Category: News

Despite the Sino-Vatican bishops deal, Beijing continues to turn the screw on religion 

Father Zhang Guilin (left) and Father Wang Zhong of Xiwanzi Diocese were taken away by the government on Oct. 11 to study religious policy and are still under detention. (Photo supplied)

UCANews Joseph Chan, China
November 21, 2018

The pope’s primacy in the Catholic Church was recognized by the Chinese government for the first time with the signing of the Sino-Vatican provisional agreement on bishop appointments on Sept. 22.
On the surface, the agreement paves the way for the government-sanctioned church and the underground church to reach unity. More optimistic church members hope the government will show more goodwill to the church through this agreement, letting Catholics follow their faith and expanding the “cage” of church life.

However, the actual situation of the mainland church now is exactly the opposite.
S

ince the agreement was signed, the United Front Work Department and the religious affairs bureaus have launched a new round of tough transformation missions for underground clerics, forcing them to participate in religious “education classes” organized by the government. It is an exercise in brainwashing.

According to a priest who has just been “transformed,” clerics must agree to the principles of independence, autonomy and self-governance of the church and accept the leadership of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). Authorities also forced underground priests to concelebrate Mass and be pictured with government-designated “official bishops.”

This new round of transformation is particularly serious in Hebei province, where the number of Catholics is almost one million.
In addition to the forcible closure of two gathering places in Shadifang and Qujiazhuang parishes of Xuanhua Diocese one month ago, four priests in Zhangjiakou were also taken away and forced to attend classes by the government. Those priests are Father Zhang Guilin and Father Wang Zhong of Xiwanzi and Father Su Guipeng and Father Zhao of Xuanhua.

Since 2009, Father Zhang has been serving in Chongli, a large parish in Xiwanzi with nearly 4,000 Catholics. He has not joined the CCPA or registered with the government. He has been in a semi-overt state.
Father Zhang has developed the parish by building churches and helping Catholics in all aspects of culture and faith. He teaches the illiterate how to read, organizes foreign language classes for the educated youth, and teaches Catholics the etiquette of getting along with people with half an eye on welcoming visitors to the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.

They Show us our Poverty…to Lead us to a Holy Humiliation

November 21, 2018 14:31 Jim Fair General Audience

“The whole journey undertaken in the Decalogue would be of no use if it didn’t arrive at touching this level: man’s heart…we must let ourselves be unmasked by these Commandments on desire because they show us our poverty, in order to lead us to a holy humiliation.”
Pope Francis come to the end of the Ten Commandments during his General Audience on November 21, 2018, and explained their depth and significance beyond a list of what to do and not do. They give us our boundaries, the boundaries that make our hearts pure and prevent self-destruction. And commandments nine and ten are significant, although they seem to echo earlier prohibitions on adultery and theft.

“These are not only the last words of the text but much more: they are the fulfillment of the journey through the Decalogue, touching the heart of all that has been given to us in it.,” Francis explained. “In fact, in hindsight, they don’t add a new content: the indications ‘do not covet the wife [. . . ] or anything that belongs to your neighbor’ is at least latent in the Commandments on adultery and on theft; what, then, is the function of these words?

“Let us keep very present that all the Commandments have the task to indicate the boundary of life, the limit beyond which man destroys himself and his neighbor, spoiling his relationship with God. If you go beyond, you destroy yourself; you also destroy the relationship with God and the relationship with others. The Commandments point this out.”

The Holy Father pointed out that all sin springs from “evil desires…all sins are born from a wicked desire — all. The heart begins to move there, and one enters that wave and ends up in a transgression.”

The danger in the resulting transgression isn’t just that it may be a “legal” violation. It harms oneself and others. The commandments are designed to free the heart.

“This is the challenge: to free the heart from all these wicked and awful things,” Francis said. “God’s precepts can be reduced to being only the beautiful facade of a life, which in any case remains an existence of slaves and not of children. Often, behind the Pharisaic mask of asphyxiating correctness, something awful and unresolved hides.

“Instead, we must let ourselves be unmasked by these Commandments on desire because they show us our poverty, in order to lead us to a holy humiliation. Each one of us can ask him/herself: but what ugly desires come often to me? Envy, greed, gossip? — all these things that come to me from within. Each one can ask him/herself and it will do him/her good.

“Man is in need of this blessed humiliation, that humiliation by which he discovers that he cannot free himself on his own; that humiliation by which he cries to God to be saved. Saint Paul explains it in an insuperable way, precisely in referring to the Commandment not to covet (Cf. Romans 7:7-24).”

The Pope emphasized that the purpose of the Law is not to force man into “literal obedience” but to lead many to truth. For this, we need an open heart.

“The task of the Law is to lead man to his truth, namely, to his poverty, which becomes a genuine opening and personal opening to God’s mercy, which transforms us and renews us,” Francis concluded. “God is the only one able to renew our heart, on the condition that we open our heart to Him: it’s the only condition. He does everything, but we must open our heart to Him.”

The Holy Father’s Full Commentary
November 21, 2018 14:31 General Audience

Church marks second observance of World Day of the Poor

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila addresses residents of urban poor communities and members of the clergy during the observance of the World Day of the Poor on Nov. 17. (Photo by Mark Saludes)

Mark Saludes, Manila, Philippines
November 19, 2018

Church leaders in Manila Archdiocese marked World Day of the Poor on Nov. 17 by sharing a meal with residents from the city’s urban poor communities.

At least 300 people attended the “lunch and sharing with the poor” event at the University of Santo Tomas following a Mass officiated by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila.

In his homily, the Manila prelate called on Catholics not only to listen to the “cries of the poor” but also “to shoulder their struggle in our everyday lives.”

The cardinal said “acts of mercy and compassion” to those in need are the reasons why the church observes the Day of the Poor.

Pope Francis declared the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time of the church calendar — Nov. 18 this year — as World Day of the Poor for Catholics to “reflect on how poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel.

Cardinal Tagle in his message said “there will be no celebration if we do not care for [the poor].”

The prelate called on Filipinos to “admit to our own state of destitution,” and “to dare listen to the poor and associate ourselves with them.”

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show that an estimated 22 million Filipinos or about one-fifth of the population live below the national poverty line.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo called on the clergy and the religious to “live the life of the poor and become one of them.”
The bishop said efforts to help the poor “can only be strengthened if the church would continue its encounter with them.”

At the Vatican, Pope Francis railed against social inequality during this year’s observance, saying that “the din of the rich few” was drowning out the voice of the needy.

At a Mass attended by about 6,000 poor people at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the pope noted that, “injustice is the perverse root of poverty.”

Special year will be the seventh in a series of nine annual celebrations to mark 500 years of Christianity in country

Filipino delegates pose for a picture during the World Youth Day in Poland in 2016. (Photo by Roy Lagarde)

UCANews.com Reporter, Manila, Philippines
November 16, 2018

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has announced that it will dedicate 2019 as the “Year of the Youth”.

The year-long celebration, which will start on the first Sunday of Advent on Dec. 2, will carry the theme “Filipino Youth in Mission: Beloved, Gifted, Empowered.”

It’s observance, which the bishops described as part of the “nine-year journey for New Evangelization,” will end on Nov. 24, 2019, the Feast of Christ the King.

In 2013, the bishops’ conference launched a “nine-year journey” to 2021, the fifth centenary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines, with a different theme each year.

The first five years were dedicated to “integral faith formation” (2013), the laity (2014), the poor (2015), the Eucharist and the Family (2016), and the parish as a communion of communities (2017).

The year 2018 was dedicated to the clergy and consecrated persons, while the remaining two years of the preparation will be dedicated to ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue in 2020 and missio ad gentes, or bringing the Gospel to all people, in 2021.

Activities next year are aimed at “youth in formation, youth in communities, church and society, youth in mission, and youth ministry and youth ministers.”

“The Year of the Youth is a journey of encounter with Jesus, accompanied by Mary,” read a statement from the bishops’ Commission on Youth.

“In this journey, we tell the story of the Filipino youth with our Risen Lord … [and] as we are blessed and gifted during this journey, we are empowered to witness to and share our faith,” it added.

The “Year of the Youth” observance comes after the Synod of Bishops on young people last month.

The final document of the meeting stressed the concrete aspects of the lives of the youth, the role of schools and parishes and the need for the laity to be trained to accompany young people.

The SIKAD or Sining Kadamay, an artists’ organization for urban poor rights and welfare, will be conducting a fundraising performance “Sa Digma ng Halimaw,” a documentary theater production about the war on drugs, as told by loved ones of the victims of Extra-Judicial Killings (EJK) under the said war and others affected by it. It is a series of monologues that use interview transcripts, news articles, incident reports, photos and video footage and other relevant documents to bring the featured stories in public performance.

This will be on November 22-23, 2018, 7pm onwards at Pardec A, CHR, Diliman. Quezon City.

PRODUCTION BRIEF

“Sa Digma ng Halimaw” is a series of monologues that use interview transcripts, news articles, incident reports, photos and video footage and other relevant documents to bring the featured stories in public performance.

The production is a mobile theatre project that will travel to different communities, schools and churches, and will be performed in open and public places. The performance will take various versions of staging: one, as stand-alone monologues; or two, as two monologues in one performance; and three, number of monologues woven into a full-length play.
All performances will have an actor-audience dialogue at the end to generate discourse and understanding on various issues attending the drug war.

(Guest Editorial written by Bishop Broderick Pabillo) ; CBCP News

WHEREVER there is massive poverty there is injustice. People are made poor! Their rights are stepped upon and they are even oppressed! This reality has again come to the fore with the massacre of the farmers in Hacienda Nene, Purok Fire Tree, Barangay Bulanon in Sagay City of Negros Occidental last October 20. Nine farmers, three of whom were women and two minors, were gunned down in their makeshift camp after they had taken their dinner around 9:30 pm by unknown assailants. After this brutal killing gasoline was poured over their bodies and they were set on fire.

Massacre of farmers is not new. We still remember the Escalante massacre in 1985, the Hacienda Luisita Massacre in 2002, and the KidapawanMassacre in 2016. Under Duterte’s watch in the last two years, 45 farmers have already been killed in Negros.

The reason for all these killings? Land! The farmers are denied their right to the land. Our Constitution of 1987 clearly stipulates that land reform is to be implemented to bring about social justice in the countryside. This mandate has been haphazardly executed because of the vested interests of our politicians who mostly come from the landed elite. Instead, the farmers who fight for their right to the land are tagged as “rebels” by the authorities. Hence many of them are mercilessly abused and even killed. The Sagay Massacre is the most recent incident.

Many farmers’ groups resort to “Bungkalan” because the implementation of the constitutional mandate of Land Reform is very lame and slow. Not a few blame the farmers for forcible entry, but how many would blame the government and the landowners for non-implementation of the Basic Law of the land? But even if the bungkalan is “illegal,” would this be enough reason to kill them mercilessly?

Some officials in the government is “softening” this brutality by tagging the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) to which the farmers belong as leftist. Do they mean that “leftists” are fair game, that they can just be killed?

The government seems not to be able to put their acts together. While some officials claim that the NFSW is leftist, other officials in the same administration, without any evidence at all, already tag the NPA as the perpetrators. This is already a sign that the killers will not be brought in. Can they bring in the NPA?

Now some, to ride on the anger of the public, assert that the “full wrath of the law” be fall on the killers? Are they really serious, or is this just plain bravado? Will the perpetrators, and more so, the brains, be ever brought to justice? Has the government the political will and the capability to bring justice for the farmers? Basing on the records of the Escalante massacre, the Hacienda Luisita massacre, the Kidapawan massacre, and the so many killings of farmer leaders, I strong doubt. None of the masterminds of these dastardly deeds have been brought to justice. The strong suspicion is that those involved are among the land owners, the military and/or the politicians.

But justice to the farmers is not just to get the killers of the Sagay massacre. It is to address the root of these killing. Give land to the farmers! Implement the constitutional mandate of land reform! Nothing short of this will bring peace in our troubled countryside.

Has this administration the political will to do this? Will it be a better government than the previous ones, or will it be of the same kind—elitist, corrupt and against the people?

The AFP’s 303rd Brigade Continues to Threaten Survivors of the Sagay Massacre and Members of Progressive Organizations

NFSW-North Negros Statement

Reference: Aldren Aloquina, November 17, 2018

The Armed Forces of the Philippines 303rd Brigade and the 79th Infantry Battalion are not satisfied with the massacre of ordinary farmers in Sagay, farmers who were brutally killed just because they wanted a piece of land to till for food. Until now, justice is elusive and it is clear that the initial investigations only twist the events. The survivors and relatives of the victims are now the suspects in the massacre.

Even survivors of the massacre who suffered severe trauma and are now trying to rebuild their lives and livelihood are continously being surveilled and threatened. The army desperately tries to “establish their links” to the New People’s Army (NPA). For their lies to be believable, and to justify their operations as “legitimate,” the soldiers fired indiscriminately at bamboo trees in Sitio Puting Bato, Barangay Washington, Escalante City, so they can say that there was indeed an “encounter.”

It is obvious that the military desperately wants to make it appear that the Sagay survivors are connected to the NPA. Even the office of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) in Sagay City is under surveillance, pictures are taken by suspected state intelligence agents. Aside from this, the leaders of NFSW, KARAPATAN and the Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (NNAHRA) and other progressive organizations who are helping in the Sagay 9 case were tailed and surveilled, they received death threats thru text messages, and suspicious persons aboard motorcycles are always posted near or infront of their homes.

Even the legal counsel of Sagay 9 survivors, Atty. Ben Ramos, NUPL Secretary General, was brutally murdered. The killers want to threaten all human rights defenders and advocates and lump them with the CPP-NPA to justify the killings.

Today fresh human rights violations transpired in Sitio Puting Bato, Barangay Washington, Escalante City where the “Bulanon family,” a family of Sagay 9 survivors chose to live with their relatives. But the military tailed the “Bulanon family” and threatened them anew. Early in the morning of November 16, the military barged into house where the “Bulanon family” was staying and forcibly took photos of their companions in the home. The personal belongings, sack of rice and provisions of the “Bulanon family” were confiscated by the military.

Not content with the threats, the military made it appear that an encounter ensued so that they could claim that the “Bulanon family” and other massacre survivors are close to the NPA. Today a picture of their sack of rice and provisions was displayed along with weapons that the military supposedly “recovered” from the fake encounter — an M16 rifle, bullets and two short arms.

The “Bulanon family” already suffered severe trauma but the military shows no mercy. Their own son was killed in the massacre. The military still calls them “fake grandparents” of the 14-year old witness even if authorieties are aware that it is only natural for the “Bulanon family” to claim the child because they were the ones who cared for him since he was small, when the minor’s biological father abandoned him and his mother. The police want the father to take custody even if the child no longer knows his father. The police and military continues to claim in public interviews that the child was “kidnapped” by lawyers and human rights workers of KARAPATAN, even after the mother and child have told the public in a press conference that they voluntarily sought the help of the group and they were NOT KIDNAPPED.

When will they let the massacre survivors have their peace? What is the military trying to do, intimidate and force the survivors to attest that the NPA was behind the massacre? Now that they refuse to follow the military’s story line, does this warrant the continuous threats against them?

All these violations they carry out with impunity to supress the peasant movement for genuine land reform. Even President Duterte has ordered the military to shoot at peasants who occupy lands for food cultivation. It is obvious that the US-Duterte regime favors the big landlords and have no concern for the lives of peasants who feed the nation.

About The So-Called “Encounter” In Sitio Puting Bato, Brgy. Washington, Escalante City, Negros Occidental

PRESS STATEMENT November 17, 2018
Reference: Rey Alburo
Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (NNAHRA)

I. “Abu Sayyaff or ISIS Landed in Coastal Areas of North Negros” is a story that came from the mouths of soldiers deployed in Sitio Puting Bato, Brgy. Washington, Escalante City, Negros Occidental. Early morning of November 16, the soldiers who occupied the residential areas did not wear any nameplates so the residents became wary and asked about their presence. It was the soldiers from the 62nd IB and 79th IB who told the residents that “naa Abu Sayyaff diri,” (They are after the Abu Sayyaff). This story immediately spread in the community.
Why Scare the People with This False Information?

II. The Encounter is Fake. The news of an ENCOUNTER in Sitio Puting Bato, Brgy. Washington, Escalante City was first reported by local radio stations like Hapi Radio Sagay, Bombo Radyo Bacolod and Aksyon Radyo Bacolod before noon of November 16. The reports said that the military engaged 10 elements of the CPP-NPA in a “running gun battle.”

Residents of Puting Bato attest that soldiers already swarmed the whole area by as early as 5:00 am. The so-called encounter happened only around 10:00 am, according to the AFP. Classes in the nearby elementary school was already ongoing at that time. Before the so-called “encounter,” teachers and students were ordered by soldiers to stay down, indicating that soldiers were already planning on firing their weapons.

The residents, who did not dare go out because of the “Abu Sayyaff scare,” said that they could not see who the soldiers were firing at. But while some soldiers appeared to be maneuvering and shooting, many other soldiers were just relaxed and even cooking rice very near the so-called “encounter site.” The shots came from only one direction and was more like indiscriminate firing or strafing. This caused panic and fear among many residents because the military fired in the populated area, and shots were flying near the elementary school.

III. Militarization is Real and the AFP Confirms This. The military poured several armed units into the area as confirmed by Col. Benedict Arevalo of the AFP’s 303rd Brigade. The units he mentioned were the 79th Infantry Battalion, 6th Special Action Force Battalion, Joint Intelligence Task Group and CAFGU/SCAA.

Checkpoints were held to control the movement of the population. All transportation was on hold. Relatives of residents were not allowed to immediately check on their family. Media coverage was also constricted. These facts were also confirmed and reported by field reporters of local radio stations.

IV. FAKE NEWS: Suspects in the Sagay Massacre were in puting bato.
THE TRUTH: A family of survivors of the sagay massacre are trying to rebuild their lives with their relatives in the puting bato but the military continues to threaten and harass them. The family is repeatedly maligned by the police and military as “fake grandparents” of the 14-year old witness but the truth is that they are survivors of the massacre and their own son was one of those killed.

For several instances since his deployment last month, Col. Benedict Arevalo of the 303rd Brigade of the AFP has repeatedly publicly maligned and red-tagged human rights organization KARAPATAN-Negros and now, the Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates or NNAHRA as “nagpapanggap na advocates” (pretending to be advocates) and “ginagamit lang ng CPP-NPA” (only used by the CPP-NPA). Just as Col. Lozanies before him, who red-tagged the bungkalan and the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), we condemn Arevalo for his dangerous statements against legitimate peasant organizations and human rights advocates.

Let us not wait for another massacre to happen here in Escalante City. Remember that the 1985 Welgang Bayan was a brave action against dictatorship and tyranny. All the tyrants will fall and the truth shall prevail.

The people of Negros will never allow the sacrifices of our martyrs to go to waste!

RESIST CRACKDOWN!
FIGHT TYRANNY!
STOP KILLING FARMERS!

Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura
Federation of Agricultural Workers | Philippines

‘The division of Palawan is not the appropriate answer to the existing weak governance, corruption, and natural resource use issues in the province,’ says the Save Palawan Movement

Keith Anthony S. Fabro
Published 10:49 AM, November 07, 2018
Updated 10:49 AM, November 07, 2018

3 PALAWAN PROVINCES? The image shows lawmakers’ proposed division of Palawan into 3 provinces

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines – A civic group wants to block the passage of a proposed bill dividing Palawan into 3 provinces, which is up for second reading at the Senate next week.

Campaigner Cynthia Del Rosario of the Save Palawan Movement claimed that the “railroaded” House Bill 8055, which the House of Representatives approved in August, reached the Senate “without undergoing prior public consultation.”

“Such consultation will show that there was no true clamor from the people; rather, it was a plan conceived by a handful of local politicians,” Del Rosario told Rappler on Tuesday, November 6.

She was referring to Palawan Governor Jose Alvarez, the provincial board members, and the 3 Palawan congressmen who have pushed for the proposal.

In supporting the proposed measure, Alvarez had said that dividing Palawan into 3 provinces would speed up the delivery of basic services to residents and further boost the provincial economy.

Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on local government, endorsed the bill.

He announced this in a Facebook post that drew mixed reactions, mostly negative ones from Palawan residents who claimed they were “blindsided” by the speedy progress of the proposed measure in Congress.

Angara had also stressed in his post that the proposal was “not motivated by partisan political concerns, nor a gerrymandering exercise,” but was fitting since Palawan is the biggest province in the Philippines in terms of area.

‘One Palawan’ campaign

In a bid to delay or even stop the bill’s approval, the Save Palawan Movement recently launched the “One Palawan” campaign, gathering signatures against the proposed measure.

“The division of Palawan is not the appropriate answer to the existing weak governance, corruption, and natural resource use issues in the province,” Del Rosario said.
She pointed out that the taxpayers would bear the cost of creating these provinces.

“The huge costs entailed in creating provinces, as well as holding a plebiscite, will be shouldered by taxpayers’ money. This is unnecessary because the Palaweños did not ask for the division in the first place,” Del Rosario added.

Del Rosario, a Puerto Princesa resident, also questioned a provision in the bill stripping city residents of their right to vote in a plebiscite that would give them the chance to accept or reject the proposal.

“Puerto Princesans were not consulted nor included in a scheduled plebiscite on the bill. They will wake up one day without a province and they did not know how it happened,” she added.

While declared a highly urbanized city, the campaigner said vote-rich Puerto Princesa is still defined as “a political unit that will be ‘directly affected’” by the effects of division.

The definition, Del Rosario mentioned, is stated in the “law (1987 Constitution and the Local Government Code) and jurisprudence (Supreme Court decision on Umali v. Comelec case, among others).” Based on this, she said, “the city residents should be included in the plebiscite.” Continue reading