the rice crisis

Values are neither good nor bad . They are in themselves ambivalent. Their merit or demerit depends on our choice of values to respond to a particular situation and what importance the community attaches to this value - in the way it rewards or punishes such behavior. The example given by PCP II will make it quite simpler. Filipinos who migrate to other countries adapt quickly to traffic rules and time discipline. If they do so it is not because their values have changed rather the social system which they find themselves in called for these values - values which were not emphasized in the social system in this country. 

the morality of lotto

I would like to voice out my opposition to Lotto and the proposal that it should be made available nationwide, which means that it could be introduced anytime now in our city and province. Despite the opposition of Cebu officials who are even planning an “anti-lotto summit” among mayors in the said province, an article in Panay News (August 15,1995) recently spoke of the foreseen favorable acceptance of the scheme in our city headed no less by our “popular mayor with populist tendencies.” And since the arguments of anti-gambling advocates have been time and again accused by the media and the government agencies involved as “hypocritical” (whatever that means) I would like to argue from the perspective of Filipino values - the values that make or unmake our nation.

parish congress

As I look back to our recently concluded parish congress several lessons came to mind and these are lessons which goes beyond words and concepts formulated and documented in the congress. Below are lessons as they unfolded throughout those eventful three nights which I found personally valuable.

supporting candle light

Last week when we published that we have a three thousand plus deficit hanging over us, generous donors came and gave their donations. One gave a check for one thousand, another came with a five hundred peso bill, and still another came to give a hundred. I was touched by this profound gesture of generosity, so that, for a time I entertained taking back our word to reduce the pages of our weekly paper from the usual ten pages to eight pages to save on paper. But what kept me from backtracking on this decision was the data given to us by our accountant Mr. Roming Tan who painstakingly traced how many people drop a donation during the second collections. He based his findings on the number of bills dropped and averaged them at one bill per person. At the same time he counted the amount of coins dropped which he averaged at one peso per person. With these data he concluded thus: “Out of 7,000 copies distributed during 10 masses, only 3,319 parishioners gave during our second collections or only 48% of the seven thousand persons who got Candle Light contributed for its support.”

God does not want us to suffer

Now it can be said. Our government is indeed “a government of press releases.” It paints its own picture of the Philippine situation other than the reality. It says that our economy has improved, that in fact we have a surplus of 18 billion pesos and are more than willing to increase the salary of our legislators 100% as if to award them for a job well done. 

 However, this wonderland the government is talking about is only on paper no less valuable than the fairy tales concocted by imaginative authors to tiltillate our minds. 

we of me

Fr. Gabaldon once wrote in his column an article entitled the “We of Me”. He tells of a play made by Carson McCullers’ in which Frankie, an adolescent tomboy, wanted to be a member of the wedding of her brother Jarvis and wants to go on their honeymoon too. She was dissuaded to do that very gently by their maid but Frankie, stubborn as she was, insisted in doing so. She said “ I love them both so much and we belong together . . . because they are the we of me.”

called and sent

The Ascension of Jesus reminds me that life is a steady movement -- it is never stagnant or unchanging. One does remain in one stage forever even if we wants to. Why? Without our knowing and sometimes even without our willing it something in us grows. Our body for one grows without our knowing or willing it, so that if our other faculties do not grow with it, our whole person degenerates, we fall off. The mind and outlook of a 12 year old would look funny in the body of a 30 year old. One could not stop the steady flux or progression of life. If he does not grow with it he becomes abberant, he becomes immature. Man has nowhere to go but up or down. He either retrogresses or progresses with life.