Llera: Wanted: A disciplinarian Pope

PERHAPS unknown to some, the Pope, who like Yoda is often frail and fragile-looking, is actually the most powerful person on earth.

Peter, the first Pope, ordered Tabitha who was then dead, to rise, and Tabitha resurrected (Acts 9:36-42). Peter ordered Ananias and Saphira dead, and both dropped dead (Acts 5:1-11).

Luczon: The spirit of Kaamulan

EVERYONE was literally excited to witness again that annual festivity in Bukidnon Province and this is exactly the Department of Tourism wanted it to become. Behold to the new generation of “Kaamulan,” a once sacred tribal gathering of elders from distant lands now become a melting pot of tourists and commercialism.

It’s not that I am against it, inasmuch as I am optimistic to any festivities in other places of the country. It’s just that, there are always the pros and cons in every aspect of our complex universes we are living in. And in this case, it seems there are more sad realities beyond what’s entertaining to the eyes.

Vugt: My reply to Ka Oris

KA ORIS, spokesperson of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Mindanao, speaks in his letter Tell it to the Sun Star (Feb. 26, 2013) about ‘the travesty of the Edsa uprising after Edsa’.

According to him, the years that followed Marcos’ fall, in a masterstroke of paradox, were more Marcos than ever because, in them, resurrected his very fascism, made far worse.

Emata: Underage prostitutes?

EXTREME poverty must be sweeping wide in some areas in the Philippines that drive some underage girls into the practice of the oldest profession in the world -- prostitution.

According to a TV news story in the American continent, young girls in their tender age of 14 and 15 have been charging foreigner-tourists the amount of P1,500 to perform sex. It was not mentioned that these practices are taking place in Metro Manila and nearby cities but surely is happening in the former American bases like Subic and in Angeles city. This is truly disturbing.

Vesagas: Health insurance coverage

AS THE overused cliché goes, “health is wealth,” a person coming from a third-world country that is poverty-stricken such as the Philippines cannot escape the ideas of spending on health-related expenses as a form of luxury.

For sociologists and other social scientists, health can be a powerful form of social inequality because not everyone has the penny or dime to shell out in times of sickness and medical emergencies.

Emata: Crimes in Cagayan de Oro City

I WAS reading online newspapers from Cagayan de Oro and some areas in Mindanao and truly I was startled by the excessive incidence of crimes.

What drove me even farther is that Cagayan de Oro, it seems, is becoming fast a capital of major crimes in northern Mindanao. Of course, I understand this because the city is the largest in the area and naturally has more people – and certainly more criminals. It is truly alarming and perhaps because the city is so close to my heart, I am drawn emotionally sad and afraid. This is just horrible. I am wondering what happened to our law enforcers, our city government and the concerned citizens who should be alert on the matter.

Vugt: Church in the world

THIS is the title of one of the most important documents that were promulgated by the Second Vatican Council.

Pope John XXIII was the one who called the Vatican Council together in Rome in 1963. He had a new vision both on the Church and on the world. He felt that the Church should open its windows to the world so that fresh air could come in and a new wind would blow again in the Church. The Church had become an institution and the air inside was stale.

Kabasares: It’s Castel Gandolfo for a while for the retired Pope

ROME -- When Pope Benedict XVI leaves the Papacy, he, unlike many of us, will not have to worry where he’ll reside.

Where does he live when he is no longer Pope?

Llera: Epic Fail: If You Can’t Lick ‘Em, Recruit ‘Em

I WAS watching the TV series “24” the other night and I couldn’t help thinking: even in their mountain lair, the NPAs must be watching “24,” if not “Leverage” or “White Collar.”

At the same time, I couldn’t help thinking: even right in the city, government intelligence operatives must have never watched “24,” “Leverage” nor “White Collar.”

Luczon: Should CdeO need superheroes?

PERHAPS the City of Golden Friendship has been too friendly all this time that its warm and hospitable atmosphere is now being abused.

Whether these abusers live or just paid a visit to rob, and even shoot to kill other people, their actions are getting out of bounds and we are at the mercy of the police force that’s supposed to subdue these culprits and put them in due process of the law.

Llera: A smaller but purer Church (Part 2)

WITH Steve Jalsevac writing for LifeSite News (http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/benedicts-renunciation-and-the-wolves-w...), I believe that the renunciation by the Pope is not surrender, but a strategic retreat in preparation for the death blow to modernism.

The renunciation by Pope Benedict XVI, therefore, far from being an occasion for rejoicing among dissenters, should cause them to do some very hard thinking: “Are my beliefs worth putting my salvation on the line?”

Vesagas: The importance of a sodium-restricted diet in hypertension

“THE association between sodium and hypertension has been firmly established,” states Dr. Virginia Claudio, a registered nutritionist-dietician and co-author of the Basic Diet Therapy for Filipinos.

According to Dr. Anne Harley, chapter contributor of Pathophysiology: Reviews and Rationales for Nursing: “Hypertension is a [condition of] sustained blood pressure (BP) that is greater than normal, usually greater than 140 mmHg systolic and 90 mmHg diastolic.”

Speak Out: The travesty of the Edsa uprising after Edsa

IN THE advent of toppling down the Marcos dictatorship, the Filipino people were the real heroes of the Edsa uprising.

After 14 years of suffering from and defying fascist rule, multitudes gravitated towards the streets on that fateful day of February 25, lashing out in anger and dissent against a brutal regime.

Luczon: In these awry days

IF WE put the expression of how Cagayan de Oro’s situation is from the name of a New York City-based political party that has become a viral meme over the internet, it would become “the amount of CdeO criminalities is too damn high.”

And too high indeed, as to why such cases just suddenly gaining a peak in time of elections and other peculiar phenomena the world is experiencing, it’s up for the conspiracy theorists to conceive.

Vugt: Hunger in the world

‘MILLIONS of people in the world are hungry. They are hungry largely because of the good fruits of the earth are enjoyed by too few. There is enough food for all – if only it could be fairly shared.’

This is a quotation from Cafod, the British funding agency which every year launches its Lenten campaign against hunger. It says: one in eight people goes to bed hungry every night. And then wake up to face the next day of work or school still hungry, with perhaps only one meal to get them through.

Commentary: The reason behind the attack

THE recent NPA attack in Del Monte at Camp Phillips, Bukidnon resulted in a lot of reactions from various sectors. Most of which that I have read online were condemning the atrocities.

On my part, I was on my way home with my husband when his phone kept ringing for the nth time. And I sensed that something was really wrong.

Llera: A smaller but purer Church

CATHOLIC dissenters of every color are probably secretly rejoicing over the renunciation of Pope Benedict XVI.

Among them are probably the dissenting theologians, who like termites, have been gnawing away at Church teaching, and who feel frustrated by the Pope’s shoring up of the Church’s catechetical foundation through his prolific speeches and writings marked with incisive wisdom and clarity.

Luczon: The strings that pulled Mr. Turner

MICHAEL Alan Turner, 51, an American expatriate in the Philippines, has found Cagayan de Oro City a good place to stay for a long time and do business. But his fate was now sealed after he was found dead in a beach resort in Opol, Misamis Oriental on Sunday.

For many of us, Turner might just be a regular Joe, just like any foreigner who visit the country whether lured by the tourism slogans, or by the insisting internet hopefuls who wished to be married to a foreigner to redeem them from poverty, regardless of the wide age gaps (love can be “learned” they say, but food is more important).

Ravanera: Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade

THE International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) has recently crafted a plan for the global co-operative movement to advance cooperativism as he alternative development paradigm to address environmental degradation and to put the people at the center of development processes. The blueprint outlines a strategic agenda that positions the cooperatives as builders of sustainability.

Why is this so? Well, the ICA and the cooperatives worldwide have “witnessed the growing social unrest, economic stagnation and the insecurity that future generations face in terms of jobs, essential social services and even just meeting their basic needs.”

Taguchi: Vince’s Button Brother

RIGHT now, the issue “should abortion be legalized in the Philippines” is not a hot topic because most Filipinos strongly thumb-down abortion. But as one of the logical consequences of the RH Law’s “domino effect,” the Filipino’s abhorrence for abortion could abate little by little. When the whole nation gets used to seeing contraceptives being dispensed free to anyone -- never mind if the recipient is not after family planning but just wants to have fun with a prostitute, and never mind if he/she can afford to buy a truckload of contraceptives -- the rhetorical question would be easy to ask: If I’m empowered by a contraceptive device to decide the existence or non-existence of a life, isn’t it logical for me to also have the power to decide the continuance or termination of that life?

Vesagas: Some facts about oral health

FEBRUARY, aside from being popularly known as the Heart’s month, is also dubbed as the Oral Health Month.

According to Dr. Dawn Murphy, chapter contributor of Medical Surgical Nursing: Clinical Management for Positive Outcomes, health professionals [including dentists] strive to preserve the patients’ healthy gums and teeth because of the following reasons: 1) natural teeth are almost always more functional in masticating food than dental prostheses; 2) effective mastication of food helps promote efficient digestion; and 3) efficient digestion of food results in healthy gastrointestinal function and maintenance of general health.

Daba: The essence of electoral complaints

EVERY time election nears, two things are trending in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) -- complaints filed, and counter-complaints filed.

In the midst of all these, it's quite natural to bat an eyelash and conclude that this is another one of those dirty tactics of politicians and Comelec should not heed such complaints anymore.

Luczon: Legislating stuff

SINCE the official campaign period for those running in a national post has already begun, the least we can contribute in this democratic process of choosing our leaders through the electoral process is by reflecting over what should be the function of an elected official, say, a senator and your respective representatives in your district.

Llera: Awesome Chasubles!

FR. BOY Salvador and Fr. Casi Quiacao have got to the best-vested priests in Cagayan de Oro these days, something which, I hope, will usher in a welcome breath of fresh air to the otherwise sloppy way priests normally vest themselves.

I can never fully understand how it became that way, but in the last maybe forty years, priestly vestments have clearly deteriorated. I suspect it has to do with the wrong way some well-intentioned, but horribly ignorant priests interpreted the spirit of Vatican II.

Vugt: Year of Faith

THE Catholic Church has declared October 2012 – November 2013 a Year of Faith for the Universal Church.

The Universal Church includes the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church and all denominations of the Protestant Churches. But aside from these, there are also the Buddhist and Hinduist Churches and the Judean and Moslem Churches. In other words, all people of the entire world belong to the Universal Church. Why? Because, I believe, all people of the world are called to salvation.

Llera: Lethal injection for the death penalty?

NINETY-SEVEN countries, including the European Union, have abolished the death penalty. Only 58 nations still cling to it. Doubtless, this reflects the current world view about capital punishment, about how it fails with regard to its various assumptions, especially the one about how it deters would-be criminals from committing crimes.

How is deterrence supposed to work?

Wenceslao: Nurturing the seed of peace

THE visit of President Benigno Aquino Jr., in the MILF Camp in Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat and the MNLF campaign against the Abu Sayyaf terrorist groups are two dramatic developments that had radically changed the landscapes in the Bangsamoro Land. The twin events seemed to have abbreviated the long road to peace and the protracted campaign against the Abu Sayyaf bandits.

President Aquino made an intrepid stride into the Moro Islamic Liberation Front Camp where his predecessors fear to tread. He did not assert his authority for frankly, he need not to, but he has more than demonstrate the immensity of his presence as President of the Republic of the Philippines and that includes the Bangsamoro people.

Vugt: Who is God?

IN ONE of my previous columns, I wrote about Carmelite spirituality. I said there that through spirituality, we learn to look at the reality of things.

Through spirituality, we learn also that God is a reality in us, that the presence of his Spirit is real in us and in all things around us. In the silence of our heart, we learn who God really is, how He looks like.

Luczon: Valentines of the Pope and Lolong

MONDAY was a surprise to everyone, the world’s largest saltwater crocodile in captivity named “Lolong” died Sunday evening, and the news only broke out the next morning. And before the day ends in the Philippines, one of the world’s revered religious leaders, Pope Benedict XVI, announced his resignation, it was daytime in Vatican.

But still, it’s Valentine’s Day this February 14th.

LLera: Ash Wednesday

NOT counting the first day of the Simbang Gabi, Ash Wednesday is perhaps the day you’ll see churches bursting at the rafters because of the sheer number of people attending Holy Mass.

I don’t know if that’s the case, too, in other countries, but I’m amazed at the humility of Filipino Catholics in publicly acknowledging their sinfulness. Why did I say that? Because that’s what Ash Wednesday is all about: acknowledging our sinfulness, being sincerely contrite, and forming firm resolutions on amendment and reparations.