J. “Beng”  De La Vega
22 Mar 2007

 

Message to My Kabaleyans!

May we all be hopeful this coming peaceful election in San Carlos City and to be the model for the entire province or better yet for the entire nation even though much is rumored about what may otherwise result… We’ve been there do not return.

Violence surely begets more of it. It disrupts a booming economy. It boils emotion and blurs reason. It never really gets resolved… certainly not in any court historically.
This is a call to calm - Not a call to arms. Please only vote!  Do not provoke!

Keeping the Election Sacred

Given the long history and predominance of Catholicism in the Philippines, it does not come as a very big surprise when the law enforcement sector collaborates with the church ministry and laity for an activity related to politics.

Last Palm Sunday, for example, special Sunday Masses for the conduct of honest, peaceful and orderly elections were held in various parishes in Region 1upon the initiative of the Region 1 police force headed by Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil.

The municipal and city police chiefs, in coordination with their respective parish priests, arranged for the schedule of Masses in their respective areas and Bataoil himself said he personally delivered the invitation for the suggested activity to the bishops of the four provinces in the region.

Also involved were the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), the Commission on Elections, and the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption.
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And the survey says…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

After   four long days of respite from the campaign trail, the candidates must be raring to get back to the hustings while the electorate eagerly awaits the results of more recent surveys if only to confirm their own predictions on who the sure winners are and whether their lists of “die-ers”  have changed.

And with barely five weeks to go, both the senatorial candidates of UNITY and GO can’t wait to get their hands on the results of the latest survey, this time by the Pulse Asia. Somehow, the SWS and Pulse Asia surveys have since acquired the credibility of the respectable neighborhood barber who simply knows everything there is to know.
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Oca backing off before Resurrection?

By Gerry Garcia

TODAY is Easter Sunday. Easter is the principal Christian Festival observed to commemorate the restoration of Christ from the dead on the third day from Good Friday when he died crucified on the cross, which gave rise to belief in Resurrection — the rising again from the dead in bodily form. This Christian doctrine, which rests on faith in Christ’s own resurrection, maintains that in the hereafter the soul will, as in this life, be “suitably clothed”. Whatever that means, even if based on faith, this doctrine becomes completely lost to the man who doubts that Christ, who died in the crucifixion, actually came back to life after being dead for three days!
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Holy Week’s unholy observance

By Jun Velasco

THE week gives us a much-needed pause amidst the rat race, the political noise and haste.

Are the things we are doing every day really worth it? Have we asked why we are doing what we are doing?

Let’s hope the spiritual, week-long retreat will be devoted to reassessing our priorities, careful not to overlook or forget the meaningful and essential. At the same time, once and for all, let’s junk the cheap and the wasteful. Why? Because life is short.

Probably we are at least agreed on what is or what are meaningful and essential in our lives? Let’s go back to the first principles. What are we doing? Why are we doing these things: Why are we here?
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Nominal Christians, watch out!

By Gonzalo Duque

ALL Christendom pauses this week for a spiritual retreat.

I wonder why we are advised to do it only once a week and annually. It should be a daily, every second of our lives activity.

But alas, we are mostly nominal Christians, And so we don’t have the gusto to do it.

Let’s face it. We are all sinners. And yet, we do not even do something about our sinning tendencies.

When you wish somebody ill, you are automatically violating God’s law, for He wants us to love one another including our enemies. Impossible, you say. No, it’s possible, it’s in fact a must, that is if we are really real and true Christians.
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Are you worthy or worthless?

By Al S. Mendoza

IN 1381, a guy named John Ball said: “From the beginning all were created equal by nature, slavery was introduced through the unjust oppression of worthless men, against the will of God; for if God had wanted to create slaves, he would surely have decided at the beginning of  the world who was to be slave and master.”

Why we have evil in our midst is something that I believe is not the work of God. 

It is, in the words of John Ball, the work of “worthless men.”

Worthless men they are because they are of no use to their fellow men.  They are not even fit to live for their worth is the equivalent of dirt. Thrash. Garbage.
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Longing for love

By Eva C. Visperas

His song said what he felt. The singer, a boy, expressed how it feels living without the care of his biological parents. He belongs to a group of about 10 boys who found temporary home at The Haven, Home for Street children in Bonuan Binloc, Dagupan City.

As I was seated in front, I felt a pinch in my heart as the lyrics of the song penetrated my heart. Here is a boy who longs for his real parents’ love and care, who begs love from others, who wants to live a normal life.

Unknowingly, as the boy continued to sing, tears suddenly flowed down my cheeks. I tried to immediately wipe the tears but the guest speaker, Kimi Cojuangco, wife of fifth district Rep. Mark Cojuangco, noticed me. She told the crowd in her speech about what she saw. I didn’t expect that she would know me or even my name, as I haven’t interviewed her before.
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Improved brooding method makes heavier broilers, more eggs

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

A Berlin-trained microbiologist has found a new method of taking care of young chicks or brooding, resulting in heavier broilers and increased eggs of layers, as well as in minimizing the obnoxious odor of chicken manure, converting it into an effective bio-organic fertilizer.

Dr. Rene Sumaoang said brooding can be greatly improved with the use of Biosec applied on carbonized rice hull (CRH), which is used as litter for the day-old chicks until they reach 14 days old.  Formulated by Dr. Sumaoang, Biosec is composed of immobilized beneficial microbes and potent digestive enzymes that digest and degrade fresh chicken manure. 

Dr.  Sumaoang said that by applying Biosec on the CRH or on the manure on the ground, billions of beneficial microbes are being introduced into the chicken manure.  The beneficial microbes multiply rapidly and subsequently produce microbial products that inhibit the growth and proliferation of deadly microbes like Escherichia coli, salmonella and the like.
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Easter Message

By +Oscar V. Cruz D. D.

“The Lord is risen indeed!” (Lk 24:34)

It is not a secret that our country as a whole is undergoing its own long, sad and painful passion.

There is much poverty and sickness in the land. The vices of drug and gambling continue to even more impoverish a good number of Filipinos. Families are separated by the exodus of fathers and mothers to find work abroad. The Philippines is now first in the whole of Asia when it comes to graft and corruption. And at the top of all our social pains and tears, killings continue to increase in number as a matter of course—notwithstanding international censures.
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