About a year ago, on May 9, 2016, the Filipino people–or at least, 16 million of them, about 39 percent of the electorate–entrusted our nation to a strange shepherd. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte came to power promising to protect the innocent by spilling the blood of the guilty: criminals, especially…
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With the resumption of sessions in the legislature in May, I expect to hear elucidation on the meaning of justice from the esteemed senators, especially as they prepare to tackle the bills that seek to reinstate the death penalty. The passage of such a bill in the House of Representatives…
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On 28 April 2017, the latest book by veteran Catholic activist Bro. Karl Gaspar, CSsR was launched at the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University. Panagkutay: Anthropology and Theology Interfacing in Mindanao Uplands (The Lumad Homeland) is his third book to be published this year and chronicles his…
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JJCICSI joined the annual “Kalbaryo ng Maralita (Calvary of the Poor)” staged on Holy Tuesday, April 11, by various urban poor groups with their partner NGOs, the Urban Poor Associates (UPA) and Community Organizers Multiversity (COM). Led by urban poor community members carrying crosses representing the issue adversely affecting the sector, thousands of participants marched from Plaza Miranda to the…
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As of this writing, thousands of members of the urban poor group Kadamay (Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap) are occupying idle units in the housing projects of the National Housing Authority (NHA) in Pandi, Bulacan. If their intention was to get public attention, no one can say that they failed. They…
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The address I remember best from my college graduation was from a man who had been dead five days. Archbishop Óscar Romero of San Salvador was assassinated while saying Mass on March 24, 1980. On Feb. 17, he had urged US President Jimmy Carter not to support El Salvador’s military…
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The creation of a Department of Housing and Urban Development (House Bills 449, 1518, 1721, 3375, 3639, 5114) is an opportunity for transforming our presently anarchic urban development processes and improving the efficiency and quality of government housing programs and services. Unfortunately, the proposed bills leave much to be desired…
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Is the Church calling for people to march on the 25th?” a friend asked last week. By “Church” she meant not the community of the faithful but the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, a lapse into which even progressive Catholics can fall. Her hopes, and those of other Catholic…
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Following the successful pilot seminar in August 2016, JJCICSI and the Department of Theology of the Ateneo de Manila University recently organized a series of one-day Catholic Social Teaching (CST) seminars for the Institute’s long-time partners in its advocacy work. Dubbed “Isiwalat ang Lihim! Mga Panlipunang Prinsipyong Katoliko sa Ating…
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The Catholic Church and Duterte’s Deadly Drug Busting
In the last 10 months, over 9,000 Filipinos, mostly poor, have perished in circumstances believed to be associated with the government’s campaign against illegal drugs. More than a quarter of the killings have been carried out by police against an unusual number of drug suspects reported to have resisted apprehension.…