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Vol. 44 No. 2 • FEBRUARY 2010<br />
Php 70. 00
“<br />
Quote in the Act<br />
“The population is hungry, and they are quick to get<br />
angry.”<br />
Dr. Marlene Dorismond Adrien, an advocate for the hungry who has a radio<br />
program in Port-Au-Prince in Haiti; describing desperation of the populace over<br />
food shortage and distribution mismanagement of relief good continue to mount<br />
as fake food coupons spread in Haiti’s capital.<br />
“I call on the whole country: ‘Switch off the lights.’”<br />
Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela; as he declared an “electricity<br />
emergency” due to drought in Venezuela that relies on hydroelectricity for 70%<br />
of its power despite its huge crude oil reserves; but critics say poor management<br />
and underinvestment are the real reasons for undermining the power grid.<br />
““The true cause of the crisis is the decline in the birth rate.”<br />
“Women have stronger characters than men because<br />
when they say no they mean no, and they are less<br />
corruptible.”<br />
Boiko M. Borisov, prime minister of Bulgaria during the inauguration of<br />
the women’s wing of his center-right political party; dubbed as an “unlikely<br />
feminist,” perhaps he is unaware his dictum may not be true in other countries,<br />
like the Philippines.<br />
Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, President of the Institute for the World of Religion; in a<br />
recent interview on Vatican Television said that bankers are not the cause of the<br />
global economic crisis but ordinary people who do not “believe in the future” and<br />
have few or no children.<br />
““Unless we priests have an experience or are strongly<br />
convinced of being loved by God, we cannot lead the<br />
people to this liberating experience of God’s love.”<br />
Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household; in one of his talks to<br />
the 2nd National Congress of the Clergy held at the World Trade Center in Pasay<br />
City on January 25-29, 2010.<br />
“To transform our political order—how imperative<br />
this task is today!”<br />
Nerio Odchimar, bishop of Tandag and President of the Catholic Bishops’<br />
Conference of the Philippines; in a Pastoral Statement issued on the occasion<br />
of the 100th Plenary Assembly of Philippines’ bishops held in Manila in<br />
January 2010.<br />
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<strong>IMPACT</strong><br />
ISSN 0300-4155<br />
Asian <strong>Magazine</strong> for Human Transformation<br />
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PEDRO C. QUITORIO III<br />
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CHARLES AVILA • EULY BELIZAR<br />
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2<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
EDITORIAL<br />
Relax! ................................................................... 27<br />
COVER STORY<br />
CONTENTS<br />
Upholding the Rights of Migrant Workers ... 16<br />
ARTICLES<br />
Second National Congress of the Clergy ...... 4<br />
Equity, economy, and environment ................. 9<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> February 2010 / Vol 44 • No 2<br />
Hands across the waters ................................. 11<br />
Thrice a victim of labor migration ............... 20<br />
DEPARTMENTS<br />
Quote in the Act ................................................. 2<br />
News Features ................................................... 14<br />
Statements .......................................................... 22<br />
From the Blogs ................................................... 26<br />
From the Inbox .................................................. 28<br />
Book Reviews ..................................................... 29<br />
Entertainment .................................................... 30<br />
Asia Briefing ...................................................... 31<br />
There is no mistaking that<br />
the 2nd National Congress<br />
of the Clergy was<br />
a phenomenal success. The<br />
sight of more than five thousand<br />
priests robed in white was<br />
spectacular—during liturgical<br />
celebrations especially at confessions,<br />
and on the 1.2-kilometer<br />
procession towards Cuneta<br />
Astrodome in Pasay City.<br />
But numbers alone do not<br />
a success make—except from<br />
the mobilization point of view.<br />
And neither is the shedding of<br />
tears no matter how profuse,<br />
as some comments tended—<br />
implying, consciously or otherwise,<br />
that priests were really<br />
in deep renewal because some<br />
of them were seen teary-eyed<br />
at one session or two. But<br />
measuring up goodness by<br />
the number of wet hankies is<br />
very tentative and reminiscent<br />
of the heydays of the Cursillo<br />
when one had to elicit a tearful<br />
sentiment to the satisfaction of<br />
the “rollesta.”<br />
Transformation in human<br />
nature—and so with the clergy—is<br />
an itinerary. Or, better,<br />
perhaps, a gestation. Even<br />
Paul of Tarsus was nary an<br />
exception. He had to become<br />
a recluse in Damascus<br />
for some days before the<br />
miracle of change thumped<br />
the streets. But, of course,<br />
human transformation<br />
maybe understood better<br />
in the macro context of<br />
the economy of salvation—which<br />
really saying too much.<br />
It maybe safe and realistic to<br />
say that the effect of the national<br />
clergy congress, which was actually<br />
a retreat, will be felt after<br />
some time, if ever. But definitely,<br />
it will neither be quantifiable nor<br />
even be verifiable in, say, social<br />
surveys. To think otherwise would<br />
be cornering enough the power of<br />
the Holy Spirit—and, one hastens<br />
to add, the gift of Holy Orders. It<br />
would suffice for now to tell that a<br />
great number of priests gathered,<br />
reflected and prayed.<br />
In the meantime, the demands of<br />
evangelization hung like a Jewish<br />
zikaron or even perhaps as a sword<br />
of Damocles in the very core of the<br />
fast-changing lifestyles of priests.<br />
Of late, the laity that is developing<br />
to be not as timid as before has<br />
demanded of the clergy “to hold<br />
high the moral compass that will<br />
light our way, and…to provide the<br />
prophetic pastoral accompaniment<br />
that will strengthen us in fulfilling<br />
our role and mission as sons and<br />
daughters of God.”<br />
The Second Plenary Council<br />
of the Philippines already<br />
said this in some other words<br />
nineteen years ago this year.<br />
But then again, even the implementation<br />
of plenary councils is<br />
also a journey.<br />
This issue opens with a very<br />
timely article on the Second<br />
National Congress of the Clergy<br />
written by Pinky Barrientos,<br />
FSP. Our staff writer, Fr. Paul<br />
Marquez, pens our cover story<br />
“Upholding the Rights of Migrant<br />
Workers” as the country<br />
marks the 24th National<br />
Migrants Sunday this month.<br />
On the side story, Fr. Edwin<br />
Corros notes that most Filipino<br />
Migrant Workers do not bother<br />
to know about their rights or the<br />
migrants’ labor policy, perhaps<br />
because they are too engrossed<br />
with the more basic need of their<br />
own and their family’s survival.<br />
Read on.<br />
Volume 44 • Number 2 3
ARTICLES<br />
Second National Congres<br />
A call to spiritual renewal and d<br />
4<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
ARTICLES<br />
By Pinky Barrientos, FSP<br />
© Roy Lagarde / CBCP Media<br />
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap<br />
s of the Clergy<br />
eeper commitment<br />
© Roy Lagarde / CBCP Media © Roy Lagarde / CBCP Media<br />
It was breathtaking.<br />
Thousands of priests, their<br />
white garments flailing against the<br />
wind, marched the 1.2 kilometers stretch<br />
of Roxas Boulevard from World Trade<br />
Center to Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay<br />
City for the 3:30 p.m. closing Mass of<br />
the Second National Congress of the<br />
Clergy.<br />
Visibly energized by the inspiring<br />
conferences given by Fr. Raniero<br />
Cantalamessa, who guided the fiveday<br />
retreat congress, the priests were<br />
all praises with what transpired during<br />
the congress.<br />
“[It is] very exciting to see 5,500<br />
or so priests gathered solely to pray,<br />
celebrating the Eucharist, reciting the<br />
Holy Rosary and going to confessions<br />
and observing the Holy Hour,” said Fr.<br />
Joey Faller, a priest from the Diocese<br />
of Lucena and famous for his healing<br />
ministry.<br />
Fr. Fidel Penafiel, parish priest<br />
of Coron, Palawan said the challenging<br />
talks and the spirit of camaraderie<br />
among brother priests have boosted his<br />
feelings and increased his desire to serve<br />
his flock and God more faithfully.<br />
The clergy congress, held at the<br />
World Trade Center from January 25-29<br />
has assembled 5,542 priests across the<br />
country. Some priests from abroad also<br />
came to participate while others who<br />
were here for one reason or another at<br />
the time of the congress took the opportunity<br />
to join. Close to a hundred<br />
bishops also participated in the congress<br />
as the event was held right after the<br />
100th plenary assembly of the bishops’<br />
conference.<br />
Organized by the Episcopal Commission<br />
on Clergy of the Catholic<br />
Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines,<br />
the event was the highlight of the Philippines<br />
Church’s celebration of the Year<br />
for Priests centered on the same theme:<br />
“Faithfulness of Christ, faithfulness of<br />
priests.”<br />
Msgr. Gerardo Santos, a member<br />
of the program committee said the<br />
basic objective of the congress was to<br />
provide the priests a deep and religious<br />
experience that will hopefully lead to a<br />
spiritual conversion and greater commitment.<br />
Record-breaking<br />
Speaking before the 5,542 priestsparticipants<br />
that filled the massive hall<br />
Volume 44 • Number 2 5
ARTICLES<br />
© Roy Lagarde / CBCP Media<br />
of World Trade Center during the opening<br />
of the second congress on January<br />
25, His Eminence Gaudencio Cardinal<br />
Rosales noted the surge in number of<br />
participants. The first congress, considered<br />
historical and unprecedented<br />
because of its 4,000 participants paled<br />
in comparison with the second congress<br />
at least in terms of attendance.<br />
“…we have broken our own record<br />
by filling this hall with more than 5,000<br />
priests,” the cardinal exclaimed.<br />
Former Ambassador to the Vatican<br />
Henrietta de Villa, chair of the NCC II<br />
Central Coordinating Committee said<br />
they ran out of kits and other materials<br />
since they only prepared 5,300 of these.<br />
So those who came late had to make do<br />
with what were given them, prepared<br />
at the last minute.<br />
But like a mother speaking fondly<br />
of her children, De Villa was all praises<br />
for the clergy.<br />
“The priests are so very nice.<br />
They understood, nobody complained<br />
that one has none what the other got.<br />
I guess that’s also a gift of the spirit,”<br />
De Villa said.<br />
An event waiting to happen<br />
Cardinal Rosales said the convening<br />
of a second congress for the clergy<br />
was an event waiting to happen since<br />
it has been thought of many times<br />
as soon as the first congress in 2004<br />
concluded.<br />
The first congress was held at a<br />
time when controversies hounded the<br />
Church because of the accusations of<br />
sexual misconduct among some of her<br />
priests, particularly in America and<br />
Europe.<br />
It was different this time though,<br />
as it was convened as a response to the<br />
call of the Holy Father for the entire<br />
Church to celebrate meaningfully the<br />
year for priests which the Vatican has<br />
promulgated to mark the 150th death<br />
anniversary of the saintly cure of Ars,<br />
St. John Mary Vianney.<br />
According to the cardinal, two attempts<br />
have been made since 2004 to<br />
assemble the clergy once again since<br />
many of the participants of the first<br />
congress had asked for a follow up of<br />
the first congress.<br />
“There is spiritual hunger in the<br />
priests and that passion among them<br />
to meet brothers again and that desire<br />
must be encouraged and sustained,” the<br />
cardinal said during the opening of the<br />
second national congress.<br />
Another try was made when the<br />
Holy Father went to Sydney, Australia<br />
to preside the World Youth Day celebration.<br />
The thought of having the pope very<br />
near to the Philippines again inflamed<br />
the desire to hold the congress of clergy.<br />
But as divine providence would have it,<br />
again the effort did not materialize.<br />
Nonetheless, the grace of God indeed<br />
strikes when the time is right. On<br />
March 16, 2009, in a meeting with members<br />
of the Pontifical Congregation for<br />
Clergy, Pope Benedict XVI announced<br />
a special year for priests beginning June<br />
19, 2009 to June 19, 2010 to commemorate<br />
the 150th death anniversary of St.<br />
John Mary Vianney.<br />
Year for Priests<br />
In establishing a year dedicated to<br />
the clergy, the Holy Father wanted to<br />
lead the priests into a deeper reflection<br />
of the greatness of their priestly<br />
vocation. At the general audience on<br />
June 24, 2009, the pope explained that<br />
the celebration aimed to encourage the<br />
priests in their striving for spiritual<br />
perfection.<br />
“The purpose of this Year for Priests,<br />
…is therefore to encourage every priest<br />
in this striving for spiritual perfection<br />
on which, above all, the effectiveness<br />
of their ministry depends, and first and<br />
foremost to help priests—and with them<br />
the entire People of God—to rediscover<br />
and to reinforce their knowledge of<br />
the extraordinary, indispensable gift<br />
of Grace which the ordained minister<br />
represents for those who have received<br />
it, for the whole Church and for the<br />
world which would be lost without the<br />
Real Presence of Christ.”<br />
The Vatican proclamation signaled<br />
the right time for the CBCP Commission<br />
on Clergy to put into action the congress<br />
plan that has been long prepared, merely<br />
waiting for the right time to be implemented.<br />
The plan for a second clergy<br />
congress was ratified during the CBCP<br />
Plenary Assembly last July 2009.<br />
A call to renewal and deeper commitment<br />
Chosen preacher for the five-day<br />
congress was Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa,<br />
OFMCap, who electrified the clergy<br />
with his charismatic preaching punctuated<br />
with singing of songs Amazing<br />
Grace (obviously his favorite hymn) and<br />
Lord, Here I Am, and inviting participants<br />
to resounding proclamations of<br />
God is love, Christ is risen, etc.<br />
During the congress, Cantalamessa<br />
delivered five meditations which he<br />
always began with a solemn invocation<br />
to the Holy Spirit.<br />
Iba Bishop Florentino Lavarias,<br />
who currently sits as the chair of the<br />
Commission on Clergy said, “Fr. Raniero<br />
invited us to call upon the Spirit,<br />
precisely because the congress is focused<br />
on interior renewal and every<br />
renewal is the work of the Spirit.”<br />
Cantalamessa’s conferences delved<br />
on the three important elements in the<br />
life of the priests—the Eucharist, the<br />
sacrament of reconciliation and the gift<br />
of celibacy.<br />
The Capuchin monk expounded<br />
on the importance of the Eucharist in<br />
the life of the priests, urging them to<br />
be focused on the person they are representing,<br />
who is Jesus.<br />
He also led the clergy to realize<br />
that relationship with Jesus is also a<br />
relationship with the Holy Trinity which<br />
6<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
Volume 44 • Number 2 7<br />
© Roy Lagarde / CBCP Media
Second National Congress of the Clergy<br />
eventually flows out to others.<br />
Cantalamessa led the clergy to<br />
meditate on the importance of the sacrament<br />
of reconciliation on the third day,<br />
guiding the priests to look into themselves<br />
and their unworthiness, not to<br />
devalue themselves, but to acknowledge<br />
the failures committed and receive the<br />
gift of forgiveness.<br />
The penitential service followed by<br />
the sacrament of confession was one of<br />
the highlights of the five-day congress.<br />
The entire plenary hall with lights<br />
dimmed and entirely quiet, conjured in<br />
mind the imagery of the prodigal son<br />
seeking the loving forgiveness of the<br />
father, as<br />
p r i e s t s<br />
lined up<br />
to confess<br />
their sins<br />
to fellow<br />
priests.<br />
“ I t<br />
t a k e s a<br />
priest to<br />
understand<br />
his fellow<br />
p r i e s t , ”<br />
Faller said<br />
of the confession.<br />
Capping<br />
his<br />
talks on<br />
t h e l a s t<br />
day, Cantalamessa<br />
focused on<br />
the gift of<br />
c e l i b a c y<br />
which according<br />
to<br />
him is founded in a special relationship<br />
and trust in and with Jesus.<br />
The life of celibacy gives the priests<br />
wings to fly. Because of celibacy, the<br />
priest is able to give his undivided attention<br />
to the Lord. It is not a burden,<br />
he said.<br />
“As a marriage without love is an<br />
empty shell or even hell, so is celibacy<br />
without love for Jesus can be an empty<br />
shell,” Cantalamessa said.<br />
“This state of life is best of all a<br />
relationship with Jesus. We are not an<br />
unmarried people. We are married only<br />
not to a creature, but to the Creator,”<br />
he stressed.<br />
Relationship in the life of the priest<br />
is relationship with God the Trinity,<br />
relationship with the Church and relationship<br />
with himself.<br />
Bishop Lavarias, reflecting on the<br />
issue said that alongside recognizing<br />
one’s lack of fidelity is the acknowledgment<br />
of God’s fidelity toward us.<br />
Speaking on a personal note, he said,<br />
“I believe that for us priests, Jesus is<br />
fidelity… that I often take for granted,<br />
but taking that for granted I lose sight<br />
of my ministry, the fidelity of one who<br />
called me that I need to manifest and<br />
share to his people.”<br />
A graced moment<br />
Preacher to the Papal household<br />
since 1980, Cantalamessa gives meditation<br />
every Friday during seasons of<br />
Advent and Lent to the Pope, Cardinals,<br />
Bishops and Prelates and General Superiors<br />
of Religious Orders.<br />
“This is really a graced moment,”<br />
De Villa said of the retreat. “…Fr. Cantalamessa<br />
is such a spiritual man, and<br />
yet very human also in his approach.<br />
He just really came precisely for the<br />
congress upon the invitation of Cardinal<br />
Rosales,” she added.<br />
De Villa said Fr. Cantalamessa<br />
was also moved by the big assembly of<br />
priests that he remarked, “Only in the<br />
Philippines can these things happen, so<br />
many priests in one gathering.”<br />
The former ambassador said NCC II<br />
surpassed the international gathering of<br />
priests in Ars, France held August last<br />
year in terms of number of participants.<br />
That international retreat assembled<br />
only about 1,500 priests worldwide.<br />
Challenges<br />
To the participants, the words of Fr.<br />
Cantalamessa evoked a refreshing newness,<br />
challenging them to a creative response<br />
to their priestly commitment.<br />
According to Fr. Fernando Suarez<br />
of the Companions of the Cross, also<br />
known as the healing priest, the greatest<br />
challenge for priests is how to be<br />
sensitive and relevant and make people<br />
listen, attract and influence them to go<br />
back to God.<br />
Holding<br />
up banners<br />
bearing<br />
names<br />
of their<br />
respective<br />
dioceses,<br />
the sight of<br />
chasubleclad<br />
clergy<br />
in procession<br />
for us<br />
m e m b e r s<br />
of the flock<br />
was quite a<br />
statement.<br />
We come<br />
face to face<br />
with the<br />
reality that<br />
our clergy<br />
whom we<br />
often put<br />
up on a<br />
pedestal<br />
are but human<br />
beings<br />
like us. They too have feet of clay. But<br />
the realization should not stop there.<br />
Just as they minister to our various<br />
needs and walk with us in our<br />
spiritual journey, we too ought to accompany<br />
them with our prayers that<br />
they remain faithful to their priestly<br />
commitment.<br />
This was what Cardinal Rosales<br />
stressed once again in his homily during<br />
the closing Mass calling on priests to live<br />
steadfastly their priestly vocation.<br />
“The priest will, therefore, start his<br />
renewal on what is essentially priestly.<br />
The priest is a creature of the Holy<br />
Spirit by virtue of his anointing… Once<br />
anointed, the priest shouts to the entire<br />
world that he already belongs completely,<br />
and for all times, to God!” I<br />
© Roy Lagarde / CBCP Media<br />
8<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
© tfchildrenofthestorm.wordpress.com<br />
Equity,<br />
economy,<br />
and environment<br />
By Rene E. Ofreneo, Ph.D<br />
Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng in 2009 bared fully two<br />
major environmental threats to our population and<br />
economy.<br />
First, the unprecedented high level of rainfall unleashed<br />
by these storms, which resulted in the destructive<br />
floods in Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon, is<br />
directly attributable to the phenomenon of global warming<br />
or climate change (CC). The Philippines happens to be in<br />
the global short list of countries that are most vulnerable<br />
to CC. In fact, CC is also responsible for the long-running<br />
cycle of El Niño/La Niña (drought/excessive rain) weather<br />
aberrations, which have hurt our agricultural sector in the<br />
last two decades. With the global deadlock on the needed<br />
carbon emission reduction, 1 expect more CC-related catastrophes<br />
to hit the country, including sea rises that are<br />
likely to inundate many coastal communities and towns of<br />
the archipelago.<br />
Secondly, the twin storms bared the sad state of the<br />
Philippine environment—neglected and badly degraded.<br />
There are no forests to halt the downward flow of the rushing<br />
flood water to the low lands, on one hand, and prevent<br />
landslides, hillslides and mudslides in the high lands, on the<br />
other. In most of the cities and urban areas, the flow of flood<br />
water towards the seas is impeded by silted river systems,<br />
clogged/missing esteros, undeveloped/malfunctioning/missing<br />
drainage systems and undisposed solid wastes in many<br />
places. The floods in Metro Manila also revealed the failure<br />
of past and present local government units as well as of the<br />
different National Administrations in crafting and enforcing<br />
a national land use policy, a critical component of which is<br />
an urban zoning and development program. For instance,<br />
the Marikina Valley was supposed to remain a valley (not a<br />
major residential/commercial area), a spillway in Paranaque<br />
was supposed to be built in the l980s to prevent floods in<br />
Metro Manila, and, yes, the Laguna Lake was supposed to<br />
be decongested of fish pens, commercial buildings, resorts<br />
and houses.<br />
What then can we learn from the Ondoy-Pepeng episodes?<br />
There are many. But for a group of concerned clergy,<br />
laity, civil society advocates and academics, the triple challenges<br />
of coherence, justice and inclusion are key concerns<br />
that must not be neglected in any policy formulation related<br />
to climate change mitigation/adaptation and environmental<br />
renewal. This is the raison d’etre for the formation of the<br />
Climate Change Congress of the Philippines (CCCP), with<br />
Archbishop Antonio Ledesma serving as a Lead Convenor.<br />
Echoing the latest papal encyclical “Caritas en Veritate”,<br />
Archbishop Ledesma calls for people’s unity to insure “intergenerational<br />
justice”. Obviously, a failure by the present<br />
generation to mitigate climate change and rehabilitate the<br />
environment means catastrophe for the next generation,<br />
just as the present generation is suffering today from the<br />
environmental abuses of the past.<br />
Two key coherence-justice-inclusion issues raised by<br />
the CCCP are as follows:<br />
One, both environmental threats (CC and degradation)<br />
are people’s issues. People’s lives, homes and livelihoods<br />
Volume 44 • Number 2 9
Equity, economy and environment<br />
© gva-environment.blogspot.com<br />
are the most affected by these threats. The people<br />
should not only be informed about what the government<br />
is doing about these threats but should also,<br />
and more importantly, be involved in the crafting of<br />
appropriate responses. It is ironic, for instance, that<br />
the houses of many urban poor victims of Ondoy and<br />
Pepeng are now being demolished without notice,<br />
without consultation and without any clear accompanying<br />
program of relocation-cum-employment.<br />
Such a program of demolition, justified in the name<br />
of environmental protection, is a non-solution to the<br />
environmental stress and will only aggravate the<br />
environmental and social tensions in the country.<br />
Two, the twin environmental threats are inextricably<br />
linked to the larger issue of what development<br />
model must be pursued by the country.<br />
Since its acquisition of Independence in 1946, the<br />
Philippines has been sacrificing the environment<br />
and extracting natural resources in an irresponsible<br />
manner to finance development. From the 1950s<br />
to the mid-1970s, it used its timber and mineral<br />
exports (copper, gold, iron, silver, etc.) to finance its importation<br />
of oil, machinery, industrial raw materials and<br />
non-essential goods. From the mid-1970s to the present,<br />
the failure of an export-oriented program dependent on<br />
a few exports (garments, electronics) to take off means<br />
continuing deforestation, destructive mining, decimation<br />
of the country’s mangroves and coral reefs, poisoning of<br />
the air, river, land and water systems (through chemical<br />
agriculture, industrial effluents and unchecked proliferation<br />
of smoke-spewing vehicles), and the conversion of<br />
the watershed areas, hillsides, beach fronts, parks and even<br />
irrigated lands into exclusive private resorts, golf courses<br />
and housing/real estate/infra projects for the moneyed elite<br />
and foreign investors.<br />
This unjust and environmentally-destructive development<br />
model must stop and must be overhauled. Instead, the<br />
government must put in place, with the participation of all<br />
sectors of society, a program of sustainable development in all<br />
areas of the economy. For example, the Philippines, through<br />
its organic farming advocates, has already accumulated so<br />
much experiences (despite some bureaucratic reluctance and<br />
even opposition in the beginning) in sustainable agriculture<br />
that helps renew the soil, creates more jobs, lessens dependence<br />
on food imports and rebuilds the forests. Why not a<br />
no-nonsense national program of sustainable agriculture? This<br />
program, of course, will require completion of the agrarian<br />
reform program, the transformation of small farmers into<br />
modern eco-agribusiness producers and the abandonment<br />
of the policy of agricultural import liberalization.<br />
In services, there are examples of the unlimited potentials<br />
of a green economy model, e.g., eco-tourism in Palawan<br />
and Bohol. The challenge is how to integrate environment<br />
in the business planning of every service industry and make<br />
environment as its selling point.<br />
In industry, a green economy model means more investments<br />
on environmentally-friendly but value-adding and<br />
job-creating projects such as green transport facilities, green<br />
buildings, mass transport, recyling and renewable industries<br />
and so on. A happy outcome of such effort should be the<br />
abandonment of the low-technology-cheap-labor policy in<br />
favor of higher-technology-higher-labor-productivity arrangement,<br />
which is only possible through a mutual recognition<br />
by both labor and management of their responsibility<br />
to each other and to the larger society. In short, a shift to a<br />
green economy is a formula for industrial peace and<br />
higher level of industrial development.<br />
Clearly, addressing the twin threats of climate<br />
change and environmental degradation can also<br />
be an opportunity to unite the people in renewing<br />
the environment and the economy. Is Philippine<br />
society prepared for such a renewal? The CCCP’s<br />
answer: Oras Na, or as the young generation puts<br />
it, Now Na. I<br />
ENDNOTE:<br />
[1] In the December 2009 Summit on Climate Change, the<br />
big developed and developing countries, which are the big<br />
global emitters of carbon dioxide, failed to make concrete<br />
commitments on emission reduction. Hence, the frustration of<br />
reduction advocates, who were hoping Copenhagen to become<br />
Hopenhagen and who now call the city Brokenhagen. The<br />
Philippines is a low carbon emitter because its industrialization<br />
failure means it has no major industry emitters, while its denuded<br />
forests means it has no large forests to burn, as what seems to<br />
be happening in Brazil and Indonesia.<br />
© ricelander.wordpress.com<br />
10<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
ARTICLES<br />
By Mario Añabieza & Paul Watts<br />
There are unique challenges that<br />
face the world’s 20 million smallscale<br />
fisherfolk in the Philippines,<br />
including higher poverty rates and<br />
declining fish catch. A recent program<br />
sponsored by Volunteer Services Overseas<br />
(VSO) International and the Philippine<br />
Aurora State College of Technology<br />
(ASCOT) has led to new partnerships<br />
involving local government and nongovernment<br />
organizations. Together<br />
transformation in less developed countries<br />
with limited government resources<br />
also requires the direct grassroots involvement<br />
of fisherfolk in a bottom-up<br />
or beneficiary led approaches.<br />
Fisherfolk involvement<br />
Mario Añabieza, a fisherman has<br />
worked for many years on the development<br />
of PAMANA Ka sa Pilipinas,<br />
the national fisherfolk alliance of marine<br />
protected area (MPA) managers.<br />
Pamana is helping to transform 120<br />
Hands across the waters<br />
Sustainability through Philippine fisherfolk empowerment<br />
these agencies<br />
along with<br />
PAMANA Ka<br />
sa Pilipinas,<br />
the national<br />
fisherfolk alliance<br />
of marine<br />
protected<br />
area (MPA)<br />
managers have<br />
initiated an<br />
approach that<br />
has continued<br />
even after the<br />
closing of the<br />
VSO placement<br />
program<br />
in the country.<br />
Although<br />
VSO volunteers<br />
are no<br />
longer sent<br />
to the Philippines,<br />
a new<br />
international<br />
organization,<br />
DALUHAY,<br />
has emerged to continue the work with<br />
ASCOT, Pamana and local government.<br />
The focus of this partnership is on local<br />
and national changes that create empowerment<br />
and sustainability within marine<br />
livelihoods and support the nutritional<br />
health of Filipinos.<br />
The Philippines depends more upon<br />
marine protein than any other large<br />
Asian country. Managing marine ecosystems<br />
are most often considered by jurisdictions<br />
and international agencies as<br />
a top-down activity. However, fisheries<br />
individual Filipino communities into<br />
one voice for positive change and sustainability.<br />
Local marine tenure, shared<br />
administrative or enforcement resources<br />
and advocacy activities form the core of<br />
Pamana’s organizational actions. Currently<br />
through a Canadian-Philippine<br />
collaboration led by Daluhay, Pamana is<br />
revitalizing its national communication<br />
network and considering further their<br />
role and potential partners in local health<br />
(and nutrition) programs. One goal is to<br />
create a new strategic plan for Pamana<br />
within the next twelve months, based<br />
primarily upon volunteer fisherfolk<br />
involvement.<br />
Increasingly, academic research<br />
supports the beneficiary led approach as<br />
critical for the changes required in marine<br />
sustainability, particularly in less<br />
developed countries. MPAs represent a<br />
potential to merge aspects of traditional<br />
and local ecological knowledge with<br />
other scientific approaches and create<br />
renewed hope for improved livelihoods<br />
and sustainable fisheries. Linking individual<br />
MPAs<br />
into larger<br />
ecosystem approaches<br />
is<br />
not easy, especially<br />
given<br />
the limited<br />
communication<br />
resources<br />
in less developed<br />
countries<br />
such as the<br />
P h i l i p p i n e s .<br />
The challenge<br />
is to synthesise<br />
ecosystem<br />
plans across<br />
jurisdictional<br />
and agency<br />
b o u n d a r i e s .<br />
As the number<br />
one global priority<br />
for marine<br />
biodiversity<br />
and related<br />
l i v e l i h o o d s ,<br />
the Philippine<br />
waters have<br />
been divided into just 6 marine bioregions.<br />
The North Philippine Sea is one<br />
of these bioregions with 10 provinces<br />
along the open Pacific seaboard, where<br />
Pamana has previously had very few<br />
members. Aurora Province is strategically<br />
located half way along the coast<br />
of this sea (Figure 1).<br />
FIGURE 1. Marine Bioregions of the<br />
Philippines and MPAs of<br />
Aurora Province<br />
Ecosystem-based management<br />
Paul Watts is a Canadian ethnoecologist<br />
recruited by VSO International as<br />
to work at ASCOT on the sustainability<br />
Volume 44 • Number 2 11
ARTICLES<br />
and ecohealth from the perspective<br />
of people as part of the ecosystem.<br />
Through this initiative there emerged<br />
a Philippine first Marine Bioregional<br />
approach to the North Philippine Sea.<br />
Previously, fisheries management in the<br />
Philippines has been generally limited<br />
to smaller areas often defined by specific<br />
coral reefs rather than fish stocks<br />
associated with bioregions.<br />
The current goal is to strategically<br />
develop the capacity of both jurisdictions<br />
and beneficiaries to scale up local<br />
and MPA activities for larger (bioregional)<br />
ecosystem-based management. The<br />
North Philippine Sea is a strategic area<br />
to build inter-provincial cooperation due<br />
to a fisherfolk dependence on deep water<br />
or pelagic fish species. The fish stocks<br />
migrate over large areas and require a<br />
similar scale approach to management<br />
and resource partitioning.<br />
However, the success of any resource/livelihood<br />
program can perhaps<br />
best be measured by the level of integration<br />
with local government. It is not<br />
just the location of Aurora Province<br />
that makes it a good choice to form the<br />
secretariat for the evolving bioregional<br />
program. Through the leadership of<br />
Governor Bellaflor Angara-Castillo and<br />
USAID financial support, an Aurora<br />
Inter Local Government Unit (LGU)<br />
Coastal Resource Management unit was<br />
formed. Initially, four of seven Aurora<br />
coastal municipalities cooperated on<br />
an Inter-LGU Fisheries Management<br />
Plan. The initiative was led by several<br />
offices and coordinated by Reymar<br />
Tercero. Strategically, this province<br />
wide approach to CRM assists local<br />
municipal governments in coordinating<br />
activities over larger areas that better<br />
represent shared fish stocks. Further,<br />
working in cooperation with the University<br />
of Philippines Marine Science<br />
Institute, the local partnership was able<br />
to determine a need for inter-provincial<br />
collaboration, particularly on the shared<br />
deep water tuna stocks. In parallel activities,<br />
Pamana has been developing<br />
baywide cooperative strategies amongst<br />
its members and partnerships with corporate<br />
agencies such as SMART. The<br />
merging of these approaches has led to<br />
the concept of the North Philippine Sea<br />
Marine Bioregion program, in part based<br />
upon strategic MPA activities.<br />
Health linkages<br />
The marine resources of the world<br />
are in decline and this is particularly<br />
evident in the Philippines and Aurora<br />
Province. Globally, MPAs are the functional<br />
ecological unit that links fisherfolk<br />
with the marine science approach.<br />
MPAs are often considered critical<br />
interventions for the sustainability of<br />
nutritional health within communities,<br />
yet little data is available. This linkage<br />
within the Philippines and Pamana’s<br />
unique role was one topic of discussion<br />
12<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010<br />
Contributed photo
Hands across the waters<br />
at a December 2008 Forum in Merida<br />
Mexico, sponsored by the International<br />
Ecohealth organization. The Ecohealth<br />
organization focuses on the health<br />
linkages between the environment and<br />
people; considering their inseparable<br />
value. The application of local, institutional<br />
and social mechanisms to the<br />
ecological approach can be extended<br />
through representation to create a<br />
shared forum for larger ecosystem<br />
units such as the Marine Bioregions<br />
of the Philippines. This participatory<br />
approach for primary beneficiaries<br />
has the potential to apply the wealth<br />
of knowledge and efforts of fisherfolk<br />
to large marine ecosystems. Through<br />
engaged fisherfolk, MPAs can also provide<br />
additional opportunities for large<br />
scale monitoring and research. The<br />
current approach to the management of<br />
change is meant to focus strategically<br />
on sustainability and ecohealth, not<br />
exclusively on jurisdiction, institutions<br />
or specific beneficiary groups. Currently<br />
in Aurora we are analyzing the<br />
results of a province wide participatory<br />
process with fisherfolk and Pamana,<br />
in relation to a national assessment of<br />
established Pamana members.<br />
Social process<br />
There is a tendency in fisheries science<br />
to focus on specific mathematical<br />
research results, such as a change in<br />
catch per unit effort or fisheries production.<br />
However, a focus on social-process<br />
and human transformation is equally if<br />
not more critical than the biophysical<br />
side of fisheries. There is competition<br />
for coastal resources between individual<br />
fishing communities; between communities<br />
and commercial operations, and<br />
even with other activities such as tourism.<br />
Emerging from the international<br />
program of VSO, ASCOT has adopted<br />
a mandate that includes placing priority<br />
on communication and coordination that<br />
can help to transform these competitive<br />
situations into a joint plan for sustainability.<br />
ASCOT, through the creation<br />
of a visiting Chair in Ethnoecology<br />
initiated an academe-jurisdictional partnership<br />
effectively scaling down from<br />
provincial governance and up though<br />
all seven coastal municipalities and<br />
their fisherfolk. We are now reaching<br />
out to the other nine provinces in this<br />
marine bioregion.<br />
Advancing this approach to socialprocess<br />
requires the engagement of a<br />
wide range of organizations. The public<br />
participation approach to considering<br />
ecosystem capacity has been integrated<br />
through a successfully completed action<br />
research doctoral thesis at the South<br />
East Asia Interdisciplinary Institute. In<br />
partnership with the Maximo T. Kalaw<br />
Institute of Sustainable Development,<br />
Eduardo Macose, Director of ASCOT’s<br />
Extensions program focused his thesis<br />
on the participation process, including<br />
representation from civil society, the<br />
church and the general public. These<br />
linkages provide a strong advocacy<br />
base for advancing social-process, local<br />
fisherfolk empowerment and directional<br />
change.<br />
Consensus and capacity building<br />
The next phase of the fisherfolk<br />
program will involve establishing the<br />
inter-provincial and bioregional consensus<br />
building process. This developing<br />
program has now been endorsed<br />
by the University of the Philippines<br />
Marine Science Institute, the Aurora<br />
Marine Research Institute and the<br />
Philippine Commission on Marine<br />
and Aquatic Research and Development.<br />
Perhaps many future ecological<br />
interventions involving less developed<br />
countries might occur on a similar fashion:<br />
identifying common ecosystem<br />
resources and building inter-agency<br />
and inter-jurisdictional consensus towards<br />
shared goals.<br />
The Aurora program has now compiled<br />
a province-wide summary of fish<br />
harvest and fisherfolk for Aurora and<br />
has invited the other nine Governors<br />
and provinces on the North Philippine<br />
Sea (Sorsogon, Albay, Catanduanes, Camarines<br />
Sur, Camarines Norte, Quezon,<br />
Isabela, Cagayan and Batanes) to share<br />
leadership in a bioregional approach.<br />
Fisherfolk reaching across the waters<br />
to communicate and, with government<br />
help, to produce similar fisheries data<br />
sets could be an effective way of managing<br />
large ecosystems.<br />
From a management standpoint,<br />
the Aurora combination of top-down<br />
and bottom-up approaches focuses<br />
strategically on capacity building towards<br />
ecological integrity priorities.<br />
This strategy emphasises the (poorly<br />
researched) relationship between human<br />
health and ecosystem health, now known<br />
internationally as ecohealth. Pamana has<br />
previously been an organization that<br />
would consider applications for organizational<br />
membership. However, the<br />
current North Philippine Sea initiative<br />
is intended to reach out and empower<br />
fisherfolk themselves through Pamana,<br />
to facilitate stronger local, MPA and<br />
bioregional management approaches.<br />
This program brings fisherfolk and their<br />
supporters together, extending hands<br />
across many oceans to lend support and<br />
build advocacy towards better livelihoods<br />
and a sustainable planet. There<br />
is a saying in the Philippines – pa-untiunti<br />
or ‘little by little’….together we<br />
move forward. I<br />
Contributed photo<br />
Volume 44 • Number 2 13
NEWS<br />
FEATURES<br />
Taize pilgrimage heralds a change of heart<br />
MANILA, Feb. 6, 2010—Meeting the challenges in the<br />
world, from social to political, requires an individual change<br />
of heart, a religious leader said.<br />
Brother Alois Löser, head of the Taize ecumenical group,<br />
said major problems in the world demand more than just<br />
economic and technological proposals.<br />
Bro. Alois had looked at the world’s problems from the<br />
point of view of the work that the Church, as the family of<br />
God, has to do.<br />
Such challenges, according to him, require an ethical<br />
behavior which respects<br />
the principles of universal<br />
solidarity, social justice<br />
and responsibility.<br />
“We all feel that<br />
there needs to be major<br />
changes in our world.<br />
The structures of our<br />
societies and patterns<br />
of thought from the past<br />
are providing to be inadequate<br />
and insufficient<br />
to create greater justice<br />
on earth, to reduce<br />
poverty, to ensure that<br />
persons and peoples can<br />
live together in peace,”<br />
Bro. Alois said.<br />
“But we (must) also<br />
discover that necessary<br />
change, particularly an<br />
Interfaith leaders to tackle roots of poverty<br />
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Feb. 1, 2010—<br />
Poverty, climate change and a lack of<br />
education and good governance are the<br />
key factors robbing people of their right<br />
to a decent life, 70 religious leaders<br />
from Indonesia and the U.S. who met<br />
here say.<br />
“We believe these concerns present<br />
common challenges and responsibilities<br />
to each of us and our communities.<br />
“We are committed to taking common<br />
action on urgent challenges that<br />
confront us all,” the leaders said in a<br />
joint recommendation issued at the end<br />
of an interfaith forum last week.<br />
The recommendations were presented<br />
jointly by Cardinal Theodore<br />
McCarrick of Washington D.C. and<br />
Bachtiar Effendi of Muhammadiyah<br />
Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic organization.<br />
Vast numbers of people are trapped<br />
in “unprecedented structural poverty”<br />
and denied any means of escape.<br />
“Our religious communities are urgently<br />
called to respond to this structural<br />
poverty in new ways so as to enhance<br />
our communities’ already established<br />
and valuable practices of charity and<br />
philanthropy,” they said.<br />
It was essential and urgent to educate<br />
religious communities on the causes<br />
of structural poverty and to work with<br />
governments.<br />
Local religious communities, women’s<br />
and youth groups and schools will<br />
contribute to grassroots-led development<br />
and public health programs, the<br />
leaders said.<br />
They will plan to develop multireligious<br />
partnerships while engaging<br />
the public sector in order to equip<br />
local religious communities for such<br />
programs.<br />
Rapid global warming, pollution<br />
and the depletion of natural resources<br />
have threatened the foundation of human<br />
life.<br />
“Our religious communities are<br />
called to protect the integrity of the<br />
environment, even while they are also<br />
called to advance a just and sustainable<br />
overhaul of the world economic and financial system, is not<br />
possible without a change in the human heart,” he said.<br />
Bro. Alois made the statement during the “Taize Pilgrimage<br />
of Trust” held at the Don Bosco Technical Institute in<br />
Makati City.<br />
Pilgrims<br />
Around 3,000 young pilgrims—Christians and Muslims—from<br />
Asian countries as well as from Europe, Australia,<br />
New Zealand and even from North America attended<br />
the gathering.<br />
Bro. Alois stressed that in today’s world, people “thirst<br />
for life in (its) fullness.”<br />
In every human heart there is longing, the longing to<br />
be loved and to love, he said. At the same time, he added,<br />
people experience that said longing is only rarely satisfied,<br />
and never for all time.<br />
“From discouraging us, this can allow us to discover over<br />
and over again a personal communion with God,” he said.<br />
“And then our heart changes. And not only our heart,<br />
but also our way of looking and our behavior.”<br />
“We become more capable of discerning what is good<br />
and what is bad; without being naive we become better<br />
able to dialogue, to reach out to others, to make our life a<br />
pilgrimage of trust,” said Bro. Alois, adding that “And in<br />
this way we will contribute as believers to help determine<br />
the face of the new world that is emerging.”<br />
The pilgrimage at the Don Bosco ended on Feb. 7 with<br />
a Eucharistic celebration led by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio<br />
Cardinal Rosales and several other bishops and priests.<br />
(Roy Lagarde)<br />
development for all,” they said.<br />
In education it was important to<br />
promote the freedom of belief for all and<br />
to honor the value of diverse religious<br />
contributions to the good of society.<br />
“Religious communities must equip<br />
themselves to work with each other to<br />
advance the common good while retaining<br />
their distinct religious identities,”<br />
they said.<br />
They also called upon the existing<br />
Indonesian, American, and international<br />
religious and multi-religious bodies to<br />
both support them and join them in their<br />
commitment to shared action.<br />
Tod Brown, president of the US<br />
Conference of Catholic Bishops (USC-<br />
CB) also attended the meeting.<br />
On the Indonesian side, participants<br />
included leaders of the Indonesian Bishops’<br />
Conference, Indonesian Council of<br />
Churches, Confucian Supreme Council<br />
in Indonesia (Matakin), Indonesian<br />
Buddhist Council (Walubi), Muhammadyah,<br />
Nadhlatul Ulama (NU), the<br />
Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and<br />
the Indonesian Committee for Religions<br />
and Peace. (CNA)<br />
14<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
NEWS<br />
FEATURES<br />
CBCP official<br />
awarded for work<br />
with Mangyans<br />
MANILA, Jan. 31, 2010—An SVD missionary<br />
who has recently been appointed<br />
executive secretary of the Episcopal<br />
Commission for Indigenous People of<br />
the Catholic Bishops Conference of the<br />
Philippines (CBCP) has been cited for<br />
his exemplary mission work among the<br />
Mangyan people.<br />
Fr. Ewald Dinter, SVD, who spent<br />
more than 40 years of his life serving the<br />
Mangyan communities of Oriental Mindoro<br />
was given the Saint Joseph Freinademtz<br />
Award for epitomizing “prophetic<br />
dialogue and inculturation on his mission<br />
contribution, following the charism of the<br />
SVD and its founding generations.”<br />
The awarding was held January<br />
29 at the Fr. Peter Yang Hall, St. Jude<br />
Catholic School, Manila capping the<br />
three-year centennial celebration of<br />
SVD’s “100 years of missionary presence”<br />
in the Philippines.<br />
Awarded together with Dinter were<br />
other SVDs and a lay person who have<br />
made significant contribution in the<br />
mission of helping the poor.<br />
Fr. Leo Schmitt, SVD, received the<br />
St. Arnold Janssen Mission Award for<br />
building low-cost housing for the poor,<br />
while Fr. Wilhelm van Kuijk, SVD, a 98<br />
year-old missionary who has spent 61<br />
years in the Philippines was conferred<br />
the Centennial Award for his missionary<br />
and religious commitment.<br />
Meanwhile, Mrs. Beatriz Buenavista-Evangelista,<br />
a lay person who ministered<br />
among the prisoners in Quezon<br />
City Jail was given the Divine Word<br />
Award for her meritorious contribution<br />
in the mission.<br />
Organizations and institutions who<br />
are closely involved in the promotion<br />
of SVD mission were also cited.<br />
The Samahang Bagong Buhay<br />
Foundation, Inc. was conferred the<br />
Vivat Cor Iesu Award for its role in<br />
accomplishing Fr. Schmitt’s housing<br />
projects.<br />
The Communio Award went to St.<br />
Martin Mission Hospital of Sablayan,<br />
Occidental Mindoro for helping and<br />
treating poor and indigenous peoples<br />
despite financial constraints.<br />
The St. Jude Archdiocesan Shrine<br />
and Parish in San Miguel, Manila was<br />
210 million migrants on the move<br />
for the New Year of the Tiger<br />
BEIJING, China, Feb. 6, 2010—<br />
Tens of millions of migrants begin<br />
their exodus for the Chinese New<br />
Year which falls on 14 February,<br />
to return home from the big cities<br />
where they work. But this time<br />
many of them are hoping to find<br />
work close to their rural village<br />
and stay there.<br />
For the vast majority of immigrants,<br />
the New Lunar Year is the<br />
only opportunity to return home,<br />
where many have left parents and<br />
children. The railways are besieged<br />
by endless queues of people laden with bags and it is estimated there will be<br />
no less than 210 million passengers in 40 days, the equivalent to the population<br />
of Russia, even for trips lasting more than 20 hours on uncomfortable<br />
wooden seats, carrying their homemade meals.<br />
This year, many migrants hope to find work close to home and not come<br />
back to the big cities, where for decades they live as second-class citizens<br />
without health care or free schooling for their children, with little protection<br />
at work and forced to pay high rents to live in several in-room dormitories.<br />
On February 3 in Zhengzhou (Henan) the farmer Wu Xianmin stabbed<br />
to death two migrant workers who were protesting against the wage cuts to<br />
3 Yuan (less than 30 euro cents) per day.<br />
In the crowded station in Guangzhou, Li Beiyong tells the South China<br />
Morning Post that during the holidays she will seek "a decent job near home."<br />
Li, 24, works as a waitress in a hotel in Ningbo, south of Shanghai, and earns<br />
1500 Yuan per month. "The pay might be lower- she says-but the cost of living<br />
is also less. There I might get on better".<br />
Just a year ago, many migrants returned from their holidays to find their<br />
factories closed, with no warning. Now, by contrast, there is a shortage of<br />
manpower. Many migrants find work nearer home, now that the poor interior<br />
provinces are becoming more prosperous in addition to the declining age of<br />
the working population as a result of single-child policy and young people<br />
seeking better jobs than manual labour.<br />
Finally, government funding, to stimulate the economy, has created jobs across<br />
the country and thus removed the workforce from the factories in the east.<br />
Beijing wants to stimulate the creation of jobs throughout the country, to<br />
make the economy less dependent on exports abroad. To the point that many<br />
factories have even increased wages, in need of manpower. (AsiaNews)<br />
conferred the Fr. Peter Yang Award for<br />
its contribution to the SVD Chinese<br />
mission in the Philippines.<br />
The Catechists of Abra were given<br />
the Abra Mission Award for their long<br />
and enduring apostolate of religious<br />
instruction particularly in the public<br />
schools of Abra.<br />
The SVD awards committee also<br />
gave a Special Recognition Award to<br />
the Congregation of the Immaculate<br />
Heart of Mary (CICM) for the support<br />
they have given to the SVD mission in<br />
the Philippines.<br />
The eight awardees received a goldplated<br />
medallion and a P50,000.00 cash<br />
reward each.<br />
The SVD Mission Awards was<br />
launched last year by the Society of<br />
Divine Word in partnership with St. Jude<br />
Catholic School during the centennial<br />
celebration of SVD’s missionary presence<br />
in the country.<br />
The awards aim to recognize Catholic<br />
and non-Catholic individuals, groups,<br />
and, institutions that greatly contributed<br />
to the realization of SVD's mission in<br />
the country. (CBCPNews)<br />
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By Fr. Paul Marquez, SSP<br />
Comprehensive UN Treaty on Migrants’ rights<br />
The International Convention on the Protection of the<br />
Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their<br />
Families is the most comprehensive international<br />
treaty dealing with the rights of migrant workers and the<br />
latest of the seven so-called core international human rights<br />
conventions, which together form the United Nations human<br />
rights treaty system.<br />
The drafting of the Convention began in 1980, after<br />
the United Nations General Assembly established an Openended<br />
Working Group to draft an international instrument<br />
for the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant<br />
workers. Membership of the Working Group was open to all<br />
UN member States and it benefited the cooperation of the<br />
UN Commission on Human Rights, the UN Commission for<br />
Social Development, ILO, UNESCO and WHO. The Working<br />
Group met annually during General Assembly sessions<br />
and after ten years of negotiations produced the text of the<br />
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of<br />
All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. The<br />
Convention was adopted without a vote and opened for<br />
signature pursuant to General Assembly resolution 45/158,<br />
on 18 December 1990.<br />
The Convention does not stand in isolation but on the<br />
one hand complements internationally recognized labor<br />
standards and on the other hand specifies the application<br />
of generally recognized human rights standards to migrant<br />
workers and their families. The Convention protects the human<br />
rights of migrant workers at all stages of the migration<br />
process, in the country of origin, the country of transit and<br />
the country of employment, by imposing ensuing obligations<br />
on States parties.<br />
UPHOLDI<br />
RIGH<br />
OF MIG<br />
WORK<br />
International Migration Convention entered into force<br />
On July 1, 2003, the International Convention on the<br />
Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members<br />
of their Families entered into force, when the threshold of 20<br />
ratifying states was reached in March 2003 after the states of<br />
El Salvador and Guatemala had ratified the Convention.<br />
Twenty-two states have ratified the Convention on Migrants’<br />
Rights in the following years: Egypt, Morocco (1993),<br />
Seychelles (1994), Colombia, Philippines, Uganda (1995), Sri<br />
Lanka, Senegal, Bosnia & Herzegovina (1996), Cape Verde<br />
(1997), Azerbaijan, Mexico (1999), Ghana, Guinea, Bolivia<br />
(2000), Uruguay, Belize (2001), Tajikistan, Ecuador (2002)<br />
and El Salvador, Guatemala, (2003) Mali (acceded).<br />
The ratification of the Convention by a state means that<br />
the legislative or law-making branch of its government has<br />
adopted the Convention and promised to incorporate it into<br />
its national laws. From 1 July 2003, these countries (included<br />
in the list above) will be legally bound by the Convention.<br />
Moreover, the application of the Convention will be<br />
monitored by the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of<br />
All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW).<br />
Ten experts will be recognized as impartial authorities in<br />
the field by the Convention and will be elected by the states<br />
that have ratified the Convention (article 72). It held its first<br />
session in March 2004.<br />
At its second session, held from 25 to 29 April 2005 in<br />
Geneva, the Committee discussed its working methods in<br />
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relation to the consideration of States reports. The Committee<br />
decided that it will follow the practices developed by other<br />
human rights treaty bodies. In particular, after a report has<br />
been received from a State party, the Committee will welcome<br />
supplementary information from civil society and NGO’s<br />
including alternative reports in order to enable it to develop<br />
a balanced view of the situation in the country concerned.<br />
In recognition of its expertise in labor related matters,<br />
the Convention assigns a special role to the International<br />
Labor Office both specifically to assist the Committee with<br />
the consideration of States parties’ reports and generally to<br />
participate in the Committee’s meetings in a consultative<br />
capacity. The Committee also pursues regular dialogue with<br />
other specialized agencies and intergovernmental organizations<br />
as well as with non-governmental organizations.<br />
A Response to Migration: A Global Phenomenon<br />
The United Nations Convention on the Protection of the<br />
Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families<br />
is an international response towards migration, a global<br />
phenomenon. In 2005, the number of international migrants is<br />
between 185 and 192 million. This represents approximately<br />
three per cent of the world population, and is comparable to<br />
the population of Brazil. Nearly all countries are concerned<br />
with migration, whether as sending, transit, or receiving<br />
countries, or as a combination of these. International migration<br />
has become an intrinsic feature of globalization.<br />
The Convention constitutes a comprehensive international<br />
treaty regarding the protection of migrant workers’<br />
rights. It emphasizes the connection between migration and<br />
human rights, which is increasingly becoming a crucial<br />
policy topic worldwide.<br />
The Convention on Migrant Workers defines the rights<br />
of migrant workers under two main headings: a) Human<br />
Rights of migrant workers and members of their families<br />
(Part III): applicable to all migrant workers (undocumented<br />
included); b) Other Rights of migrant workers and members<br />
of their families (Part IV): applicable only to migrant workers<br />
in a regular situation.<br />
Human Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of<br />
their Families<br />
The Convention is not proposing new human rights for<br />
migrant workers. Part III of the Convention is a reiteration<br />
of the basic rights which are enshrined in the Universal Declaration<br />
of Human Rights and elaborated in the international<br />
human rights treaties adopted by most nations.<br />
The Convention seeks to draw the attention of the international<br />
community to the dehumanization of migrant workers<br />
and members of their families, many of whom being deprived<br />
of their basic human rights. Indeed, legislation implementing<br />
other basic treaties in some States utilizes terminology<br />
covering citizens and/or residents, de jura excluding many<br />
migrants, especially those in irregular situations.<br />
• Basic freedoms<br />
Applying these fundamental rights to migrant workers<br />
and members of their families, the Convention provides for<br />
their right to leave and enter the State of origin (Art. 1). The<br />
inhumane living and working conditions and physical (and<br />
sexual) abuse that many migrant workers must endure are<br />
covered by the reaffirmation of their “right to life” (Art. 9)<br />
and prohibition against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment<br />
Volume 44 • Number 2 17<br />
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or punishment (Art. 10) as well as slavery or servitude and<br />
forced or compulsory labour (Art. 11). Migrant workers are<br />
also entitled to basic freedoms like the freedom of thought,<br />
conscience and religion (Art. 12), and the right to hold and<br />
express opinions (Art. 13). Their property should not be<br />
confiscated arbitrarily (Art. 15).<br />
• Due process<br />
The Convention then goes on to explain in detail the<br />
need to ensure due process for migrant workers and members<br />
of their families (Art. 16-20). Investigations, arrests and detentions<br />
are to be carried out in accordance with established<br />
procedures. Their right to equality with nationals of the State<br />
before the courts and tribunals must be respected. They must<br />
be provided with necessary legal assistance, interpreters and<br />
information in a language understood by them. When imposing<br />
a sentence, humanitarian considerations regarding the person’s<br />
migrant status should be taken into account. The arbitrary<br />
expulsion of migrant workers is prohibited (Art. 22).<br />
• Right to privacy<br />
A migrant worker is entitled to his or her honor and<br />
reputation and also privacy, which extends to one’s home,<br />
family and all communications<br />
(Art. 14).<br />
• Equality with nationals<br />
Migrant workers are to be<br />
treated as equal to the nationals<br />
of the host country in respect of<br />
remuneration and conditions of<br />
work [overtime, hours of work,<br />
weekly rest, holidays with pay,<br />
safety, health, termination of<br />
work contract, minimum age,<br />
restrictions on home work, etc<br />
(Art. 25)]. Equality with nationals<br />
extends also to social security<br />
benefits (Art. 27) and emergency<br />
medical care (Art. 28).<br />
• Transfer of earnings<br />
On completion of their<br />
term of employment, migrant<br />
workers have the right to transfer<br />
their earnings and savings<br />
as well as their personal effects<br />
and belongings (Art. 32).<br />
• Right to information<br />
They have the right to<br />
be informed by the States concerned<br />
about their rights arising<br />
from the present Convention as<br />
well as the conditions of their<br />
admission, and their rights and<br />
obligations in those States. Such<br />
information should be made<br />
available to migrant workers<br />
free of charge and in a language<br />
understood by them (Art. 33).<br />
United Nations, New York City<br />
Other Rights of Migrant<br />
Workers and Members of their<br />
Families<br />
Providing additional rights<br />
for migrant workers and members<br />
of their families in a regular situation, the Convention<br />
seeks to discourage illegal labor migration, as human problems<br />
are worse in the case of irregular migration.<br />
• Right to be temporarily absent<br />
Migrant workers should be allowed to be temporarily<br />
absent, for reasons of family needs and obligations, without<br />
effect on their authorization to stay or work.<br />
• Freedom of movement<br />
They should have the right to move freely in the territory<br />
of the State of employment and they should also be<br />
free to choose where they wish to reside (Art. 39).<br />
• Equality with nationals<br />
Migrant workers must have access to educational,<br />
vocational and social services. In addition to the areas<br />
mentioned in Article 25, migrant workers and members of<br />
their families shall enjoy equality with nationals of the State<br />
of employment in the following areas: access to education,<br />
vocational guidance and placement services, vocational training,<br />
retraining, housing including social housing schemes,<br />
protection against exploitation in respect of rents, social and<br />
health services, cooperatives and self-managed enterprises,<br />
access to participation in cultural life (Art. 43). Members<br />
of the families of migrant workers also shall enjoy equality<br />
with national of States of employment in having access to<br />
these services (Art. 45). Migrant workers shall enjoy equality<br />
of treatment in respect of protection against dismissal,<br />
unemployment benefits, access to public work schemes<br />
intended to combat unemployment in the event of<br />
loss of work or termination of other remunerated<br />
activity (Art. 54).<br />
• Employment contract violations<br />
When work contracts are violated<br />
by the employer, the migrant worker<br />
should have the right to address his<br />
or her case to the competent authorities<br />
in the State of employment (Art.<br />
54 (d)). They shall have the right to<br />
equal treatment with nationals and<br />
be entitled to a fair and public hearing<br />
by a competent, independent<br />
and impartial tribunal established<br />
by law (Art. 18, 1).<br />
• Rights of undocumented<br />
(‘illegal’) workers<br />
The Convention recognizes<br />
that “the human problems<br />
involved in migration are even<br />
more serious in the case of irregular<br />
migration” and the need<br />
to encourage appropriate action<br />
“to prevent and eliminate<br />
clandestine movements and<br />
trafficking in migrant workers,<br />
while at the same time<br />
assuring the protection<br />
of their fundamental<br />
rights”<br />
(Preamble). As<br />
measures for preventing<br />
and eliminating<br />
illegal labor<br />
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Upholding the Rights of Migrant Workers<br />
migration, the Convention proposes that the States concerned<br />
should collaborate in taking appropriate actions against<br />
the dissemination of misleading information relating to<br />
emigration and immigration, to detect and eradicate illegal<br />
or clandestine movements of migrant workers and impose<br />
sanctions on those who are responsible for organizing and<br />
operating such movements as well as employers of illegal<br />
migrant workers (Art. 68). However, the fundamental rights<br />
of undocumented migrant workers are protected by the<br />
Convention (Art. 8-35).<br />
The Outcome of a long Process<br />
The Convention is the outcome of a long process at the<br />
international level. Human flaws have always been a concern<br />
of the international community and of UN agencies.<br />
The 1951 Convention on Refugees constituted a crucial<br />
step in improving the fate of refugees and in establishing<br />
global management of this issue. The International Labor<br />
Organization (ILO) has elaborated two Conventions that<br />
aim at protecting migrant workers: Convention 97 (1949)<br />
and Convention 143 (1975). In the seventies, it was recognized<br />
that migrants constitute a vulnerable group and that<br />
the promotion of human rights for this population required<br />
a special UN convention.<br />
A working group was created in 1980, chaired by Mexico.<br />
It drew up the International Convention on the Protection<br />
of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their<br />
Families, which was adopted at the 69th plenary meeting of<br />
the General Assembly on December 18, 1990.<br />
A campaign for the Ratification of the Convention<br />
was launched in 1998, following several other initiatives<br />
promoting the ratification of the Convention. The Steering<br />
Committee of the Campaign was convened in Geneva by an<br />
NGO called Migrants Rights International, with the objective<br />
of establishing a broad base for a global campaign for the<br />
ratification and entry into force of the Convention. Currently,<br />
the Steering Committee of the Campaign is composed of<br />
organizations: UN agencies, trade unions, NGOs and other<br />
international organizations. Three United Nations entities<br />
belong to the Steering Committee of the Campaign:<br />
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Human<br />
Rights (UNHCHR) has a Special Rapporteur dealing with<br />
the human rights of migrants;<br />
• The International Labor Organization (ILO) deals with<br />
the promotion and protection of labor standards. As such, it<br />
is active in the protection of migrant workers’ rights;<br />
• The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural<br />
Organization (UNESCO) is concerned with migrants’<br />
human rights and with the promotion of migrants’ social<br />
integration, as well as with the protection of cultural diversity.<br />
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is<br />
also a member of the Steering Committee. IOM is a leading<br />
international organization in the field of migration. It is<br />
an intergovernmental agency outside the UN system with<br />
some 100 members. It seeks to advance the understanding<br />
of migration issue and to promote the orderly management<br />
of migration to the benefit of both migrants and societies.<br />
Ratification of the Convention<br />
The status of the ratification of the Convention remains<br />
below expectation. After it was adopted by the General Assembly,<br />
it took thirteen years for the Convention to collect<br />
the twenty ratifications necessary for its entry into force, on<br />
1 July 2003. As of today the Convention has been ratified<br />
by 29 State parties.<br />
The role of non-governmental organizations in campaigning<br />
for the entry into force of the Convention has been<br />
quite remarkable. They were the driving force in the Steering<br />
Committee of the Global Campaign for Ratification of<br />
the Convention which was first covered in 1998. This was<br />
a unique alliance involving the United Nations secretariat,<br />
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intergovernmental agencies and leading international human<br />
rights, church, labor, migrant and women’s organizations.<br />
The Steering Committee’s activities at international and national<br />
levels in order to publicize and raise awareness of the<br />
Convention through the Global Campaign led to a salutary<br />
increase in the number of ratifications and signatures.<br />
It is worth nothing that the 29 States parties are principally<br />
sending States, although<br />
some of them are also transit<br />
and receiving States. None of<br />
the major receiving States has<br />
ratified the Convention. When<br />
we consider the geographical<br />
distribution of the States parties,<br />
we note that 12 are from Africa,<br />
9 from Latin America and the<br />
Caribbean, 7 from Asia, and 1<br />
from Central and Eastern Europe.<br />
Another 15 States have signed but<br />
not ratified the Convention. As of<br />
May 2005, no Western State has<br />
signed or ratified the Convention,<br />
although some of them were<br />
actively involved in the Convention’s<br />
drafting process.<br />
Obstacles to Ratification<br />
This brings us to the question of the possible obstacles<br />
to ratification. How is it that the Convention has met with<br />
so little enthusiasm by States, including those States who<br />
are usually quick to champion human rights? UNESCO has<br />
carried out several interesting studies on this matter.<br />
Firstly, it is obvious that the contents of one or other<br />
provision may be unacceptable to some States, for instance<br />
because it would give rights that would go beyond its capacities.<br />
Fortunately, the Convention itself has foreseen<br />
the possibility of entering reservations to the application<br />
of certain articles. This obstacle is therefore one that can<br />
be overcome by a careful study of the compatibility of the<br />
domestic legislation with the rights contained in the Convention,<br />
and the drafting of pertinent<br />
reservations.<br />
Secondly, the Convention has<br />
given rise to many misconceptions.<br />
One of the common misconceptions<br />
is the often expressed opinion<br />
that the Convention favors irregular<br />
migration. It is clear from the<br />
text of the Convention that it does<br />
not and that, on the contrary, the<br />
concept of giving rights to irregular<br />
migrant workers was inspired<br />
not only by the basic principle of<br />
respect for the dignity of all human<br />
beings, but also by the desire to<br />
discourage recourse by employers<br />
to irregular labor by making it<br />
much less advantageous, as unequivocally expressed in the<br />
preamble of the Convention.<br />
Thirdly, many countries fear the high cost of developing<br />
an infrastructure for the implementation of the Convention.<br />
The Convention is a long and complex instrument that provides<br />
many rights in different fields, and the implementation<br />
thereof consequently involves many government departments,<br />
coordination of which may not be an easy task. It<br />
is illustrative in this respect that none of the States parties<br />
© ishamaec.wordpress.com<br />
By Fr. Edwin Corros, CS<br />
Joven de la Cruz (not his real name)<br />
was a former overseas Filipino<br />
worker (OFW) from Antipolo, Rizal.<br />
He has sought the assistance of the<br />
Episcopal Commission on Migrants and<br />
Itinerant People (ECMI), complaining<br />
of harassment from the lending agency<br />
that paid his placement fee to get a job<br />
in Taiwan as a factory worker. He was<br />
repatriated when the factory where he<br />
was employed temporarily cut down its<br />
operations due to lesser demand of IT<br />
products in United States and Europe<br />
because of global economic recession.<br />
Afraid of being jailed for not paying his<br />
debts, he sought ECMI’s help.<br />
When he arrived in Taiwan in March<br />
2008, De la Cruz did not find anything<br />
unusual about his employment. Three<br />
months later, his employer announced<br />
that the factory will operate only thrice<br />
a week. This meant that Joven and<br />
other foreign migrant workers would<br />
only work three days weekly, hence, will<br />
also receive a salary that was equivalent<br />
to the three-day job. The company’s<br />
management had explained that it could<br />
not afford to pay all the workers due<br />
to the low demand of their company’s<br />
product. With his salary cut into almost<br />
half of his initial monthly wage, Joven<br />
had to face the consequence of being<br />
unable to pay his debts arising from the<br />
placement fee he had borrowed in the<br />
Philippines. Added to this burden, the<br />
workers also had to pay their board and<br />
lodging on days they were not working.<br />
This unexpected turn of events came as<br />
a big blow to Joven and his co-workers.<br />
All they could do was to wait for their<br />
condition to improve.<br />
Few weeks later, the company offered<br />
the migrant workers the possibility<br />
of repatriation with a free airline ticket.<br />
Realizing that he had just been working<br />
without saving, plus the fact that<br />
his salary was not enough to pay his<br />
debts, Joven had immediately accepted<br />
the offer. Before leaving Taiwan he was<br />
asked to sign a document implying he<br />
had resigned from work. Although he<br />
was not sure of the consequence of<br />
such decision, he decided to sign the<br />
document because he did not have<br />
the chance to seek help from the<br />
Manila Economic and Cultural Office<br />
(MECO) in Taipei, the Philippines de<br />
facto embassy.<br />
A month after his arrival in the country,<br />
Joven started receiving a statement<br />
of account from the lending company<br />
that paid his placement fee for Taiwan.<br />
He called up the lending company explaining<br />
why he was not able to pay his<br />
debt. Unfortunately, after explaining his<br />
incapacity to pay, he received a stronger<br />
letter demanding that he pay his debts<br />
including accumulated interests and<br />
surcharges or else he will be brought to<br />
court. It was this threat of being jailed<br />
that brought Joven to seek ECMI’s help<br />
through the Antipolo Diocesan Commission<br />
for Migrants.<br />
The case of Joven is a usual<br />
example how some overseas Filipino<br />
20<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
Upholding the Rights of Migrant Workers<br />
have managed to present their first report on time, partly<br />
because the preparation of the report on the implementation<br />
of the Convention demands close cooperation between<br />
different branches of government and is thus time- and<br />
resource-consuming.<br />
Other obstacles are of a political nature. The present day<br />
climate is not very conducive to discussing the granting of<br />
rights to migrant workers. Public opinion in many receiving<br />
countries has turned against migrants who are perceived as<br />
competition and thus a danger to local people’s jobs. Prejudices<br />
against migrants are aggravated by the trend to view<br />
foreigners as potential terrorists.<br />
Recommendations<br />
The range of obstacles to the acceptance of the UN Convention<br />
on Migrants’ Rights is wide, and fostering further ratifications<br />
of this treaty will require substantial effort. Among the<br />
possible ways of achieving this goal, one can notably mention<br />
the following recommendations:<br />
Promoting a better understanding of the content of the<br />
Convention; given the misconceptions surrounding this treaty,<br />
it is worth repeating that more information is needed.<br />
A campaign in favor of the notion of rights for migrants<br />
and of the situation of undocumented migrants; the idea that<br />
migrants constitute a vulnerable group and that they need<br />
adequate legal protection is not yet accepted and needs to be<br />
promoted. Similarly, the idea that undocumented migrants<br />
deserve a minimal degree of legal protection meets strong<br />
opposition. It is necessary to stress the socio-economic<br />
contributions made by both documented and undocumented<br />
migrants, even if access to rights should never be conditioned<br />
to economic considerations.<br />
Developing capacity-building in migration policies and<br />
training local experts; all too often, migration takes place in<br />
an institutional and political vacuum or is only minimally<br />
managed by state authorities. This calls for improving state<br />
capacities in addressing migration challenges.<br />
Involving the social actors concerned by migration; it is<br />
a far-reaching phenomenon that affects most segments of the<br />
societies in which<br />
it takes place.<br />
Along with states,<br />
civil society should<br />
therefore be adequately<br />
prepared<br />
to face migration.<br />
NGOs already play<br />
a key role, but other<br />
social actors –<br />
such as the media,<br />
schools, employers,<br />
unions, police<br />
and health professionals<br />
– should be<br />
involved.<br />
A d d r e s s i n g<br />
fears of ‘being<br />
first’ by working<br />
at a regional level;<br />
states are reluctant<br />
to take the risk of<br />
being among the<br />
first to ratify the<br />
Convention. This<br />
calls for promot-<br />
Rights, page 25<br />
workers are cheated and abused by<br />
exploitative recruiters who take advantage<br />
of migrant workers’ vulnerability.<br />
Joven’s deployment was facilitated<br />
by paying a placement fee through a<br />
lending company that was most likely<br />
owned or linked to the same job placement<br />
company. He was even illegally<br />
charged with P120,000 pesos (overcharged)<br />
as placement fee, a violation<br />
to the allowable placement fee set<br />
by Philippine Overseas Employment<br />
Agency (POEA). Luckily, Joven had<br />
declared an affidavit that such huge<br />
amount was being demanded from him,<br />
to be paid in a monthly amortization<br />
payment deductible from his salary<br />
every fifteen days while working in a<br />
Taiwanese factory. When his case was<br />
brought to the attention of the POEA,<br />
he was not anymore forced to pay the<br />
remaining balance of his debt. He could<br />
have brought his placement agency to<br />
court for having cheated him, but he<br />
did not bother to do so. All he wanted<br />
then was to stop the lending company<br />
from harassing him.<br />
Joven could have sought assistance<br />
from the Labor Attaché of MECO<br />
in Taipei before signing the document<br />
attesting his resignation. But then he<br />
was not probably aware of his rights<br />
nor was familiar where to seek help.<br />
By asking him to sign the document,<br />
it was clear that the company wanted<br />
to clear itself of any liability in case<br />
workers would complain in the future.<br />
Taiwanese companies are not allowed<br />
to hire foreign workers once proven<br />
that they had been involved in illegally<br />
terminating their migrant workers.<br />
There are several lessons to be<br />
learned from the case of Joven. Ignorance<br />
of migrants’ labor policy on the<br />
part of any prospective migrant worker<br />
leaves him or her highly vulnerable to<br />
exploitation and abuse. OFW’s should<br />
Victim, page 25<br />
Filipino overseas workers in Hong Kong spend<br />
their free day shopping at downtown’s business<br />
district.<br />
© Roy Lagarde / CBCP Media<br />
Volume 44 • Number 2 21
STATEMENTS<br />
‘The Justice of God Has Been Manifested<br />
Through Faith in Jesus Christ’<br />
Message of Pope Benedict XVI for Lent 2010<br />
Dear Brothers and Sisters!<br />
Each year, on the occasion of Lent, the Church<br />
invites us to a sincere review of our life in light of<br />
the teachings of the Gospel. This year, I would like to offer<br />
you some reflections on the great theme of justice, beginning<br />
from the Pauline affirmation: "The justice of God has<br />
been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ" (cf. Rm 3,<br />
21-22).<br />
Justice: "dare cuique suum"<br />
First of all, I want to consider the meaning of the term<br />
"justice," which in common usage implies "to render to<br />
every man his due," according to<br />
the famous expression of Ulpian, a<br />
Roman jurist of the third century.<br />
In reality, however, this classical<br />
definition does not specify what<br />
"due" is to be rendered to each<br />
person. What man needs most<br />
cannot be guaranteed to him by<br />
law. In order to live life to the<br />
full, something more intimate<br />
is necessary that can be granted<br />
only as a gift: we could say that<br />
man lives by that love which<br />
only God can communicate since<br />
He created the human person in<br />
His image and likeness. Material<br />
goods are certainly useful and<br />
required—indeed Jesus Himself<br />
was concerned to heal the sick,<br />
feed the crowds that followed Him<br />
and surely condemns the indifference<br />
that even today forces hundreds of millions into death<br />
through lack of food, water and medicine—yet "distributive"<br />
justice does not render to the human being the totality of<br />
his "due." Just as man needs bread, so does man have even<br />
more need of God. Saint Augustine notes: if "justice is that<br />
virtue which gives every one his due ... where, then, is the<br />
justice of man, when he deserts the true God?" (De civitate<br />
Dei, XIX, 21).<br />
What is the Cause of Injustice?<br />
The Evangelist Mark reports the following words of Jesus,<br />
which are inserted within the debate at that time regarding<br />
what is pure and impure: "There is nothing outside a man<br />
which by going into him can defile him; but the things which<br />
come out of a man are what defile him … What comes out of<br />
a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart<br />
of man, come evil thoughts" (Mk 7, 14-15, 20-21). Beyond<br />
the immediate question concerning food, we can detect in<br />
the reaction of the Pharisees a permanent temptation within<br />
man: to situate the origin of evil in an exterior cause. Many<br />
modern ideologies deep down have this presupposition: since<br />
injustice comes "from outside," in order for justice to reign,<br />
it is sufficient to remove the exterior causes that prevent it<br />
being achieved. This way of thinking—Jesus warns—is ingenuous<br />
and shortsighted. Injustice, the fruit of evil, does not<br />
have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human<br />
heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious cooperation<br />
with evil. With bitterness the Psalmist recognises this:<br />
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my<br />
mother conceive me" (Ps 51,7). Indeed, man is weakened<br />
by an intense influence, which wounds his capacity to enter<br />
into communion with the other.<br />
By nature, he is open to sharing<br />
freely, but he finds in his<br />
being a strange force of gravity<br />
that makes him turn in and affirm<br />
himself above and against others:<br />
this is egoism, the result of original<br />
sin. Adam and Eve, seduced by Satan’s<br />
lie, snatching the mysterious<br />
fruit against the divine command,<br />
replaced the logic of trusting in<br />
Love with that of suspicion and<br />
competition; the logic of receiving<br />
and trustfully expecting from the<br />
Other with anxiously seizing and<br />
doing on one’s own (cf. Gn 3, 1-6),<br />
experiencing, as a consequence, a<br />
sense of disquiet and uncertainty.<br />
How can man free himself from<br />
this selfish influence and open<br />
himself to love?<br />
© www.ankawa.com<br />
Justice and Sedaqah<br />
At the heart of the wisdom of Israel, we find a profound<br />
link between faith in God who "lifts the needy from the ash<br />
heap" (Ps 113,7) and justice towards one’s neighbor. The Hebrew<br />
word itself that indicates the virtue of justice, sedaqah,<br />
expresses this well. Sedaqah, in fact, signifies on the one<br />
hand full acceptance of the will of the God of Israel; on the<br />
other hand, equity in relation to one’s neighbour (cf. Ex 20,<br />
12-17), especially the poor, the stranger, the orphan and the<br />
widow (cf. Dt 10, 18-19). But the two meanings are linked<br />
because giving to the poor for the Israelite is none other than<br />
restoring what is owed to God, who had pity on the misery<br />
of His people. It was not by chance that the gift to Moses of<br />
the tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai took place after the<br />
crossing of the Red Sea. Listening to the Law presupposes<br />
faith in God who first "heard the cry" of His people and<br />
"came down to deliver them out of hand of the Egyptians"<br />
(cf. Ex 3,8). God is attentive to the cry of the poor and in<br />
return asks to be listened to: He asks for justice towards<br />
the poor (cf. Sir 4,4-5, 8-9), the stranger (cf. Ex 22,20), the<br />
22<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
STATEMENTS<br />
slave (cf. Dt 15, 12-18). In order to enter into justice, it is<br />
thus necessary to leave that illusion of self-sufficiency, the<br />
profound state of closure, which is the very origin of injustice.<br />
In other words, what is needed is an even deeper "exodus"<br />
than that accomplished by God with Moses, a liberation of<br />
the heart, which the Law on its own is powerless to realize.<br />
Does man have any hope of justice then?<br />
Christ, the Justice of God<br />
The Christian Good News responds positively to man’s<br />
thirst for justice, as Saint Paul affirms in the Letter to the<br />
Romans: "But now the justice of God has been manifested<br />
apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus<br />
Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since<br />
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are<br />
justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which<br />
is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by<br />
his blood, to be received by faith" (3, 21-25).<br />
What then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the<br />
justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes<br />
amends, heals himself and others. The fact that "expiation"<br />
flows from the "blood" of Christ signifies that it is not man’s<br />
sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the<br />
loving act of God who opens Himself in the extreme, even<br />
to the point of bearing in Himself the "curse" due to man<br />
so as to give in return the "blessing" due to God (cf. Gal 3,<br />
13-14). But this raises an immediate objection: what kind<br />
of justice is this where the just man dies for the guilty and<br />
the guilty receives in return the blessing due to the just one?<br />
Would this not mean that each one receives the contrary of<br />
his "due"? In reality, here we discover divine justice, which<br />
is so profoundly different from its human counterpart. God<br />
has paid for us the price of the exchange in His Son, a price<br />
that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the Cross, man<br />
may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient<br />
being, but in need of another in order to realize himself fully.<br />
Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately<br />
means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to<br />
discover and accept one’s own need—the need of others and<br />
God, the need of His forgiveness and His friendship. So we<br />
understand how faith is altogether different from a natural,<br />
good-feeling, obvious fact: humility is required to accept<br />
that I need another to free me from "what is mine," to give<br />
me gratuitously "what is His." This happens especially in the<br />
sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Thanks to<br />
Christ’s action, we may enter into the "greatest" justice, which<br />
is that of love (cf. Rm 13, 8-10), the justice that recognizes<br />
itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor, because it<br />
has received more than could ever have been expected.<br />
Strengthened by this very experience, the Christian is<br />
moved to contribute to creating just societies, where all<br />
receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity<br />
proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened<br />
by love.<br />
Dear brothers and sisters, Lent culminates in the Paschal<br />
Triduum, in which this year, too, we shall celebrate divine<br />
justice—the fullness of charity, gift, salvation. May this<br />
penitential season be for every Christian a time of authentic<br />
conversion and intense knowledge of the mystery of Christ,<br />
who came to fulfill every justice. With these sentiments, I<br />
cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.<br />
From the Vatican, 30 October 2009<br />
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI<br />
A Call for Vigilance and Involvement<br />
A Pastoral Statement of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference<br />
of the Philippines (CBCP) on the occasion of its 100th<br />
General Assembly held at Pius XII Center, Manila<br />
“Seek good and not evil that you may live.” (Amos 5,14)<br />
Beloved People of God:<br />
God is calling us to participate<br />
in transforming our<br />
society, to “seek good and not evil”<br />
(Amos 5,14). This is part of our mission<br />
as People of God (cf. Justice in<br />
the World, 1971). In 1991 the Second<br />
Plenary Council of the Philippines<br />
(PCP II) called the lay people to fulfill<br />
their responsibility in renewing the<br />
political order. In 2001 the National<br />
Pastoral Consultation on Church Renewal<br />
(NPCCR) made this task one of<br />
the nine major pastoral priorities of<br />
the Church. The same call is echoed<br />
by the pastoral letter last year on the<br />
Year of the Two Hearts for Peace<br />
Building and Lay Participation in<br />
Social Change.<br />
I. Our Situation<br />
To transform our political order—<br />
how imperative this task is today!<br />
The election fever is on us! Campaign<br />
advertisements, presidential debates,<br />
and sadly, political killings, fill our<br />
media. Outrageous political violence has<br />
awakened us to the reality that if we do<br />
not keep watch together as a nation our<br />
electoral processes can drag us down.<br />
The existence of private armies, the proliferation<br />
of loose fire arms, and political<br />
dynasties are obstacles to the growth of<br />
a genuine democratic system.<br />
II. Calls<br />
A. Discernment<br />
In this situation we urge once more<br />
all Filipinos to form circles of discernment<br />
so that they can see, judge, and<br />
act together on issues of public concern<br />
according to moral values. Moreover,<br />
we remind once again the Catholic laity<br />
that it is their right and duty to support<br />
candidates that are qualified and have<br />
a record of striving for the common<br />
good. They should not hesitate to engage<br />
in principled partisan politics. We are<br />
asked to first articulate the key values<br />
and principles by which we can evaluate<br />
individual candidates across political<br />
parties. This is the kind of politics in<br />
Volume 44 • Number 2 23
STATEMENTS<br />
which Gospel values form the bases of<br />
our choice of candidates and not party<br />
or family loyalties.<br />
B. On Automated Elections<br />
We have always hoped for a modernized,<br />
better, and faster form of<br />
voting and counting, imbued with<br />
transparency and integrity. Automated<br />
election has been in use for some time in<br />
many countries. For the first time in our<br />
history we are adopting one example<br />
of poll automation called Automated<br />
Election System (AES). But at this late<br />
hour there are still many questions regarding<br />
the AES that revolve around the<br />
readiness of personnel and equipment<br />
as well as the readiness of the electorate<br />
in the use of the system. Even more<br />
important, many serious questions<br />
about the reliability and integrity of the<br />
equipment and the personnel involved<br />
have not been satisfactorily answered.<br />
To be sure those who are responsible<br />
for the AES are striving to make the<br />
system work.<br />
But we must make sure that there<br />
are prepared fall back positions that<br />
can be quickly adopted when there<br />
are some glitches in the system and<br />
in the logistics. We have to be vigilant<br />
and be involved. One example<br />
would be to help in educating voters<br />
regarding the AES and in using the<br />
equipment.<br />
C. To Candidates<br />
We ask the candidates, already at<br />
this point, to start serving the nation<br />
by being honest and sincere in educating<br />
the people on the situation of our<br />
country in their campaign. They should<br />
not campaign to manipulate the perceptions<br />
of the people but to help them<br />
to make good choices for the sake of<br />
the country. They are to present their<br />
platforms and convictions rather than<br />
attack others.<br />
D. To Peace-keepers<br />
We call on our soldiers and the<br />
police to be extra-vigilant so as to bring<br />
about peaceful elections. They should<br />
not allow themselves to be used by politicians<br />
or ideological groups. Rather,<br />
they should be vigorous in disarming<br />
illegally armed elements.<br />
E. To Voters<br />
We appeal directly to you, our<br />
fellow countrymen and women, as<br />
well as to all members of our Basic<br />
Ecclesial Communities and religious<br />
lay organizations to exercise your right<br />
to vote wisely i.e. following the criteria<br />
indicated several times in our previous<br />
pastoral letters. Automated elections<br />
will not give us good public officials.<br />
Ultimately the leaders that our country<br />
shall have will depend on our wise<br />
choice of candidates. Do not be swayed<br />
by survey results or political advertisements.<br />
Follow the dictates of your<br />
conscience after<br />
a prayerful and<br />
collective period<br />
of discernment.<br />
“Winnability” is<br />
not at all a criterion<br />
for voting!<br />
The vote you cast<br />
will be a vote for<br />
the good of your<br />
country and your<br />
children’s future.<br />
Serve the common<br />
good with your<br />
precious vote!<br />
III. Signs of<br />
Hope<br />
In spite of the<br />
grim scenario that<br />
some may paint<br />
that every election<br />
is just the same,<br />
we feel winds of<br />
change for the better.<br />
Many of our<br />
faithful are now<br />
heeding the call of<br />
their pastors to be<br />
actively engaged in<br />
politics. Many are<br />
running for public<br />
office issuing<br />
from the call of<br />
faith and service so<br />
that people should<br />
no longer vote<br />
simply for the lesser evil among the<br />
candidates. There are now many civil<br />
society groups that are concerned and<br />
are actively moving to ensure that this<br />
election of 2010 will be an honest and<br />
credible one. We especially note with<br />
encouragement many young people who<br />
go out of their way to offer their services<br />
for the good of our nation. These<br />
signs are fruits of the efforts of many in<br />
the past years to educate our people to<br />
develop their social conscience and to<br />
make their faith the motivation of their<br />
political actions. Pope Benedict XVI<br />
teaches us: “Worship pleasing to God<br />
can never be a purely private matter,<br />
without consequences for our relationship<br />
with others: it demands a public<br />
witness of our faith” (Sacrosanctum<br />
Concilium #83)<br />
Let us be ever vigilant for our country.<br />
Together let us be involved in the<br />
coming automated elections. Let us vote<br />
wisely that we may have God-fearing<br />
and honest people as our leaders.<br />
May our Blessed Mother, Our Lady<br />
of Peace, be our guide and teacher in<br />
our hope for a better tomorrow. May<br />
our Good Lord receive our offerings<br />
of prayers, good intentions and selfless<br />
service for the good of our people! To<br />
Him be the glory forever. Amen.<br />
+NEREO P. ODCHIMAR, DD<br />
Bishop of Tandag<br />
President<br />
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the<br />
Philippines<br />
January 24, 2010<br />
© CBCP Media<br />
24<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
When the tide is raised all sorts of boats rise with<br />
it, from large to small ones, from the lowly<br />
banca to the mighty battleship, and from the<br />
old to the new.<br />
We, presidential candidates to the May 2010 elections,<br />
seek to raise the tide of Philippine politics by publicly<br />
committing ourselves to a covenant of peaceful and clean<br />
elections as well as good governance and transparency. We<br />
recognize that how we and our followers conduct ourselves<br />
during the campaign and election period is already indicative<br />
and determinative of how we shall conduct ourselves<br />
as public servants if and when we are elected.<br />
We shall promote principled partisan politics by respecting<br />
the dignity of voters and their consciences, and<br />
their need for well-informed choices. We shall not resort<br />
to vote buying and its variations, and condemn all forms<br />
of intimidation, violence, and misrepresentation.<br />
There is a river of change flowing through our land,<br />
fed by various tributaries of change. People are searching<br />
for meaningful political change that leads to a transformed<br />
nation that allows them to dream and to work towards<br />
achieving these dreams and promote the common good.<br />
We want to be part of this meaningful political change<br />
for a transformed nation. We commit ourselves and call<br />
on our followers to be the change we and our people seek<br />
at this crucial junction of our national life. We cannot do<br />
STATEMENTS<br />
Raising the Tide of Philippine Politics:<br />
A Covenant for Presidential Aspirants to the May 2010 Elections<br />
this by our powers alone. We call on all Filipino citizens to<br />
journey with us and we hold ourselves accountable to them.<br />
Finally, we ask the Lord to accompany us in this journey<br />
of change and transformation that starts with ourselves.<br />
So help us God.<br />
Signed this 22nd day of January 2010 at the Cebu<br />
International Convention Center, Mandaue City.<br />
Candidates:<br />
Sen. Benigno Aquino III<br />
Former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada<br />
Sen. Richard Gordon<br />
Former Secretary Gilberto Teodoro<br />
Bro. Eddie Villanueva<br />
Sen. Manuel Villar<br />
Witnesses:<br />
Gordon Alan P. Joseph, President<br />
Cebu Business Club<br />
Eric Ng Mendoza, President<br />
Mandaue Chamber of Commerce & Industry<br />
Consul Samuel Chioson<br />
Cebu Chamber of Commerce & Industry<br />
Rights, from page 21<br />
ing cooperation between them to avoid<br />
a competition that is extremely unfavorable<br />
to ratification of the Convention.<br />
Encouraging Western countries<br />
to ratify; western receiving countries<br />
are home to large migrant populations<br />
and play an influential role in shaping<br />
other countries’ attitudes towards the<br />
Convention. Any strategy aiming at<br />
fostering ratification will have to address<br />
Western states’ reluctance towards<br />
the Convention, despite the difficulties<br />
that can be expected.<br />
Helping countries implement the<br />
Convention; once the Convention is<br />
ratified and has entered into force, its<br />
implementation needs to be fostered.<br />
Along with the UN Committee monitoring<br />
the Convention, there is therefore a<br />
need to help countries – and especially<br />
sending countries—to put the Convention<br />
into practice.<br />
The amount of work that is needed is<br />
huge, and so are the efforts that will have<br />
to be made. This may inspire some pessimism<br />
and discouragement. However, the<br />
Convention has the very merit of existing;<br />
it represents a unique agreement at the<br />
world level on the minimal degree of legal<br />
protection that migrants should enjoy. It<br />
makes sense therefore to make full use of<br />
the Convention, which remains one of the<br />
most crucial tools in improving migrants’<br />
Victim, from page 21<br />
be familiar with Republic<br />
Act 8042 better known<br />
as the Migrant Workers<br />
and Overseas Filipino<br />
Act of 1995. Knowing<br />
this particular law can<br />
protect migrant workers<br />
from the possible<br />
abuse of labor agents<br />
and brokers. If they are<br />
not able to personally<br />
defend themselves, they<br />
should know at least<br />
that there are agencies<br />
that can help them fight<br />
for their rights. A worker<br />
who knows the law but<br />
unfortunately, is willing<br />
to surrender its implementation<br />
is doomed to<br />
be violated. Moreover,<br />
one maybe familiar with<br />
the law but is afraid to<br />
fight for its implementation<br />
will definitely run the<br />
risk of encountering the<br />
same abuses that Joven<br />
had suffered from. It is<br />
therefore important that<br />
people who are afraid<br />
to fight for their rights<br />
for fear of losing their<br />
jobs, should know there<br />
are institutions that are<br />
willing to help them. In<br />
most countries in Asia<br />
and Europe, chaplains<br />
for Filipino migrant communities<br />
are expected to<br />
assist migrant workers<br />
in their social and labor<br />
problems. All the OFWs<br />
need to do is to approach<br />
the priests that work in<br />
their communities.<br />
In the case of repatri-<br />
rights throughout the world. I<br />
(Fr. Paul Marquez, a priest of the<br />
Society of St. Paul, is a staff writer of<br />
Impact.)<br />
ated OFWs, they can go<br />
directly to POEA or OWWA<br />
to seek assistance. ECMI<br />
also continues to assist<br />
any OFW who would encounter<br />
problem in their<br />
overseas work. For address<br />
and telephone number<br />
of migrant chaplains<br />
overseas, OFWs can call<br />
ECMI at 527-4135 to 42 or<br />
they can also email ECMI<br />
at ecmicbcp07@yahoo.<br />
com. ECMI would like to<br />
caution OFWs however<br />
that it does not have a<br />
direct link with countries<br />
in the Middle East except<br />
Israel, Kuwait and Lebanon.<br />
Hence, assistance<br />
to OFWs working in the<br />
Middle East is difficult to<br />
pursue. I<br />
Volume 44 • Number 2 25
FROM THE<br />
BLOGS<br />
Ten year<br />
marriage contract<br />
Now that this matter of a proposed temporary marriage<br />
contract has somehow subsided in excited<br />
contemplation and spirited discussion, it might be but<br />
proper and just to look into the matter with more calm and<br />
prudence—in the light of on the ground concrete and practical<br />
realities. Truth to say, such a demeaning look at marriage<br />
and consequent frivolous proposition on its temporary time<br />
frame, ultimately have one and the same victims, viz., the<br />
men and women who go for such a temporary conjugal union,<br />
specially so the children. This is not to mention their negative<br />
impact on society as a whole when the adult and youth<br />
concerned respectively disseminate their unsound personal<br />
value systems and propagate empirical grave misfortunes<br />
in their respective communities—as countries with Divorce<br />
Law amply prove.<br />
Men and women who enter temporary marriages basically<br />
say that they are not serious about one another, that they take<br />
the human family lightly, and that consider marriage but some<br />
kind of for-the-moment diversion or a by-the-way option. On<br />
the other hand, the children born of their exploratory union<br />
are not certain what future holds for them, which of their<br />
parents would get and have them, whom between their father<br />
and mother would they come to love or to hate.<br />
A temporary marriage contract for ten—more or less—<br />
years, implies the following composite nauseating if not<br />
traumatic experience when the husband and wife decide to<br />
call it quits upon expiration of the spousal contract: One,<br />
division of the domestic abode—which is disturbing. Two,<br />
division of conjugal properties—which is troublesome. Three,<br />
division of the children—which is traumatic. At the same<br />
time, all these dividing ventures strongly imply division<br />
of affection and mental posture, division of affiliation and<br />
loyalty among the family members concerned.<br />
It is both right and practical to forward the following<br />
concrete and rational principles: First of all, those who<br />
do not believe and/ or who cannot accept a lifetime conjugal<br />
partnership should not get married at all. Second,<br />
those who subscribe to a more or less ten-year marriage<br />
contract, should be prepared to say how many temporal<br />
marriages are they prepared to contract, how many homes<br />
are they ready to break. Third, most important of all, those<br />
who accept marriage with a given time frame should be<br />
prepared to say and decide how many children they are<br />
willing to divide.<br />
By the way, to say that marriage is but a “contract”, is<br />
in fact, neither true nor right. Reason: As such, marriage<br />
would be no more, no better than a business contract, a lease<br />
contract, a car contract, and million and one other contracts.<br />
The truth is that marriage is a covenant, a compact, a vow—<br />
all of which immediately imply constancy, permanence,<br />
stability. This is why as a rule, men, women and children<br />
with a broken marriage behind them, usually do not become<br />
better persons for it. This is sad but true.<br />
To say it lightly, marriage is not like a taxi that a man<br />
and a woman flag down, ride in, and thereafter leave it as a<br />
matter of course, when they no longer need it.<br />
www.ovc.blogspot.com<br />
Truth. Justice.<br />
Peace<br />
Thus stands the tripod whereupon development<br />
depends from on and stands on. In the same way,<br />
deceit, iniquity and dissension guarantee and<br />
promote socio-economic retrogression. The triumph<br />
of truth brings about justice. The reign of justice<br />
ushers in peace. These observations are not simply<br />
academically understandable but also empirically<br />
true. When there is prevalent falsity, then there is a<br />
regime of injustice and thus come to fore all kinds of<br />
unending resentment and discontentment in different<br />
places, in different degrees and different manifestations<br />
as well.<br />
Thus it is that even the Philippine Constitution provides:<br />
“The State shall promote social justice in all phases<br />
of national development.” (State Policies, Sec. 10). This<br />
signal and candid constitutional provision equivalently<br />
says: One, with social justice goes development. Two,<br />
deterioration goes with social injustice. Three, take a<br />
good look around and know how this country fares in<br />
conjunction with the above cited not simply logical but<br />
also realistic State Policy.<br />
To put it more bluntly, injustice is a social curse.<br />
When the powerful and the wealthy are above the law,<br />
when the poor and miserable are crowding local jails<br />
and prisons, when the law is used to oppress and not to<br />
liberate, then something is not merely wrong but also appalling<br />
and revolting. Injustice is the supreme guarantee<br />
of individual disgust and/or social discontent. Justice<br />
is such an elementary mandate that there is nothing<br />
like injustice to foment not merely division, not simply<br />
revolution but war even.<br />
Take away but a candy from but a little child, and<br />
this will most probably cry as a matter of course. The<br />
child feels that the candy is his or hers. Thus when<br />
taken away, the child is offended by the injustice of<br />
losing it. If this is true with but children, it is not<br />
hard to imagine what injustice does to an adult, how<br />
does this feel, what the same will do. If one is poor<br />
because this is aware or knows that he or she is indolent<br />
and/or vicious, if somebody is prosecuted for<br />
a wrong doing, and if someone is jailed because of<br />
his or her proven wrongdoing, then the subject party<br />
knows in conscience that justice is simply served—<br />
even though the same may register strong protests<br />
every now and then.<br />
The cardinal question that now comes to mind is<br />
precisely the following—a query that is admittedly<br />
shameful to think about, as well as embarrassing to ask:<br />
Is a dysfunctional justice system the main legacy of this<br />
no less than some nine year old reigning administration<br />
to the country? A negative answer thereto would require<br />
much explaining to do, and would demand much more<br />
to make it convincing.<br />
www.ovc.blogspot.com<br />
26<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
EDITORIAL<br />
The often cited valiant yet actually<br />
disturbing, fearless but<br />
precisely distressing yell, is<br />
in fact three-tiered: “Do not panic!<br />
Relax lang! Kayang-kaya ito!”<br />
Given the saddening recent past, the<br />
now gloomy existing present and<br />
the forthcoming uncertain days of<br />
the socio-economic situation and<br />
political scenery of the Philippines,<br />
the quoted extra-optimistic cheer can<br />
be considered as a false bravado or a<br />
big joke. Ever since such historical<br />
shout was made by an energy Czar<br />
and quoted by tri-media, both the<br />
importers and consumers of fuel are<br />
precisely in continuous panic and<br />
hysteria, not to mention suspicion and<br />
ire on the part of the general public.<br />
This is somehow like the often<br />
repeated hurrah of the still reigning<br />
leader: “The economic fundamentals<br />
are in place.” Never mind what this<br />
impressive expression really means<br />
and/or how it truly works. The standing<br />
fact is that the country suffers from<br />
pervasive poverty, has a below stan-<br />
Relax!<br />
dard public educational system, has no<br />
employment for its citizens, does not even<br />
produce enough rice for people to eat, and<br />
presently neither has affordable sugar for<br />
its population—not to mention the long<br />
agony brought about by indirect taxation<br />
of Filipinos from birth to death.<br />
There are brazen graft and corrupt<br />
practices in the government from top<br />
to bottom. There are innumerable killings,<br />
regular murders and massacres<br />
that even gained international infamy.<br />
There are criminals all over the land.<br />
There are more pushers and drug syndicates.<br />
Even the supposed arm of the law<br />
often becomes the arm of lawlessness.<br />
The guns in the hands of those who<br />
exactly should not have them, has in<br />
a way brought back the country to the<br />
cowboy and Indian times. Do not panic!<br />
Relax lang! Kayang-kaya ito!<br />
The world of politics is burning<br />
with both serious and hilarious accusations<br />
and counter-accusations. The<br />
political candidates are literally and<br />
flagrantly throwing money away—<br />
surely for them to get much, so very<br />
much more in return when elected.<br />
The guns and goons are all out.<br />
The private armies are all in. The<br />
constant danger to lives and limbs<br />
is real. Even the innocent get hurt,<br />
if not killed. Do not panic! Relax<br />
lang! Kayang-kaya ito!<br />
Suspect and suspicious, accused<br />
and accuser, and furthermore<br />
doubted if not distrusted, wherefore<br />
confused if not lost—this is<br />
COMELEC. Among the still few<br />
machines in, there is even a number<br />
that barely works. Electricity is not<br />
certain in distant parts of the country,<br />
during election day. Some places are<br />
in fact no man’s land. Clustering<br />
some 1,000 thousand voters using<br />
but one voting machine for but some<br />
hours of a day, is not comforting to<br />
contemplate. The ballots are about<br />
two feet long. The jammers are in.<br />
The technicians are not. The watchers<br />
do not know what to watch out<br />
for. There is the possibility of the<br />
failure of election. Do not panic!<br />
Relax lang. Kayang-kaya ito!<br />
Illustration by Bladimer Usi<br />
Volume 44 • Number 2 27
FROM THE<br />
INBOX<br />
From the e-mail messages of lanbergado@cbcpworld.net<br />
The girl in the CD store<br />
There was once a guy who suffered from cancer... a<br />
cancer that can't be treated. He was 18 years old and<br />
he could die anytime. All his life, he was stuck in his<br />
house being taken cared by his mother. He never went outside.<br />
But he was sick of staying home<br />
and wanted to go out for once. So<br />
he asked his mother and she gave<br />
him permission.<br />
He walked down his block and<br />
found a lot of stores. He passed a CD<br />
store and looked through the front<br />
door for a second as he walked. He<br />
stopped and went back to look into<br />
the store. He saw a young girl about<br />
his age and he knew it was love at<br />
first sight. He opened the door and<br />
walked in, not looking at anything<br />
else but her. He walked closer and<br />
closer until he was finally at the<br />
front desk where she sat.<br />
She looked up and asked, "Can I help you?"<br />
She smiled and he thought it was the most beautiful smile<br />
he has ever seen before and wanted to kiss her right there.<br />
He said, "Uh... Yeah... Umm... I would like to buy a CD."<br />
He picked one out and gave her money for it.<br />
"Would you like me to wrap it for you?" she asked,<br />
smiling her cute smile again.<br />
He nodded and she went to the back.<br />
She came back with the wrapped CD and gave it to him.<br />
He took it and walked out of the store. He went home and<br />
from then on, he went to that store everyday and bought a<br />
CD, and she wrapped it for him. He took the CD home and<br />
put it in his closet. He was still too shy to ask her out. He<br />
Lessons learned<br />
One day, the father of a very<br />
wealthy family took his son on<br />
a trip to the country with the<br />
express purpose of showing him how<br />
poor people live.<br />
They spent a couple of days and<br />
nights on the farm of what would be<br />
considered a very poor family.<br />
On their return from their trip, the father<br />
asked his son, “How was the trip?”<br />
“It was great, Dad.”<br />
“Did you see how poor people live?”<br />
the father asked.<br />
“Oh yeah,” said the son.<br />
“So, tell me, what did you learn<br />
from the trip?” asked the father.<br />
The son answered: “I saw that we<br />
have one dog and they had four. We have<br />
a pool that reaches to the middle of our<br />
garden and they have a creek that has no<br />
end. We have imported lanterns in our<br />
garden and they have the stars at night.<br />
Our patio reaches to the front yard and<br />
they have the whole horizon.<br />
“We have a small piece of land<br />
to live on and they have fields that go<br />
beyond our sight.<br />
“We have servants who serve us,<br />
but they serve others. We buy our food,<br />
but they grow theirs.<br />
“We have walls around our property<br />
to protect us, they have friends to<br />
protect them.”<br />
The boy’s father was speechless.<br />
Then his son added, “Thanks Dad<br />
for showing me how poor we are.”<br />
really wanted to but he couldn't. His mother found out about<br />
this and told him to just ask her.<br />
So the next day, he took all his courage and went to the<br />
store. He bought a CD like he did everyday and once again<br />
she went to the back of the store<br />
and came back with it wrapped.<br />
He took it and when she wasn't<br />
looking, he left his phone number<br />
on the desk and ran out...<br />
!!!RRRRRING!!!<br />
The mother picked up the<br />
phone and said, "Hello?"<br />
It was the girl! She asked for<br />
the boy and the mother started to<br />
cry and said, "You don't know? He<br />
passed away yesterday..."<br />
The line was quiet except for<br />
the cries of the boy's mother. Later<br />
during the day, the mother went<br />
into the boy's room because she<br />
wanted to remember him. She thought she would start by<br />
looking at his clothes. So she opened the closet. She saw<br />
piles and piles of unopened CDs. Surprised to find all those<br />
CDs, she picked one up and sat down on the bed and started<br />
to open one.<br />
Inside, there was a CD and as she took it out of the<br />
wrapper, a piece of paper fell out. The mother picked it up<br />
and started to read.<br />
It said: Hi... I think U R really cute. Do u wanna go out<br />
with me? Love, Jacelyn<br />
The mother opened another CD.<br />
Again there was a piece of paper. It said: Hi... I think U<br />
R really cute. Do u wanna go out with me? Love, Jacelyn.<br />
© www.flickr.com/photos/sweetbeat<br />
© www.flickr.com/photos/kaymusings<br />
28<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
ook<br />
Reviews<br />
Joyce Rupp<br />
Meaningful Moments<br />
Fr. Jerry Orbos, SVD<br />
A book of short<br />
reflections on<br />
life’s meaningful<br />
moments.<br />
Fr. Jerry Orbos<br />
believes in “moments<br />
spirituality”,<br />
that of<br />
finding meaning<br />
and finding<br />
God in ordinary<br />
moments of our<br />
life. His nine<br />
books on Moments<br />
series<br />
are all stories<br />
of personal encounters,<br />
little<br />
coincidences,<br />
funny anecdotes,<br />
and uplifting<br />
stories which<br />
have colored<br />
and shaped his<br />
life of 29 years<br />
in the priestly<br />
ministry.<br />
Open the Door<br />
A Journey to the True Self<br />
In this latest<br />
book published<br />
b y P a u l i n e s<br />
P u b l i s h i n g<br />
H o u s e , w e l l<br />
known spiritual<br />
writer and retreat<br />
director<br />
J o y c e R u p p<br />
invites readers<br />
once again to<br />
take the spiritual<br />
journey to<br />
self awareness<br />
by entering the<br />
door of their<br />
hearts. Using<br />
the image of the<br />
door as a symbol<br />
for spiritual<br />
growth, Rupp<br />
guides readers<br />
to discover the<br />
richness that<br />
are hidden within<br />
their inner<br />
self. Designed<br />
as a six-week<br />
process with a reflection for each day of the week, the book is<br />
an excellent companion and guide for those who wish to embark<br />
on a journey to self-discovery.<br />
Reflections for the Working Soul<br />
Bishop Precioso Cantillas, SDB, DD & Teresa Tunay, OCDS<br />
The demands<br />
o f o u r w o r k<br />
can sometimes<br />
drain us of energy<br />
which consequently<br />
lead<br />
us to go on doing<br />
our duties<br />
and work perfunctorily.<br />
This<br />
book of reflections<br />
provides<br />
readers with<br />
some inspiring<br />
insights that will<br />
lead them to understand<br />
more<br />
profoundly the<br />
spirituality of<br />
work. Originally<br />
published as a<br />
column in one<br />
of the leading<br />
national dailies,<br />
the 52 sets of<br />
reflections in<br />
this volume are<br />
the authors’ “humble offering to those who work, especially<br />
those toiling away from the limelight, those who labor in dire<br />
working conditions, the millions of unrecognized ‘lowly’ workers<br />
who are moved in their work by sheer faith in the honorableness<br />
of honest labor.”<br />
The Priesthood<br />
Pope Benedict XVI<br />
This book by St.<br />
Pauls comes<br />
at a time when<br />
the National<br />
Congress of the<br />
Clergy in the<br />
Philippines had<br />
just ended. Especially<br />
published<br />
on this year dedicated<br />
for priests,<br />
this book gathers<br />
the reflections of<br />
the Holy Father<br />
on the topic of<br />
p r i e s t h o o d .<br />
The reflections<br />
are drawn from<br />
“homilies and<br />
meetings with<br />
the clergy of Italian<br />
dioceses and<br />
of the world on<br />
the occasion of<br />
the pope’s pastoral<br />
visits and<br />
apostolic trips.”<br />
Volume 44 • Number 2 29
ENTERTAINMENT<br />
Ca t h o l i c INi t i a t i v e fo r<br />
Enl i g h t e n e d Mov i e App r e c i a t i o n<br />
African-American teenager Michael Oher a.k.a Big<br />
Mike (Quinton Aaron) feels outcast in a Christian<br />
school due to variety of reasons from his low academic<br />
qualification to his big body frame for his age, skin color<br />
and being oddly silent apparently due to his complicated<br />
childhood. When Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) sees<br />
Michael wandering in the street on one cold night, she invites<br />
him to sleep over in the house with her family -- husband<br />
Sean (Tim McGraw) and children SJ (Jae Head) and Collins<br />
(Lily Collins). The generosity of Touhy family does not<br />
end with overnight place of sleep for Michael but finding a<br />
new family where he is loved and accepted. On discovery<br />
of his niche in playing football, he gets the full support of<br />
the Tuohy family to the point of going all the way to process<br />
legal guardianship for him and get a tutor to improve<br />
his academic profile. When Michael starts to make a name<br />
in sports, tempting scholarship packages come to his plate<br />
from different schools. However, when he finally chooses<br />
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron, Jae<br />
Head, Lily Collins<br />
Director: John Lee Hancock<br />
Producers: Gil Netter, Broderick Johnson, Andrew Kosove<br />
Screenwriter: John Hancock<br />
Music: Carter Burwell<br />
Editor: Mark Livolsi<br />
Genre: Drama<br />
Cinematography: Alar Kivilo<br />
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures<br />
Location: USA<br />
Running Time: 100 mins.<br />
Technical Assessment: ••••<br />
Moral Assessment: <br />
CINEMA Rating: For viewers aged 13 and below with<br />
parental guidance<br />
one, those schools that he rejects make him believe that<br />
Tuohy family's motivation for helping him is to influence<br />
his decision for choice of school. After all those things done<br />
for him by Tuohy family is Michael up to be cynical about<br />
them, isolates himself and feels outcast again? How about<br />
the promising sports career?<br />
Based on the book Evolution of a Game, The Blind Side<br />
offers an inspiring story complimented by excellent treatment<br />
by the director and the casting that fits each character.<br />
There are combined drama and comedy, conventional and<br />
unconventional family settings, and theme of social relevance.<br />
The lines are meaningful and put to life by good portrayal<br />
of the actors especially Bullock. The cinematography captured<br />
the settings for a good production design to establish<br />
highlight of each scene. Overall, film The Blind Side is way<br />
above in the technical aspects and keep up to the essence of<br />
a very good story.<br />
The film shows that an act of kindness cannot be contained,<br />
there is overflow. Leigh Anne influenced others<br />
primarily her family then the coach, the teachers and school<br />
officials to extend kindness to Michael, and this creates<br />
a pleasant environment for everybody. It brings positive<br />
change not only to the recipient but also to the giver. The<br />
film projects both a strong and soft woman in the character<br />
of Leigh Anne, an understanding and supportive husband,<br />
obedient and loving children to their parents. The film is also<br />
a good reminder for key people in the schools, sports, law<br />
enforcer of their responsibility to make or unmake a person<br />
especially at a young age. Rather to look at each young<br />
person as an opportunity to see potentials of good citizens<br />
in the making. Whilst the story is about Michael, the key<br />
messages to address the moral dimension are found in the<br />
people around him. Overall the film offers a lot of positive<br />
values not only in the family situation but throughout the<br />
school, community and society at large.<br />
30<br />
<strong>IMPACT</strong> • February 2010
ASIA<br />
BRIEFING<br />
INDIA<br />
Avalanche kills soldiers<br />
At least 11 Indian soldiers<br />
were killed after an<br />
avalanche hit Indian army’s<br />
High Attitude Warfare<br />
School in northwest Kashmir,<br />
a mountainous region<br />
near the border with Pakistan<br />
on Feb. 9. Dozens of<br />
soldiers were buried in the<br />
snow. About 400 soldiers<br />
are based at the camp which<br />
has been completely covered<br />
by the avalanche.<br />
CHINA<br />
Police shuts hacker<br />
training school<br />
While Google threatened<br />
to quit China last<br />
month after a serious hacking<br />
attempt, authorities<br />
have closed down what it<br />
claims to be the country’s<br />
largest hacker training website<br />
and nabbed three of its<br />
members. Police said the<br />
"Black Hawk Safety Net"<br />
taught hacking techniques<br />
and provided malicious<br />
software downloads for its<br />
12,000 members.<br />
SRI LANKA<br />
Ex-army commander<br />
nabbed<br />
Authorities have arrested<br />
former army commander<br />
and losing presidential candidate<br />
Gen. Sarath Fonseka.<br />
He will reportedly be<br />
court-martialed for allegedly<br />
planning to overthrow the<br />
government. Fonseka was<br />
taken into custody by Sri<br />
Lanka troops who stormed<br />
the offices of the main opposition<br />
alliance which had<br />
backed his candidacy.<br />
BURMA<br />
Aussie boosts aid to<br />
Burma<br />
Australia is giving a 40<br />
percent increase in humanitarian<br />
aid to Burma, hoping<br />
to spur a democratic<br />
election later this year and<br />
create political change. But<br />
long-time Burma-watchers<br />
warn the generals who control<br />
the country are masters<br />
of the political charade<br />
and say Australia should<br />
be careful trying to deliver<br />
more aid under their rule.<br />
AFGHANISTAN<br />
Afghans flee offensive<br />
in Marjah<br />
Some 2,000 men, women<br />
and children fearing imminent<br />
fighting between<br />
the Taliban and US troops,<br />
loaded up trucks and fled<br />
their homes Feb. 8 in Afghanistan’s<br />
southern district<br />
ahead of a military offensive<br />
intended to clear Taliban<br />
militants. Thousands of<br />
NATO and Afghan troops<br />
are expected to carry out<br />
the operation in the Marjah<br />
area of Helmand province<br />
within the month.<br />
NEPAL<br />
Media mogul killed<br />
Media mogul and Space<br />
Time network head Jamim<br />
Shah, a media mogul here,<br />
has been shot dead in Kathmandu,<br />
the country’s capital.<br />
Shah was killed on Feb. 8 in<br />
broad daylight close to the<br />
British and Indian embassies.<br />
Shah was accused by<br />
the Indian government of<br />
having links to major Indian<br />
crime syndicate, and to Pakistan's<br />
intelligence agency.<br />
MALAYSIA<br />
Police nab Iranian trio<br />
in drug bust<br />
Three Iranians, two<br />
women and one man, were<br />
nabbed while attempting<br />
to smuggle drugs—worth<br />
nearly $4 million—into Malaysia.<br />
The suspects were<br />
carrying over 50 kilos of<br />
amphetamines, at Kuala<br />
Lumpur International Airport.<br />
Trafficking drugs carries<br />
a mandatory death<br />
sentence in Malaysia.<br />
TAIWAN<br />
US sells weapons to Taiwan;<br />
China angered<br />
Kao Hua-chu, Taiwan’s<br />
defense minister has vowed<br />
to seek more weaponry<br />
from the US triggering anger<br />
from the Chinese government.<br />
The announcement<br />
came a week after the<br />
announcement of a $US6.4<br />
billion arms deal with America<br />
which angered China.<br />
Hua-chu said the deal will<br />
help stabilise the Taiwan<br />
Strait and give the island<br />
greater confidence in pushing<br />
for talks with China.<br />
VIETNAM<br />
Govt tackles US at WTO<br />
over shrimp imports<br />
The Vietnamese government<br />
has filed its first<br />
anti-dumping case with the<br />
World Trade Organization.<br />
Reports said the case is<br />
against anti-dumping tariffs<br />
imposed by the US<br />
on frozen shrimp. The US<br />
has imposed tariffs ranging<br />
between 4 to 26 percent on<br />
Vietnamese shrimp exporters.<br />
Vietnam joined the<br />
WTO three years ago.<br />
CAMBODIA<br />
Withdrawal of disputed<br />
Google map sought<br />
“Professionally irresponsible.”<br />
This was how Cambodia<br />
accused the internet<br />
search engine company<br />
Google over its map of an<br />
ancient temple which is<br />
at the centre of a border<br />
dispute with Thailand. In<br />
a letter—which the AFP<br />
news agency reports to<br />
have seen—the government<br />
said the Google map<br />
'places almost half of the<br />
disputed Preah Vihear temple<br />
in Thailand'. Cambodia<br />
has asked for the map to be<br />
replaced with a new one.<br />
ISRAEL<br />
Military probes fail Gaza<br />
war victims<br />
The Israeli gov’t has<br />
failed to demonstrate that<br />
it will conduct thorough and<br />
impartial investigations into<br />
alleged laws-of-war violations<br />
by its forces during<br />
last year's Gaza conflict,<br />
Human Rights Watch said.<br />
An independent investigation<br />
is needed if perpetrators<br />
of abuse, including<br />
senior military and political<br />
officials who set policies<br />
that violated the laws of war,<br />
are to be held accountable,<br />
it added.<br />
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