a means for us to be with God. They should not
be a competitor with God.
That is why we have to
live in the strictest sense possible the virtue of Christian poverty
that allows us to use the things of this world to give glory to God
and to lead us to heaven.
We cannot overemphasize
the strategic relevance of this virtue. With all the glut of
material and temporal things now on us, we need to be more conscious
and adept in living and developing this virtue of detachment.
I don’t think we can
afford to be casual about this concern anymore. The worldly things
are now so attractive, so tempting and so riveting that if we are
not careful, there’s no way but be swept away by its rampaging
worldly laws and impulses.
This virtue has the
primary purpose of emptying our mind and heart of anything that can
compete or, worse, replace the love for God and for others which is
proper to all of us.
It’s not about running
away from worldly things, much less, of hating the goods of the
earth and our temporal affairs, but of knowing how to handle them,
so as not to compromise the fundamental law of love that should rule
us.
To repeat, it is not just
a matter of emptying ourselves but rather of filling ourselves with
what is proper to us. In short, we practice detachment to acquire
and enhance the attachment that is proper to us as God’s image and
likeness and as God’s children.
It’s quite clear that a
requirement for entering heaven is detachment from earthly things.
This should be clear to all of us, and should guide us in the way we
use the things of the world. These things should lead us to God and
to others, not isolate us, building up our own world and destiny.
Commemorating
EDSA 1, the lessons we must learn
NCCP statement for the 36th year
commemoration of EDSA People Power Uprising
February 25, 2022
The National Council of
Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) is one with the Filipino people
in celebrating the 36th anniversary of the 1986 EDSA People Power
Uprising. This momentous event in history showed to the world how we
as a people acted valiantly together to put an end to a
much-abhorred dictatorship. As we commemorate this occasion, we
invite the faithful for a deep and meaningful reflection.
Those who stood their
ground during those dark times taught us that we should not take for
granted the basic freedoms that are now enshrined in our Bill of
Rights. We should never forget that during the dark days of Martial
Law, basic rights like the freedom of speech, freedom of the press,
and the freedom to peaceably assemble, to name a few, were violently
curtailed. The numbers speak for themselves: around 70,000 people
were imprisoned; 34,000 were tortured; and, 3,240 were killed.
While the people’s civil
and political rights were being violated, the country was being
robbed blind by the dictator, his family, and his cronies. These
were all documented and proven in court. Ferdinand E. Marcos and his
wife Imelda were even listed in the World Guinness Book of Records
with the dubious distinction of committing the “The Greatest Robbery
of a Government”.
Several administrations
have passed, and the promise that was the 1986 People Power Uprising
seems to have been squandered. Under the different post-Marcos
governments, the majority of our people remain mired in poverty
while only a handful became richer. Human rights violations also
persisted and the climate and culture of impunity worsened.
Under the present
dispensation, these problems became even more glaring and we have
been common witnesses to the erosion of human rights and the dignity
of the people. The War on Drugs that took thousands of lives, the
various reports of corruption, the militarized and unscientific
handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the negligence during typhoons
and other natural catastrophes, and the special favors given to
Pres. Duterte’s friends and allies were all reminiscent of the dark
years of Martial Law.
Nevertheless, we must
never forget the courage and vigilance of the people that spurred
EDSA 1. Moreover, EDSA 1 taught us the lesson that if the state
fails to honor democracy and freedom that must be enjoyed in full by
its citizens, then it becomes the people’s responsibility to fight
for and restore it. It is a reminder for the sovereign people and a
warning to government officials that the people’s collective power
is capable of bringing down rulers from their thrones and sending
the rich empty (cf. Luke 1: 52-53), especially when human life,
rights, and dignity are threatened and disrespected. Denouncing
evils in our society is a sacred task and we must work collectively
to ensure God’s plan of ushering peace and justice in our land.
Now that the National
Elections is imminent, may we muster the same courage, vigilance,
and active participation of those who fought 36 years ago. Let us
choose candidates who have a proven record and platform for
respecting human rights, promoting peace, and advocating for
people’s economic agenda. We must resist any candidate that will
potentially bring back, in any form, the Martial law years. May we
continue to guard our democracy by making sure that no dictator or
those who benefited from the plunder of our nation, will ever gain a
foothold in Malacañang ever again. Let us continue to pray, act and
hold fast in protecting our rights and democracy. May the spirit of
those who fought for freedom during the 1986 People Power uprising
continue to guide us.
Love,
education and poverty
(Valentine ruminations)
By
JAIME ARISTOTLE B. ALIP, Ph.D.
February 12, 2022
There are many reasons to
celebrate this month. February 1 marks the Lunar New Year, also
known as Chinese New Year, which will be celebrated across the world
until February 15. Omicron may have given us an inauspicious start
in January, but I am so glad that we are kicking off the Year of the
Water Tiger with news that COVID-19 cases are declining nationwide.
February 14, of course, is
Valentine’s Day. Many lucky couples will celebrate this holiday with
love, flowers and chocolates. My wife and I will make do with our
usual morning tête-à-tête over kapeng barako and pandesal, our
weathered hearts full of celebrations past. With our kids and apos,
the love of friends and colleagues who are like extended family to
us, every day feels like Valentine’s. And we are grateful for that.
I am also praying that the
IATF will brighten our hearts on February 14, when it announces the
updated alert levels as it continues to monitor existing
restrictions in light of the decline in COVID-19 infections. The
Philippines is now back to moderate risk status, an improvement from
the previous high and critical risk classification. I hope that we
can all look forward to the reopening of the economy. Let us show
our love for others by following health safety standards like
frequent handwashing, observing physical distance, and wearing of
face masks.
There is another reason to
celebrate February 14. It is the 21st anniversary of the CARD-MRI
Development Institute (CMDI), a globally-recognized learning
institution grown from our humble corner of the world, the scenic
province of Laguna. How CMDI came about is also a love story, hewn
from our decades of rural development work with the marginalized
sectors.
CMDI began as the training
unit for personnel of the Center for Agriculture and Rural
Development (CARD), a non-government organization, which provides
microfinance and related services to poor women. As CARD grew into
several mutually-reinforcing institutions (MRIs) in response to the
needs of our expanding clientele, our capacity-building needs also
became more complex. We were rather naïve when we started CARD in
1986. Full of idealism, armed with limited funds and boundless hope,
we thought we only needed to provide microcredit to transform the
lives of our clients. But things were not that simple.
You see, poverty has many
roots, and lack of education is one of them. Working directly with
the poor --especially those in the rural areas -- we saw this
firsthand. Our clients suffer many forms of deprivation and their
needs go beyond microfinance. Providing them with funds for
livelihood is good, yes, but more is needed: financial literacy,
training in microenterprises, marketing support, microinsurance, and
a host of other things.
Thus, we established the
CARD Training Center in 2000 in Barangay Tranca, Bay, Laguna. In
there, we trained not just our staff, but our clients. Later on,
other organizations also approached us for their training needs. And
this is how our training unit evolved into the CMDI: a learning
resources network that provides an array of practitioner-led
training and education services to our staff and members, as well as
other microfinance practitioners seeking advanced education in
applied microfinance. It is now a government-recognized educational
institution with facilities in Baguio, Pasay, and Masbate, as well
as a campus in Tagum, Davao.
Nelson Mandela once said
that “Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the
world.” The story of CMDI certainly proves this truth. As of
December 2021, CMDI has trained 1,570,848 clients under its Credit
with Education (CwE) program. Imagine the multiplier effect that
more than a million individuals trained on health, business,
microinsurance, disaster preparedness, and credit discipline could
have on their communities. The impact of these trainings had been
felt not just by our clients and their families. Through many
disasters and emergencies, our clients have become community
leaders, sharing with others what they have learned from us.
To help break the
inter-generational cycle of poverty, CMDI now offers affordable
education to clients and their children. It offers Senior High
School, TESDA-accredited courses and baccalaureate programs. CMDI
has granted more than 15,000 educational scholarships to poor and
deserving students.
Why focus on education?
Education is crucial
because it directly correlates with many solutions to poverty,
including economic growth and reduced income inequality. It is also
the highest aspirations of our clients: that their children get an
education. To poor parents, sending their children to school is the
greatest act of love.
Many Filipinos lack access
to education. According to DepEd, more than 3 million were not able
to enroll last year, while the latest PSA data (2017) show that we
have 3.53 million out-of-school youth, half of them from families
whose income fall within the bottom 30 percent of the population.
Based on PSA’s 2018 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which
serves to complement the income-based measure of poverty, indicators
on educational attainment consistently had the highest incidence of
deprivation among Filipino families.
CMDI, then, is our humble
contribution to filling this educational gap. Providing training to
clients empowers and enables them to change their lives. We provide
affordable quality education to help our clients realize their dream
of securing their children’s future. It is also an act of love on
our part.
And because February is
the month of love, let me end with this quote from Brazilian
educator and philosopher Paulo Freire: “Education is an act of love,
thus, an act of courage.”
We are courageous in our
love.
Let’s go viral
and trending
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA
January 20, 2022
LIKE Christ, we should try
to attract as many people as possible in order to lead them to
Christ. In a sense, we should be like today’s influencers in the
media and the cyberworld who with their gimmicks manage to go viral
and trending with whatever messages they want to convey.
Of course, we should do
this with the proper rectitude of intention, which is that
everything should be done for the glory of God and to truly help
people in their spiritual life and in their relation with God and
with everybody else. We have to rid ourselves of any ulterior
motive.
In the gospel, we can see
how Christ managed to attract many people mainly due to his
tremendous power of preaching and the miracles he made. But in all
these, he always warned the people not to make him known. He did all
the wonderful things trying his best to pass unnoticed. This can be
observed, for example, in the gospel of Mark, chapter 3, verses 7 to
12.
We need to realize more
deeply that we are meant to have a universal sense of apostolate, of
helping lead people back to God. Let’s always keep in mind that
mandate Christ gave to his apostles before he ascended into heaven.
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them
to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Mt 28,19-20)
It’s a mandate that is
actually meant for all the disciples of Christ and believers of God.
We have to have a universal sense of apostolate. As one saint would
put it, of 100 souls we should be interested in 100.
For this purpose, we cannot exaggerate the need for us to master the
teachings of Christ, the doctrine of our Christian faith. Of course,
we can only achieve that if we make the effort to identify ourselves
more closely with Christ, who is not only a historical character,
but a living person who continues to guide us and to share his power
with us.
We also have to learn how
to adapt our language to the mentality of the people, always taking
note of their culture, their temperament, and all the other
conditionings that describe them. Let’s remember that the Christian
faith is full of mysteries that certainly are over our head, and the
challenge is for us to know how to make them appreciated, loved and
lived. Obviously, we always need to beg for God’s grace for this
purpose.
But we have to know how to
convey the supernatural truths of our faith in a human and
attractive way, without compromising the integrity of these truths.
We should always be monitoring the developments of the world as we
go along, so that we would know how to present the Christian
doctrine in a way that flows with the wavelength of the people
today, especially the young.
This is when we can try to
use appropriate memes and other catchy slogans, so popular these
days. With rectitude of intention, let’s not be shy from making our
evangelization to go viral and trending.
Again, in all of these, we
should never forget that the first means we have to use are the
spiritual and supernatural ones: prayer, sacrifices, recourse to the
sacraments, continuing study of doctrine and formation, etc.
Best gifts for
the season
By
JAIME ARISTOTLE B. ALIP, PhD
December 23, 2021
Pandemic or not, the
Christmas season is here. With the cool amihan wind comes a hopeful
air, so soothing after almost two years of uncertainty and fear.
These days, Christmas carols play in malls and radio stations,
parols light the streets, and holiday decorations brighten our
homes. Many Filipinos, young and old, are preoccupied with gifts:
what to gifts to give, what gifts to receive, worries about being
unable to give to loved ones. The devastation wrought by Typhoon
Odette has put a damper on things, but, like what happened in the
wake of Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, the catastrophe has brought out the
best of the Filipino. People from all walks of life are trying to
chip in, with social media filled with news about donation drives,
prayers for those affected and a myriad of stories of how people are
reaching out to those affected.
Gift giving at Christmas
is a Christian tradition that is widely practiced around the world,
symbolic of the tributes made to the baby Jesus by the Three Wise
Men in the story of the Nativity. It is heartening to see that in
this difficult time, in the wake of Odette’s devastation, even with
the threat of Omicron and fears of another COVID-19 surge, people
are rising above difficulties to give the best gift of all:
themselves.
Unusual, but Necessary
Gifts
We all strive to give
gifts that our families and friends would appreciate. The internet
is full of lists of gift suggestions – food, toys, bags, shoes,
books, household, and office items. Everything from day-to-day stuff
to the bizarre and unusual is being offered. And there is also my
personal favorite, the list of gifts that give back. These are the
ones that support important causes, with proceeds going to
charities, non-profits, and communities.
This year, I hope we give
gifts that transform lives. We can still give our loved ones their
favorite stuff, but we can buy from sources where part of the
proceeds goes to charity. We can also make donations in the name of
our loved ones to support causes that are important to them.
Maybe,
instead of giving cash or toys to our inaanaks, we can open a kiddie
savings account for them, giving not just the monetary value of the
items we originally intended to give but also paving the way for
financial literacy. This is important, because recent studies show
that Filipinos struggle to understand basic financial concepts, with
a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) survey showing that 41% of
Filipinos can only answer one of three financial literacy questions
correctly and a meager eight percent can answer three. BSP data also
show that about 36.9 million Filipino adults have no bank accounts.
This significant number of unbanked Filipinos (48% of the country's
adult population) is brought on by factors other than low-income
levels. To address the situation, BSP is promoting financial
inclusion. The DepEd is integrating financial education in the K to
12 Basic Education Curriculum. The private sector is also helping,
with fintechs and banks reaching out to low-income groups and
helping microfinance institutions serve the poor in remote and
underserved areas. This Christmas, we can help their initiatives in
our own little ways. Aside from kiddie savings, we can get kids
started on financial literacy by giving them books or board games
that help explain basic financial concepts.
We can also give the gift
of education, probably the most transformative gift of all. We can
donate to scholarship funds. Finance a poor kid’s education for a
semester. Or enroll family members in online courses or projects
that will give them new skills – painting, designing, photography,
pottery, cooking, baking. The possibilities are endless.
The gift of livelihood is
another great offering. While not everyone is in the position to
offer direct employment to others, we can still open doors by giving
referrals and linking people to those with job openings. We can also
tell our kasambahays about government offices or MFIs that provide
livelihood opportunities so they can encourage their family members
to join. Maybe, we help someone turn their hobby into a business. If
your teenager enjoys writing fiction, you can give him a
subscription to online resources that would help him get published.
If your sister makes lovely artworks or handicrafts, you can enroll
her in courses that would help her sell her creations online. You
can help your titos and titas who like to bake get started on their
online food delivery business. Or you can refer them to
organizations like the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development
Mutually Reinforcing Institutions (CARD MRI), which supports
micro-small-and medium enterprises.
As we are now almost two
years into the COVID-19 pandemic, health is important. Let us give
loved ones gifts that will help them take care of their health. Give
healthier versions of your friends’ favorite foods. Give them
fitness tracker gadgets to help them monitor their daily goals. Or
give them yoga mats, water bottles, small exercise gears like
dumbbells and jump ropes. And because we live in the midst of a
pandemic, the best gift of all would be face masks. Washable ones,
so we can minimize the carbon footprint. In fact, it would be good
if we can give away face masks to strangers.
And in the wake of Typhoon
Odette which displaced hundreds of thousands of our kababayans, let
us give the gift of charity. Join one of the many donation drives to
assist victims. Government agencies and private sector have called
for volunteers. Many MFIs and mutual benefit associations are also
playing a big role in helping clients in relief and rehabilitation.
Let us all join these efforts and help affected communities in
Palawan, Southern Leyte, Eastern Samar, Agusan, Surigao, Cebu and
Bohol. They have lost their homes, livelihood, loved ones. The
communities are still submerged in floods, infrastructures had been
destroyed, and so they lack food, water, clothing, and other basic
necessities. Helping them would be among the best gift we can give
this Christmas.
Letting Gifts into Our
Lives
It has been a difficult
two years since COVID-19 entered our lives. Then, just as things
were beginning to improve, Typhoon Odette came. Yet, amidst its
devastation, the all-important Filipino value – malasakit – still
pervades. Filipinos are helping those affected by Odette, giving
their resources, time and effort to even in this difficult time of
pandemic. It is a giving of self that should be celebrated.
Gifts are signs of
affection. It is an important part of human interaction, defining
relationships and strengthening bonds. And it is often the giver,
rather than the recipient, who reaps the biggest rewards from a
gift.
And so, as we greet the
holidays, let us give the best gifts we can: gifts that will help
our loved ones cope with the changes and challenges of the times.
Let us give lasting gifts. The gift of hope. The gift of education.
The gift of trust. The gift of livelihood opportunities. The gift of
financial literacy. Gifts that contribute to people’s financial
security and health. These are unusual gifts, true, but they have
the greatest potential for transforming people’s lives.
Life itself is a gift. Let
us give gifts that will keep on giving.