Luczon: PoliTricks

“ONE always claims/ Mistakes were planned/ When risk is slight/ One takes one's stand/ With much sleight of hand/ Politics – the art of the possible.// One has no rules/ Is not precise/ One rarely acts/ The same way twice/ One spurns no device/ Politics – the art of the possible.”

These are the lyrics of “The Art of the Possible” made by Tim Rice with music composed by Andrew Lloyd Weber as part for the musical “Evita,” that became a popular theatre production in the late 70s and eventually led to the 1996 film adaptation starring Madonna, Antonio Banderas, and Jonathan Pryce who coincidentally shares a close resemblance to the first Argentine Pope Francis.

Turn of the Tide

IGNORANCE is not bliss, not when it concerns your future and the future of the people around you.

The election season is well under way, evidence of the thousands of streamers, posters and other campaign paraphernalia that candidates have taken to distribute with the hopes of getting themselves elected in May.

Luczon: Voters’ responsibility: Study, scrutinize

STUDYING is never limited in the four corners of the classroom in schools; the more the situation is getting critical, the more the need to study and further deepen its analysis in order to trace the cause and address the effects. This can be relatively useful in deciding who to vote in the upcoming elections, now that technology and the internet always come in handy.

Van Vugt: Gender discrimination in the Church

GENDER discrimination has been a problem in the Catholic Church ever since in its beginning. Even St. Paul, in one of his letters, says that the woman in the Church must be silent. The woman is inferior to man; the wife should be subject to the will of her husband. This gender discrimination in the Church is felt also on the level of spiritual life, of prayer-life, and especially on the level of contemplation.

Alamon: Graduations

THIS year's graduation season is about to end. Most of the elementary and high school commencement rites have been staged last March. Some of the college graduation ceremonies are to be celebrated the first weeks of this month. Graduations in these parts are one of those memorable family occasions that are immortalized through the framed photos of the graduate and the family that adorn every Filipino sala. For a nation that continues to regard education as a source of family pride and a means for social mobility, these are meaningful moments for both students and their families.

Luczon: Loyalty awardees

IN THE coming days, I will dedicate this column to write the best I know about politics, from the ordinary people I have talked to but not to the extent of endorsing anybody who is running for office. Biases aside, let us make a good discussion about some points.

In the coming days to come, hopefully I can contribute in making the people aware that their right to suffrage is nonetheless sacred, and it is never for sale and it should not be willingly be sold. But curious as it is, there are still those people who seem to differ from our norms in what is supposedly “politics” to us.

Vugt: The future of the Church

WITH the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, as Pope Francis to the Church, it has become evident that the future of the Church is the Church of the Poor.

To the Church of the Poor belong in the first place the real poor people but secondly also those people who are called “the poor in spirit,” the people who have a special passion and concern for the poor. To that Church belong the ordinary Christians, the lay people in the Church. It is among them that the Holy Spirit is at work, like He was at work also during the conclave when Bergoglio was elected to the papacy. The Holy Spirit is with the Church. Even in the midst of trials and storms, He is at work among the Poor.

Vesagas: Combating heatstroke

ACCORDING to weather-forecast.com, for 10 straight days beginning April 1, Cagayan de Oro city will experience hot sunny days as temperature soars highest at 30 degrees Celsius. Summer time has indeed set in. For most students, it is the best season of the year: no classes, all night gimmicks and parties, off-shore vacations, and the seemingly unlimited pool and beach picnics.

But before donning your provocative swim wear and flaunting some skin, summertime also poses some health risks that include heatstroke, heat cramps and heat exhaustion.

Emata: The Land of Promise

EVER since I was a boy, Mindanao has always been described by Filipinos and visitors as the land of promise. As a pure-blooded Mindanaoan, I feel proud of such description. I read such thing in the books when I was in the elementary. And then much later, while I was already a journalism practitioner in our city, I felt sad because what was then the land of promise became the promised land. I have not heard or read anything about the things the island could offer much less the secret of its beauty. It has become like an attractive lady whose beauty faded amidst the twilight of dawn. Indeed, it has become the promised land. The government neglected its development and growth.

Luczon: The art of coincidence and assumption

THE Catholic world must have been culture shocked on how Pope Francis awed the people with his simplistic and humble lifestyle and servitude, much to the shock of these so-called Catholic "traditionalists" when he performed to wash the feet of 12 youths during the Holy Week, where two of them are girls, and one, happens to be a Muslim.

News reports were quoted that "no pope in history has washed the feet of a woman, much less a Muslim." As a non-Catholic, I find Pope Francis a good friend to the world and an inspiration of peace to the diversity in humanity.

Valdehuesa: Time to expose pork barrel for what it is

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Numerous candidates today are spending or overspending to gain congressional seats. It's a gamble for many of them, just like *jueteng* or *masiao*, and only a few will win cash credits and other bonanza. This novel gambling game is being played not only in regular congressional districts but also among Party-List constituencies.

And it's not only the right-wing or trapo or capitalist sectors that are into it. The left-wingers are into it also...in a big way! Can anyone list them? Communist, Maoist, Socialist, whatever? Even the faith-based, born-again, and evangelicals are doing it. And they're doing so with a vengeance... what if the well runs dry soon?-goes the folk wisdom. It's really political entrepreneurship.

Editorial: ‘Blessed’ coincidence

OPPONENTS of the Reproductive Health Law were pained to hear a few weeks back that it would take effect on March 31, Easter Sunday, of all days. That was a coincidence, said government officials who worked on the implementing rules that would have set the law in motion.

But yesterday, coincidence favored those against the law, whose passage has been divisive.

Vugt: Christ is the answer (part 2)

I WANT to go into more detail on the issue of human relationships especially with respect to human sexuality. Christ has shown in what way he is the answer to these issues.

Recently I met a friend who told me that he believed that Christ was married and he was kind of angry that the Catholic Church denies this. He told me that he saw the famous painting of Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, Italy of the Last Supper.

Mongaya: Tuition suicide

IF MALACAÑANG admits it cannot do anything to change tuition policies of the University of the Philippines, President Noynoy Aquino should refrain from doing anything on more complex issues like Sabah. He might as well continue playing computer games with Josh. Haha!

Seriously, a Malacañang that was instrumental in removing from office a corrupt ombudsman and chief justice cannot do anything with a tuition policy that led to the suicide of a promising but poor 16-year-old?

Luczon: The nth crime

YESTERDAY (Sunday, March 17), the People’s March against Crime and Violence commenced despite the gloomy weather, because gloomy seems to be the situation of Cagayan de Oro City right now, and the death of a money changer trader was the pinnacle that the city is facing a new typhoon: unimaginable crime peaks.

Wenceslao: A sublime paradox

WE CAN only hope that the gains achieved in the peace process involving the conflict-areas in Mindanao will not be derailed by the revival of the proprietary claims on Sabah by the Sultanate of Sulu.

The perceptible migration of the loyal followers of Sultan Kiram in Lahad Datu is ill-timed. While we believed that he has proprietary rights on the vast expanse of Sabah, the “excursion” has fueled not only armed confrontation with Malaysian troops, it also stirred speculation that they are being left out in the talks between the MILF and government agenda of putting the finishing touches on the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro land.

The Room Nurse saga (Last part)

(Writer’s note: This article has been conceived in response to the contentious remarks of Senatorial candidate Cynthia Villar about the nursing profession)

IN MY quest to solicit what the Philippine Nurses’ Association (PNA), the largest accredited professional organization of nurses by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) and the Board of Nurses (BON) in the country, has to say regarding the matter of Villar’s “room nurse” issue, a former classmate of mine in college and is currently among the PNA regional officers sent me a copy of their two-page official statement.

Speak Out: Your vote, my future

I AM 15 years old. Still young, still bursting with vibrant energy, still driven by my unwavering idealism.

I have hopes. I have dreams. I have aspirations. I have my whole life ahead of me. However, as most elders would put it, I am still 15 years old. Still too young, still too consumed with my recklessness and irresponsibility, still considered too blind with my stubbornness and naivety, still not ready, still not worthy of their complete and absolute trust.

Llera: Pope Francis: A church of the poor

IT PLEASED the Holy Spirit to give us Pope Francis to be the 266th successor of Peter and we rejoice with Catholics all over the world on this “moment of great joy” as we pledge our unconditional obedience and fidelity to the new Pope.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina chose the name “Francis” after St. Francis Assisi, the great champion of the poor and rebuilder of the Church, thrilling Catholics who feel there is much rebuilding that needs to be done in the Church and who like to see the global problem of poverty addressed.

Ravanera: A paradox that is Mindanao

THE island is aptly called the nation’s “food basket,” yet, it is where hunger is more glaring; it oozes with ecological resources where two-thirds of the total export receipts are coming from, yet, its six regions are suffering from high poverty gap ratio than the rest of the country.

What could be more paradoxical than that! Amid the bounty lies so much poverty where the basic sectors, i.e. farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous people, women and the workers, are highly marginalized and are socially excluded from development processes.

Vugt: Another reply to Ka Oris

ACCORDING to a news report in Inquirer on March 10, 2013, the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP), which recently met in Baguio City, has offered to take custody of National Democratic Front (NDF) consultants held in detention centers, to help revive peace talks between the government and communist rebels.

Election ghosts of the past, present, and yet to come

INSPIRED by the 1843 novella by Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol," which was brought in 27 adaptations on film, television and theater since 1908, our culture of elections, especially in the local scene, can be likened to the ghost characters that were important in the development of the protagonist's transformation from a "squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner," to a whole different saintly person.

Taguchi: The next Pope...

... will need to explain in a simple and clear way what “new evangelization” really means.

From Catholic talk shows, this average Catholic has gathered “new evangelization” to mean that the laity, not just priests, takes active participation in the mission of the church to make disciples of all nations, starting with one’s family. You can do this, for instance, by deepening the experience of celebrating Sunday Mass and by tightening the family bond with daily readings of the Scripture and the communal praying of the rosary and the Angelus. Needless to say, the parents inculcate the gospel values in the family.

Llera: Pushing the envelope

ANNE Curtis, ASAP 18’s executive producers Marvi Gelito and Apple Salas, director Johnny Manahan and ABS-CBN may deny the mischief all they want, but loosing Anne Curtis on a national TV audience wearing nothing under her high-slit gown, and -- in my opinion, dangerously turning her body to the right to make sure the audience gets the message -- is simply pushing the envelope a bit too far.

It’s understandable for the networks to do everything they can to be always one step ahead of the competition. It’s even understandable for a thoroughly intoxicated and lost Filipino TV crowd to turn a blind eye on a healthy dose of greed on the part of the networks, but there’s just no justifying flashing before a nationwide audience of millions. It’s madness that has gone too far.

Vesagas: The Room Nurse saga (1st of two parts)

(Writer’s note: This article has been conceived in response to the contentious remarks of Senatorial candidate Cynthia Villar about the nursing profession)

QUOTING Ms. Cynthia Villar’s remarks: “Actually, hindi kailangan ng mga nurse matapos ng BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) kasi, itong ating mga nurse gusto lang nilang maging room nurse. Or sa Amerika or in other countries e ano lang sila, yung parang mag-aalaga. Hindi naman sila kailangan ganoon ka galing.”

Llera: Raymond Cardinal Burke, Papabile

IN TWO previous write-ups, I speculated that the Pope renounced the papacy in order to give way to a younger, more robust disciplinarian who will embark on a massive, no-nonsense cleansing of the Church of liberals and Modernists to keep the faith pure as it was when Jesus handed it down to the Apostles.

I said that it is to bring back ecclesiastical discipline in the Church – dogmatic, moral, liturgical, exterior, that the Pope renounced, to give way to a much-needed CPR on a Church pummeled from all sides by heretics and liberals many of them from among her ranks: Catholics (including priests) who approve of contraception, abortion, euthanasia, married priests, divorce, same-sex unions, LGBTs, de facto unions, IVF, yoga, among others.

Luczon: Earth is way beyond politics

TODAY’S generation of children may be privileged enough to live in a world of advanced civilization courtesy of the technologies we are embracing, but on the second thought, it can be a melancholic reality that we have to face.

For the average children living in urban places, they have been raised and nurtured with all the pampering available – television, fast food chains, the internet – and mostly living in a plastic society (and maybe people) where plastics are used and indiscriminately disposed. Segregating it is another issue.

Vugt: Why are we here on earth?

IN my childhood this was the first question in the catechism I had to learn. And the answer I had to learn by heart: ‘We are here on earth to serve God and through this to go to heaven’. How do you serve God? How does God look like? What is heaven?

There are many different answers to each of these questions.

Loving the Church

WE ARE living through a historic moment in the life of the Catholic Church. For the first time in centuries, the “seat” of St. Peter is vacant because the Pope has resigned office. Pope Benedict XVI has stepped down and arrangements are being made for a conclave of the College of Cardinals who have the sacred duty to select a new Pope.

This is a beautiful spiritual moment for all of us in the Church, a time for prayer, sacrifice and worship. Sadly, this spiritual moment has become also a time of scandal. Groups that want to manipulate the Cardinals’ decisions are stirring up most of the controversy.

Kabasares: What they didn’t tell you at graduation

THEY come literally a few times in our lifetime, on purpose, during graduation rites.

They’re the graduation speakers – from captains of industry, to five-star celebs, national leaders, and top minds in many disciplines – who’d descend upon campuses to give graduates what could well be their final and most important pep talk.