Statement of GOMBURZA

Corruption in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is not only colosStatement of GOMBURZA sal thievery, robbing Filipino workers and taxpayers of their contributions to the fund.  It also violates the right of Filipinos to universal health care, bleeding billions of pesos away from state resources intended for this purpose.  In a pandemic that has caused thousands of deaths in our country, it violates the right to life.

PhilHealth corruption has taken many forms: diverted premium payments of up to P114 million in 2012, unnecessary or sham cataract removals worth PHP2 billion in 2014, fraudulent dialysis claims, the “upcasing” of mild respiratory infections to pneumonia, membership rosters with 500,000 people aged 100 to 121, and recently, a bid to procure overpriced and obsolete information technology equipment.

Sadly, the pandemic that is devastating our people and our economy has opened more opportunities for corruption: inordinately expensive COVID-19 test kits; an Interim Reimbursement Mechanism that expedites COVID-19 related advances to hospitals in regions with low infection rates, while hospitals in high infection areas, including government facilities, still await reimbursement.

Yet even as the Duterte administration coddles its appointee, PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales—requesting him to resign for the sake of his health—its supporters have viciously used the issue of corruption in PhilHealth against those it perceives as its enemies. 

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Circular 20-001

24 August 2020
Feast of St. Bartholomew

Dear Eminences, Excellencies and Reverend Administrators,

Greetings of good health and peace in Our Lord.

Pope Francis, in his Preface to a book on hope during this CoViD-19 pandemic, reflects that “Like a sudden breaking storm, the coronavirus crisis has caught us all by surprise, abruptly changing on a global level our personal, public, family and working lives.”

Would that such changes serve us all for the better! This is the challenge we face: that this present crisis bring out the best in all of us. And yet, the fear and suffering, the anxiety and uncertainty we experience today is brought about not just by this new Corona Virus, but also by the old social virus of selfishness and corruption. The harm these do to our people and our country is immeasurable. We cannot allow this current health crisis to encourage the worse in us, Filipinos. Rather we stand with those who, understanding that “health” is not just about physical well-being, spend their best efforts for the wholistic betterment of our communities, our country and ourselves. For this reason, in order to help propagate a culture characterized by mutual respect, accountability, patience, and hope, let us be encouraged through inter-faith prayer and this inspirational video. This is a product of collaboration among some Episcopal Commissions; it can be shared to all.

The CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Health Care in collaboration with the Episcopal Commission on Youth and Episcopal Commission on Social Communications would like to invite everyone in the launching of the “Yakapin ang Bagong Bukas” Advocacy on 31 August 2020 (National Heroes Day) at 4:30PM through online (CBCP News, Catholic Media Network, and other platforms)

Furthermore, we would also like to request for a simultaneous ringing of church bells, on 31 August 2020 at 6:00PM, to signal our unity and call for a collective effort in these trying times.

Sincerely yours,

Endorsed by:

Your Eminence, Beatitude, Grace and Excellency,
Esteemed Heads of religious Congregations,
Esteemed Priests,
Esteemed Teachers and those responsible for Educational institutions

Greetings of peace, solidarity and hope!

These are trying times and we yearn for remission.The COVID-19 pandemic is currently affecting Asia and the rest of the world: joint efforts suggest that it will be overcome in a few years. But in the long term, the greatest challenge facing humankind in the 21st century is human-made climate change and the associated ecological crisis. The well- being of many future generations in Asia and worldwide depends on coping with them.

This year, the Catholic Church fully participates in the ecumenical Season of Creation, following the invitation by Pope Francis. This special season, which the Holy Father describes as a “season of increased prayer and effort on behalf of our common home”, begins on 1st September, the Word Day of Prayer for the Care for Creation and ends on 4th October, the Feast Day of Saint Francis of Assisi. The theme for 2020 is Jubilee for the Earth: New Rhythms, New Hope. We in Asia hope to witness the Spirit renewing the face of earth as we consider the integral relationship between rest for the earth and our ways of living – ecological, economic, social and political. Through action in our families, parishes, schools, youth organisations, dioceses that is rooted in prayer, we seek to heal and renew our relationship with our common home.

We find inspiration in the Laudato Si’ encyclical’s call to undergo an “ecological conversion” and in the Word of God – Leviticus 25: 10-12 tells us that the Jubilee Year is a time of reprieve; its more familiar aspects being the setting free of slaves, the settling of debts and the restoration of property and ownership rights. Of note however, is that the Jubilee Year stipulated a time of rest for the land i.e. the earth, during which no sowing or reaping would take place. The land would have to lie fallow every fiftieth year, in addition to the Sabbath Year that took place every seventh year. The proclamation of the Jubilee Year by Yahweh highlights the intimate connection between the earth and its inhabitants, an intertwining that has been present since the time of creation.

Over the centuries, the Catholic Church has celebrated Jubilee Years as a time of conversion and finding new ways for personal and social lifestylesand for the receipt of graces. The former Superior General of the Society of Jesus, The Very Reverend Adolfo Nicolás SJ, aptly explained that the Jubilee is a blessed time to be grateful for – and since not everyone is blessed in the same measure, this blessing ought to be passed on to the earth, the poor, and to others. We may have overlooked our connection with our common home over the last decades. Certainly, the on-going COVID-19 pandemic has us focused, and rightly so, on the cry of the poor. Yet, in harkening to the marginalised and the less fortunate, we cannot neglect that this very cry of the poor is the cry of the earth too, as Pope Francis has made explicit in Laudato Si’ (49).

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‘May the Lord “restore our sight” so as to rediscover what it means to be members of the human family’

August 12, 2020 09:41  ZENIT STAFF GENERAL AUDIENCE

This morning’s general audience took place at 9.25 in the Library of the Vatican Apostolic Palace. The Holy Father began a new catechesis series on healing the world. After summarising his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father addressed special greetings to the faithful. The general audience concluded with the recitation of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing. Here is the Vatican-provided unofficial translation:

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Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

The pandemic has highlighted how vulnerable and interconnected everyone is. If we do not take care of one another, starting with the least, with those who are most impacted, including creation, we cannot heal the world.

Commendable is the effort of so many people who have been offering evidence of human and Christian love for neighbour, dedicating themselves to the sick even at the risk of their own health. They are heroes! However, the coronavirus is not the only disease to be fought, but rather, the pandemic has shed light on broader social ills. One of these is a distorted view of the person, a perspective that ignores the dignity and relational of the person. (la sua refers to person, not his or her) At times we look at others as objects, to be used and discarded. In reality this type of perspective blinds and fosters an individualistic and aggressive throw-away culture, which transforms the human being into a consumer good (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 53; Encyclical Laudato Si’, [LS], 22).

In the light of faith we know, instead, that God looks at a man and a woman in another manner. He created us not as objects but as people loved and capable of loving; He has created us in His image and likeness (see Gen 1:27). In this way He has given us a unique dignity, calling us to live in communion with Him, in communion with our sisters and our brothers, with respect for all creation. In communion, in harmony, we might say. Creation is the harmony in which we are called to live. And in this communion, in this harmony that is communion, God gives us the ability to procreate and safeguard life (see Gen 1:28-29), to till and keep the land (see Gen 2:15; LS, 67). It is clear that one cannot procreate and safeguard life without harmony; it will be destroyed.

We have an example of that individualistic perspective, that which is not harmony, in the Gospels, in the request made to Jesus by the mother of the disciples James and John (cf. Mt 20:20-38). She wanted her sons to sit at the right and the left of the new king. But Jesus proposes another type of vision: that of service and of giving one’s life for others, and He confirms it by immediately restoring sight to two blind men and making them His disciples (see Mt 20:29-34). Seeking to climb in life, to be superior to others, destroys harmony. It is the logic of dominion, of dominating others. Harmony is something else: it is service.

Therefore, let us ask the Lord to give us eyes attentive to our brothers and sisters, especially those who are suffering. As Jesus’s disciples we do not want to be indifferent or individualistic. These are the two unpleasant attitudes that run counter to harmony. Indifferent: I look the other way. Individualist: looking out only for one’s own interest. The harmony created by God asks that we look at others, the needs of others, the problems of others, in communion. We want to recognise the human dignity in every person, whatever his or her race, language or condition might be. Harmony leads you to recognise human dignity, that harmony created by God, with humanity at the centre.

The Second Vatican Council emphasises that this dignity is inalienable, because it “was created ‘to the image of God’” (Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 12). It lies at the foundation of all social life and determines its operative principles. In modern culture, the closest reference to the principle of the inalienable dignity of the person is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Saint John Paul II defined as a “milestone on the long and difficult path of the human race”, 1 and as “one of the highest expressions of the human conscience”. 2 Rights are not only individual, but also social; they are of peoples, nations. 3 The human being, indeed, in his or her personal dignity, is a social being, created in the image of God, One and Triune. We are social beings; we need to live in this social harmony, but when there is selfishness, our outlook does not reach others, the community, but focuses on ourselves, and this makes us ugly, nasty and selfish, destroying harmony.

This renewed awareness of the dignity of every human being has serious social, economic and political implications. Looking at our brother and sister and the whole of creation as a gift received from the love of the Father inspires attentive behaviour, care and wonder. In this way the believer, contemplating his or her neighbour as a brother or sister, and not as a stranger, looks at him or her compassionately and empathetically, not contemptuously or with hostility. Contemplating the world in the light of faith, with the help of grace, we strive to develop our creativity and enthusiasm in order to resolve the ordeals of the past. We understand and develop our abilities as responsibilities that arise from this faith,4 as gifts from God to be placed at the service of humanity and of creation.

While we all work for a cure for a virus that strikes everyone without distinction, faith exhorts us to commit ourselves seriously and actively to combat indifference in the face of violations of human dignity.

This culture of indifference that accompanies the throwaway culture: things that do not affect me, do not interest me. Faith always requires that we let ourselves be healed and converted from our individualism, whether personal or collective; party individualism, for example.

May the Lord “restore our sight” so as to rediscover what it means to be members of the human family. And may this sight be translated into concrete actions of compassion and respect for every person and of care and safeguarding of our common home.

________________

1 Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations (2 October 1979).
2 Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations (5 October 1995).
3 Cf.

Cardinal Bo’s Homily for the Feast of Our Lady of Assumption

August 14, 2020 10:34
Cardinal Charles Bo | Local Church

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo., SDB, is Archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar, and President Federation of the Asian Bishops Conference.

***

The Feast of Our Lady of Assumption

Mary’s Magnificat – Her search for the vaccine of Justice ( Sermon Preached by Cardinal Charles Maung Bo., Archbishop of Yangon-Myanmar)

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1st Reading:     Revelation 12: 1-6
2nd Reading:   1 Corinthians 15: 20-26
Gospel: Luke    1: 39 – 56 (Magnificat)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Happy Feast of Assumption

Today we gather to celebrate the greatness of our Lady.

Mary the maiden from Nazareth was raised to the pinnacle of glory today. The human family joins her in her blessings.   She is celebrated by the great English poet as ‘our tainted nature’s solitary boast;

Woman! above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature’s solitary boast;
Purer than foam on central ocean tossed;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
-The Virgin-

At the end of her earthly life, she was assumed body and soul into heaven. It was indeed fitting that no decay would touch her body because she had given birth to Jesus – the Lord of yesterday, today and tomorrow – and also because she was sinless. She was immaculately conceived and remained sinless throughout her life. Death is the result of sin as Scripture tells us (Rom 6:23) so therefore she was assumed body and soul to heaven at the end of her earthly life.

One of the titles we give to our Lady is Ark of the Covenant and our first reading opens with John’s vision of heaven in which he sees something which would startle his contemporaries – he sees the Ark of the Covenant and he sees:

“A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars…” (Rev 12:1)

The woman in John’s vision was pregnant and giving birth to a male child and at the same time a dragon was waiting to harm the child but both the mother and child were spared by divine intervention.   We can understand this vision of John as Israel in the Old Testament giving birth to the Church in the New Testament and the dragon is the evil forces trying to destroy the Church.

This feast comes amidst the ravages of a pandemic.   The pandemic is the dragon waiting to destroy lives.   We stretch our hands to Our Mother today to save us.  As the COVID started its menacing dance of death, Pope Francis offered the human family to the protection of Our Mother.   Let our Mother whose body was taken without any damage totally to heaven, intercede with the Living God, to protect all of us.  Let all the bodies which are invaded by the virus be touched by the prayer of our Immaculate Mother.  Let the Mother who stood at the foot of the Cross, stand with our brothers and sisters, the front-line health workers and bless him.   The mother who urged her Son to change water into life-giving Wine in the marriage at Cana, made him touch the blood of millions of affected people, cleanse their blood

We are glad that as Catholics we have a Mother who intercedes for us.

We pity those non-Catholic Christians who chose to devalue Mary, who was extolled by Elizabeth as ‘mother of My Savior.’   Mary is humanity’s eternal interceder.

This feast reminds the world, the role played by the woman in salvation.   The Bible shows God works wonders through women:   the power of God is expressed through women, very special women, women who were neglected or ridiculed by the society, like old Sara and Hannah who could not have a child.  God intervenes in their life to continue the liberation of Israel.

In the Old Testament, barren women were blessed by God as a sign of his blessing of Israel.   In the New Testament, it is not the barren woman, but a virgin. In the life of the Virgin, Mary God intervenes to bring Savior to the world.  Mary is an integral part of Salvation history.  Denying Mary is denying the Bible, Denying Mary is denying the mission of Jesus.   Rejecting Mary is the rejection of the central message of the Bible.  It is rejecting the message of Yahweh who told the shepherd Moses: “I heard the cry of my suffering people, the slaves of Egypt.”

Today’s Gospel tells us the great mission proclamation by Mary through her Magnificat.  Today’s feast reminds us of those who struggle for the salvation of the world ‘never die’ but become part of God’s family.  Mary lives today.  When Jesus offered Mary to John as ‘Behold your mother,’ he offered to humanity for its salvific work, which continues today.

The Bible is a glorious story of God as Justice, God who takes sides with the suffering people, the God who hears the cry of his people (Exodus 3).

This God will establish his Kingdom through the lives of two sterile women in the Old Testament:  Sarah and Hannah.    After four centuries of spiritual darkness and moral decadence that had left the social fabric of Israel torn to shreds, Israel had become a nation in desperate need of change. The surprising instrument of change was Hannah, whose barrenness was symbolic of the nation’s spiritual state.

The Old Testament God is a God of Justice.  God who takes side with the suffering people.  This message of salvation comes through the barren women like Hannah. She articulates this message through her Song:

The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.  (1 Samuel 2: 1-10)

Hannah for the Old Testament, but for the New Testament, it is Mary. Mary’s Magnificat sounds like the Magna Carta of human liberation

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Encouraging Dialogue, FABC President Underscores States Are Entitled to Arm & Defend Themselves ‘But Democracy’s Greatest Weapons Are Influential Tools of Reconciliation & Justice’

ZENIT| August 13, 2020 11:01 
Deborah Castellano Lubov | Features

“We can reverse a history of betrayal,” says Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, Myanmar, noting dialogue is of the essence.

The President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) underscored this in an Aug. 15 statement of encouragement which His Eminence has provided to ZENIT English.

Myanmar is emerging from decades of military rule after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won the 2015 elections and subsequently took office.

The Muslim minority of the Rohingyas is considered by the UN to be one of the most persecuted. According to data from the Arakan Project, a humanitarian organization defending Rohingyas rights, since 2010, some 100,000 members of the minority have fled Burma (Myanmar) by sea. Violence between radical Buddhists and Rohingyas has left, since 2012, more than 200 dead and 140,000 displaced.

Longing for Peace

Beginning with “warm greetings of peace” in his Aug. 15 message, the Cardinal expressed his earnest prayers, together with my fellow religious leaders of Myanmar, for successful, tangible outcomes from the 21st Century Panglong Conference.

“We join you in longing for peace. Peace is our destiny. With you we commit to achieve it,” he said.

Noting they have gathered to honor the memory of General Aung San and the martyrs who dreamed of a new, united nation after “the wreckage of invasion and colonialism,” the Asian prelate reminded that their vision was to build on “the fertile, life giving differences among us, and so shape a proud, united people.”

“We honor their sacrifice,” he said, “by humbly committing to union as a nation.”

Their “cruel assassination” 73 years ago, he lamented, marked the beginnings of decades of divisions, conflict and darkness for our people – the very opposite of their lofty vision.  “That act of treachery began a merciless epoch with brothers and sisters pitted against one another needlessly. We weep for our loss as a nation,” he said.

With positivity, Cardinal Bo suggested: “We can reverse this history of betrayal.”

The current Covid-19 pandemic, he said, exposes “the folly” of continued conflict anywhere, noting that only through unity, the virus will be overcome.

The President of Asia’s bishops reminded that the United Nations Secretary General and Pope Francis passionately plead that all conflicts be suspended so that a greater, common enemy is defeated.

No Path Other Than Dialogue

Being unified, the Cardinal stressed, can enable the nation to be rebuilt after the socioeconomic, environmental and medical wreckage of the global pandemic.

In the aftermath of this Covid-19 pandemic and his nation’s history, Cardinal Bo asked: “what do we need to do that can truly transform our relationships, among people, with nature, and with the source of all being?”

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By CBCP News | August 13, 2020
Manila, Philippines

Caritas Philippines has called for “justice and accountability” in the public health sector amid allegations of top-level corruption within state insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

Its head, Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of Kidapawan, said that corruption is widespread because the corrupt continue to get away with it.

“We are in solidarity with all the sectors calling for the suspension of these officials to give way to an independent investigation of the graft allegations,” Bagaforo said.

The bishop called on authorities “to uncover the truth, serve justice and let everyone involved be accountable.”

He made the statement Thursday as some ranking PhilHealth officials face investigation over P15 billion fraud allegations.

The prelate lamented that some health officials can afford to mess around despite the coronavirus pandemic.

He asked the government to have more stringent measures to detect corruption “before events like this escalate and pose bigger threats to public health delivery”.

“The public cannot always be at the receiving end of corruption in the government,” Bagaforo said.

“It is utterly devastating that cases of this scale and magnitude can prevail in public offices where accountability should have been the primary measure of moral aptitude,” he added.

This is also true with Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, according to him.

He stressed that the public health crisis due to Covid-19 has escalated in ways that could have been mitigated “had we acted with enough foresight and unbiased judgements”.

“Now we are not only cramming to prevent a virus from spreading full blown. We also needed to triple our efforts to address social injustice,” he added.

The Church’s social action arm has helped more than five million poor Filipinos during the pandemic through various forms of assistance such as food, hospital equipment and cash assistance.

Most dioceses, religious congregations and seminaries have also transformed their facilities to house medical frontliners, homeless families and as quarantine facilities.

Fr. Elias L. Ayuban, Jr., CMF
August 13, 2020
Manila, Philippines

I used to admire Manny Pacquiao when he was still Manny the boxer, not the “biblical scholar”. I remember when he knocked Eric Morales down, my brother priest who came with me to SM North Cinema to witness the fight, suddenly embraced me. Overwhelmed with joy myself, I embraced him back. Meanwhile, I wondered when was the last time we celebrated that way. When the bout was over, we were greeting the people around us and giving exuberant high five as if we were already friends for a long time. Manny taught us how to celebrate in a more intimate way and brought strangers a little bit closer, albeit only momentarily.

What impressed me most, though, was the way he promoted our faith through symbols and gestures before and after every event: the rosary hanging around his neck, the repeated signs of the cross and the silent prayer on his corner, now converted into a “chapel”, that seemed more powerful than any Sunday sermon. He was not only a boxer; he was an evangelizer in his own right, promoting the devotion to Mama Mary and demonstrating how to be magnanimous in victory. For me, he epitomized the Filipino spirit: faith and resilience rolled into one.

But he suddenly changed. He now appeals to the Scriptures to pursue his cause. However, everything that is written in the Old and New Testaments should be understood and interpreted from the optic of Jesus Christ. He is the definitive revealer of God the Father so that if Jesus did not approve the capital punishment of the woman caught in adultery through lapidation (Jn. 8:1-11), there is no way that we can use the name of God to legitimize the death penalty. As simple as that!

On May 11, 2018, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis declared the death penalty unacceptable in all cases and thus modifying number 2267 of the Catechism. Before, Church doctrine accepted the death penalty if it was “the only practicable way” to defend lives against unjust aggressors. According to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, SJ, the new formulation of the Catechism expresses “an authentic development of doctrine that is not in contradiction with the prior teachings of the Magisterium.”

The Prefect clarifies, “Today, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state.” He adds that “there are more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.” It is for this reason that the Church teaches that the practice is now inadmissible.

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