Category: News

Risk reduction programs are incorporated into development plans in Catholic dioceses

Members of Manila’s San Isidro Labrador parish’s Disaster Preparedness and Response Ministry. (Photo by Mark Saludes/ucanews.com)

Mark Saludes, Manila

Philippines April 11, 2018

It was Sunday morning and rain and wind were pummeling the district. Water in a nearby river started to rise.

Men rushed into the parish office, took handheld radio sets, helmets and other emergency response equipment.

From a window on the third floor, a priest was directing the rescue of six people trapped in the middle of surging floodwater.

Later in the day, the same men who made the daring rescue were seen inside the church assisting the priest during the celebration of Mass.

They were all members of the Basic Ecclesial Community of San Isidro Labrador Parish in Bagong Silangan district in Metro Manila’s Quezon City.

The parish, which serves about 130,000 mostly poor urban settlers, stands in a low-lying area near a river that surges every time there is heavy rain.

When a typhoon hit the Philippine capital in 2009, at least 148 people died in the district while hundreds of families were displaced due to flooding.

Mercy Kote could not forget the people she saw riding on floating debris being swallowed by the strong current.

Bagong Silangan is not only flood-prone. It also lies on an earthquake fault line that authorities say might move any time soon.

Carmelite priest Gilbert Billena, the parish’s pastor, said poorer members of the community are the most vulnerable when it comes to disasters.

“They reside near the threat,” said the Carmelite priest.

While the concrete houses of the rich stand in the upper portion of the district, the shanties of urban poor families are in the lower section.

Father Billena said the secret of a good disaster risk management program is the involvement of the whole community as “first responders.”

He learned it in his hometown in the southern Philippine province of Camiguin when he was still a student. He saw how Catholic missionaries organized people when a strong typhoon hit the province.

“They started at the grass roots. They made people realize that no one would make them safe but themselves,” said the priest.

“The people did it because no one else would,” he said, adding that “active participation” of people in planning, organizing and implementing measures is the “first line of defense” for any community.

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The new Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, “On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World” Photo credit: Vatican News

On April 9, which this year marks the transferred Solemnity of the Annunciation, the Vatican releases the latest Apostolic Exhortation from Pope Francis: Gaudete et exsultate: On the call to holiness in today’s world.

Churchpeople-Workers Solidarity (CWS) Statement

Photo from CWS FB page.

President Duterte has been in office for almost two years but the Filipino people are still asking “where is the promised change?” Obviously, change has not come. Workers’ legitimate just demands for living wages, decent work, and secured jobs have again, fallen on deaf ears.

Duterte’s promise of “ending all forms of contractualization” remain unfulfilled. The Department of Labor and Employment Order 174 paved the way for a society where not everyone has the opportunity to work and to be “anointed with the dignity of work”. The 70,000 “regularized” workers that DOLE Secretary Bello boasted are being regularized through labor contractors and not through their principal employers. This bogus regularization only benefited profit-hungry manpower agencies who squeezed the workers dry of their hard-earned money and deprived workers the capacity to work, to create and to have dignity.

Instead of scrapping all forms of contractualization, a new law which seeks to institutionalize flexible working schemes such as the compressed work week is not only a betrayal to the workers but also intensifying their exploitation and oppression. Long working hours is detrimental to the health and well-being of the workers. The compressed work week bill will legalize slave labor and will only result to wage cuts, massive lay-offs, work-related diseases and even workplace deaths.

Duterte has betrayed the working class people. After almost two years in office, workers have come to realize that they could not put their trust on a President who claims to be for the poor but is relentless in trampling the rights of the poor people. It is apparent that the workers had no other recourse but to rely on their collective effort. Only through collective struggle will they achieve their legitimate and just demands. And church people should be with this just struggle.

As Pope Francis rightly pointed out: “the poor not only suffer injustice but they also struggle against it! They are not content with empty promises, excuses or alibis…. the poor will no longer wait; they want to be protagonists; they organize themselves, study, work, claim and, above all, practice that very special solidarity that exists among those who suffer, among the poor.”

Church people, Struggle with the Workers for dignity of human work, job security and just wage!

End all forms of contractualization!

Laiko photo

April 6, 2018

Manila

The First Friday Mass at the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) chapel this month of April 2018 wa sponsored by the Couples for Christ Global Foundation (CFC).

Before the Mass, CFC members led the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from 10:00 to 11:45 am. At 12:00 noon, Father Lanka Deshapriya, a Franciscan priest led the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

For this month, the Mass intentions were for the intentions of the Holy Father, which is for persons who have responsibility in economic matters; the enlightenment of legislators who sponsor the Divorce Bill; and the special petitions of the CFC Global community.

Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas member organizations take turns in sponsoring the First Friday Mass each month.

Relic of the saint, still in liquid form, was a gift from the pope’s former secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisw

Father Reggie Malecdem, rector of Manila Cathedral, holds the relic of Saint John Paul II, a vial of containing the blood of the late pope. (Photo by Angie de Silva)

ucanews.com reporter, Manila

Philippines April 6, 2018

The Archdiocese of Manila will be the custodian of a precious relic of St. Pope John Paul II — his blood, which will be the object of veneration in the Philippine capital starting on April 7.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisw, Pope John Paul II’s former secretary, gave the archdiocese the vial as a gift for the 60th anniversary of Manila Cathedral’s reconstruction after World War II.

“This precious gift … is truly a source of consolation and help especially for those who are suffering physical illnesses,” read a statement from Manila Cathedral.

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Indigenous Peoples Major Group

Philippines

APR 5, 2018 — March 26, 2018: Today the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) and the National Council of Leaders of the KATRIBU, a national alliance of Indigenous organizations which includes the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), filed a joint Urgent Action Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

The submission requests urgent intervention by the CERD’s Urgent Action/Early Warning Procedure in response to the situation of at least 31 Indigenous human rights defenders and members of Indigenous organizations who were labeled as “terrorists” in a proscriptive Petition issued by the Philippine Government’s Department of Justice on February 23, 2018. As a result, they are in imminent danger of warrantless arbitrary arrest, surveillance, freezing of assets, persecution, denial of right to travel, extraordinary rendition, assault and extrajudicial killing.

Those listed as “terrorists” in the Petition are working for human rights and an end to racism and discrimination against Indigenous Peoples in that country. They include community leaders and activists as well as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and former member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Joan Carling.

Repression against Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines is not new. In 2006 IITC submitted an Urgent Action filing on behalf of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance to the Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders in response to the killings of 2 Indigenous human rights defenders, Mr. Rafael Markus Bangit and Mrs. Alice-Omengan Claver and the attempted assassination Dr. Constancio Claver, M.D.

The Urgent Action submission filed today calls upon the CERD to urge the Philippine Government to cease the criminalization and drop all charges against Indigenous human rights defenders and to release any political prisoners who have been apprehended as a result of this Petition. IITC and KATRIBU also request the CERD to call on the Philippine Government to officially rescind this Petition and to uphold its international human rights obligations pursuant to the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racism and Discrimination and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as their domestic obligations under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the 1997 Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).

The CERD’s 95th session will begin on April 23rd in Geneva Switzerland and this submission will be considered at that time.

Mr. Oscar Contreras, Jr. of Couples for Christ Foundation for Family and Life clarifies a point during the February 10, 2018 Lay Leaders’ Caucus.

March 19, 2018

To: All heads of Laiko Members: National Lay Organizations &
Arch/Diocesan Councils of the Laity

Re: Lay Leaders’ Lay Caucus

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

The peace and love of the Lord!

The political developments in our country are alarming and many are unaware of the implications of the moves in congress about the constitutional change to institutionalize federalism.  As lay leaders, we need to be aware of these implications and be able to bring it down to the level of our members.

With this, may we invite once again your officers to the Lay Leaders’ Caucus on Saturday, April 7, 2018, 1:00 P.M. to 5: 00 P.M.  at the 4th flr., Arzobispado de Manila, 121 Arzobispo St., Intramuros, Manila. We have invited former Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr., and former Congressman Neri Colmenares to speak to us on Charter Change and Federalism.  Their expertise and the ability to bring ideas down to earth to those unacquainted with judicial jargon will help us understand better the issues at hand.

Kindly confirm your active participation by calling LAIKO Secretariat at tel. nos: 527-5388, 527-3124, 0977-1794938, 0908-2496512. A P150.00 solidarity fee will be greatly appreciated to help us in our snacks and other incidental expenses.

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A total of 77 Christian organizations jointly signed the”No to Divorce”  statement published as full page advertisements in two national broadsheets- the Manila Bulletin and Philippine Daily Inquirer, on April  2 and 3, 2018.

Repost: April 4, 2018
Original post: December 2, 2017

We, members of the Council of the Laity of the Philippines, signify our objection to the House Bills that will enact into law the dissolution of marriages.

When a man and a woman pledge themselves to keep a covenant of unity for a lifetime, they are accountable to each other and to the rest of humanity. Marriages and families are the foundation of our communities, society and civilization- our whole way of life. We need strong marriages and families.

Numerous arguments have been given in favor of divorce and other forms of dissolution of marriage. Persons who seek divorce think and believe that divorce is the solution to their marital problems- at least it allows the individual to escape the miserable situation they are in. However, what are not popularly known are the resulting complicated problems from divorce. This ends up in greater misery for both parties, leaving them to lament, “If only I had known this would happen after the divorce.”

The tragic effects of divorce impact not only the lives of parties involved, but also their children, grandchildren up to the fourth generation.

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Photo from Katutubong Lilak’s Facebook page

Ms. Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, Beverly Longid and Joan Carling, Philippine indigenous women, are not terrorists.

LILAK stands by the three Indigenous Women leaders the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeks to be declared as “terrorists”, and we call on the DOJ to drop their names off the list it submitted to the court.

In February 21, 2018, the DOJ filed a petition to the Court to have the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army (CPP-NPA) declared as terrorist organizations. Along with the petition submitted to the Manila Regional Trial Court (MRTC) by DOJ is a list of 600 names of alleged communists, and therefore should also be declared “terrorists”. As such, State forces can go after these persons in the pretext of suspicion of them committing a terrorist act, as stipulated in the Philippines Human Security Act of 2007 or Rep. Act 9372.

LILAK and its partner indigenous women have been working with each of these three indigenous women on different issues and campaigns. Previously as the Executive Director of Tebtebba Foundation, and now as UN Special Rapparteur on Indigenous Peoples rights, LILAK has undertaken joint activities with Ms. Vicky Tauli-Corpuz particularly in promoting indigenous women’s rights at different levels – local, national and international.

Ms. Beverly Longid, previously as Secretary General of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), has been part of the different activities of LILAK particularly in learning sessions and national gatherings of indigenous women. With Ms. Joan Carling, as the Secretary General of the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), she and her organization have supported the different activities and advocacies of indigenous peoples we work with – providing emergency funds to families of indigenous peoples (IP) victims of extra judicial killings and IP human rights defenders; and giving training support for communities to be able to access different international and UN human rights mechanisms. Aside from these, the indigenous women and indigenous communities that LILAK works with have had longer relationships with each of them, in the assertion of the latter’s human rights as indigenous peoples.

Is this terrorism?

This act of the DOJ to push for the declaration of these three indigenous women as terrorists is irresponsible, and deadly. It gives license to armed force of the State, and practically to everyone, to intimidate, and yes, to kill them. In a speech before the Lumad, or the indigenous peoples in Mindanao, (February 11, 2018 / Davao City), President Duterte offered them P20,000 for every communist that they kill. A few days after, in a speech among soldiers in Malacanang, (February 13, 2018), he ordered soldiers to shoot female communist rebels “in the vagina”.

This is terrorism.

Every woman, every one, has the right to act and work for change and for social justice. Every indigenous woman has the right to organize and empower indigenous communities to collectively assert their right to defend their territories, and to practice self-determination.

This is what Vicky Corpuz, Beverly Longid, Joan Carling is all about.

LILAK stands by them, as we call on the Duterte government to take them off the list of alleged terrorists; their safety as they go about their legitimate activities of being human rights defenders must be ensured.

We demand a stop to these acts of terror against human rights defenders.

We have the right to defend our rights, as we work for a more humane society, free from violence, poverty and discrimination.