40th Year of Humanae Vitae

13 June 2008

Your Eminence/Graces/Excellencies:

Pax in Nomine Christi.

This year marks the 40 years of Humanae Vitae and as we commemorate this prophetic encyclical of the Servant of God, Paul VI, we as a Church are faced with yet another assault on our Family and Life values.

The Permanent Council has graciously approved our proposal of activities and mobilizations to mark this anniversary.  May I invite you to participate and ask your arch/diocese to support these activities:

04 July 2008,                        First Friday Day of Prayer and
Fasting for the Defence and Safeguard of the Filipino Family.

09 July 2008, 9:00 am        Concelebrated  Mass at the Manila
Cathedral marking the 40 years of Humanae Vitae

25 July 2008                          Culmination in  Manila of the
Caravan for Family and Life.  The Caravans will start from different
points in the country weeks/days prior to July 25

Such activities are meant to create a heightened awareness among our faithful with regard to the recent assaults on our  Family and Life values be it in the  national Congress,  local government units, and even at the other levels of public administration.

God willing, through the primers and manuals being prepared by ECFL, we shall be able to better inform our faithful and make them ever more committed to defend our Catholic values.  Clearly, after these activities, we shall plan and implement long-term formation programs
for our Family and Life workers.

Thanking your Eminences and your Excellencies for your constant pastoral concern and support for the Filipino family, I remain

Devotedly yours in Christ.

signed

+PACIANO B. ANICETO, DD
Archbishop of San Fernando
Chair, ECFL

INCREASING NUMBER OF FILIPINOS SEE THEMSELVES POOR

The number of Filipinos who see themselves as poor increased in the first four months of the year, according to the results of the latest IBON nationwide survey.

The IBON April 2008 survey showed that 79.3% of 1,495 respondents thought of themselves as poor, an increase from 71.7% in January 2008.

The latest IBON survey was conducted across various sectors nationwide from April 7 to 16, 2008 using a multi-stage probability sampling scheme with a margin of error of plus or minus three percent.

Below is the tabulation of results of the respondents’ self-rated poverty

When you look at your situation today, do you think of yourself as poor?

	January 2008		April 2008
	Frequency	Percentage	Frequency	Percentage
Yes	1,077	71.66	1,186	79.33
No	269	17.90	236	15.79
Don’t Know	141	9.38	68	4.55
No answer	16	1.06	5	0.33
Total	1,503	100.00	1,495	100.00

The full results of the IBON April 2008 Survey may be viewed at www.ibon.org .

OFWS FAMILIES MAY LOSE OVER P3,000 PER MONTH BY END 2008 DUE TO STRONG PESO

If predictions that the peso appreciates to P38 per US dollar by the end of 2008 materializes, then the average OFW household will be losing around P3,710 per month compared to the start of 2007, or a loss over the entire year from P30,000 to as much as P45,000, according to a study on the economic outlook released by independent think-tank IBON Foundation.

The roughly 15% increase in OFW remittances in 2007 compared to the past year was not enough to offset the 16% peso appreciation from January to December 2007, thus OFW families have not been able to maintain their incomes and been hit bad. IBON estimates that OFWs lose roughly P700 per $100 remittance.

From January to December 2007, the exchange rate of the peso to the dollar has strengthened by almost fifteen percent. This means that over the period, the family of an OFW who remitted $100 in January were able to exchange it for P4,891. By December this had fallen to P4,174 or a decline of P717.

Such a reduction is especially painful given the increasing prices of basic goods and services in the country. For example, from January to November 2007 the cost of an 11-kg liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder increased by P76.94 to almost P600. Manila Water also recently implemented a rate hike that will cost consumers who consume 30 cubic meters per month an additional P60 on their bills.

“Overseas workers were forced to tighten their belts and remit more of their income to make up for the lost value,” said IBON research head Sonny Africa. Remittances from January to October grew by 16% compared to the same period in 2006.

The strengthening peso and its effect on OFWs’ incomes reveals the folly of the government’s labor export policy and its continuing reliance on migrant workers’ remittances.

AS OIL PRICE HIKES CONTINUE : PUBLIC FACES HIGHER COST OF LIVING, MORE ERODED WAGES AND INCOME

The public is facing higher cost of living and more eroded wages and income this year as oil prices continue to spiral, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.

Jeepney drivers, for instance, will have to work doubly hard to earn a decent income for their families with unabated diesel price hikes. Last year alone, a jeepney driver’s daily expense for diesel increased by P147.30 as the prevailing pump price of diesel jumped by P4.91 per liter between January and November 2007. (Based on transport group Piston’s estimate that a jeepney driver consumes an average of 30 liters of diesel per day)

Diesel costs jeepney drivers around P1,125.90 per day and has to hand over between P600 to P900 (depending on the unit’s seating capacity) as daily “boundary” to the jeepney owner or operator. This means that he can only start earning for his family if he has already made P1,725.90 to P2,025.90 to cover for the diesel cost and the operator’s share.

Ordinary households, meanwhile, are spending P76.94 more for a regular LPG tank (11-kg cylinder) as the prevailing price of LPG jumped by P3.91 per liter between January and November 2007. Again, this further undermines the budgets of most Filipino families who also face higher water and electricity monthly bills as well as increased prices of basic goods.

IBON welcomes the proposal of several senators to suspend the 12-percent value added tax (VAT) on petroleum products because this will offer a temporary respite for the public. Diesel pump price, for example, could immediately go down by around P4.50 per liter without the VAT.

However, the situation calls for drastic but doable measures that are more effective and stable such as the permanent lifting of the VAT on oil products and the immediate repeal of Republic Act 8479 or the Oil Deregulation Law.

IBON will present its assessment of the economic and political situation at the Yearend Birdtalk on January 14, 1 p.m. at the UP Balay Kalinaw, Diliman, Quezon City.

LOST REVENUES FROM CORRUPTION ‘SCANDALOUS’ AMID WORSENING STATE OF POOR FAMILIES

Latest results of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) indicate that Filipino families are getting poorer. But while this could be partially compensated by increasing public expenditures for social services, resources are being diverted to debt servicing or lost to corruption.

According to IBON executive editor Rosario Bella Guzman , corruption results in loss of government revenues going to private pockets that could have been used to provide the poor of basic social services.

The ZTE’s reported of US$130 million-overprice (roughly P5.9 billion), for example, could have been used to increase the subsidy of government hospitals catering to indigent patients. Guzman said that the overprice is enough to provide for the operating costs of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) for five years, serving 70,000 indigent outpatients per year.

She added that the amount can also hire 2,889 public school teachers and pay for their salary for one year. The Department of Education estimated the backlog of teachers at 2,733.

Guzman said the unabated corruption allegations against the Arroyo administration are made even more scandalous because of the worsening poverty and income inequality in the country. Based from the 2006 FIES and government’s family living wage, poverty increased to 86% in 2006 from 82% in 2003

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Parents of rape-slay victim OK DNA test

Girl could still be alive, says cop By Tina Santos, Allison Lopez
Inquirer
Last updated 00:16am (Mla time) 09/19/2007

MANILA, Philippines – The parents of Geraldine Palma, the 7-year-old girl who was kidnapped and raped, yesterday gave authorities the go-signal to exhume their daughter’s body and subject it to a DNA test.

 

“This is to erase doubts that it was not my daughter,” Gerald, the victim’s father, told reporters at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) office. “Who would want to see his child dead? Sana nga hindi na lang si Geraldine yon (I wish it were not Geraldine). I wish I was wrong. But I’m 150 percent sure it was her.”

 

“I only hope they do it right away because her body’s already decomposing and the tests will take at least three weeks,” he added.

 

Gerald and his wife went to the NBI after the Manila Police District (MPD), which is also investigating the case, claimed that the body found stuffed inside a suitcase last month in North Harbor, Tondo was not that of their daughter.

 

Chief Insp. Alejandro Yanquiling, head of the MPD homicide division, said he suspected that Geraldine was still alive.

 

He based his suspicion on the records of St. Paul College, where Geraldine was enrolled, showing that the girl was 3 feet, 10 inches tall. The body inside the suitcase measured 4 feet, 2 inches.

 

According to Yanquiling, a mole on the the victim’s back was the Palmas’ only basis for saying that the body was that of their daughter’s.

 

Gerald, meanwhile, admitted that he was hurt by Yanquiling’s statements.

 

“It’s as if he was saying that I don’t know my own child. I know he’s just doing his job. But why only now? He should have said those things earlier. He’s starting the investigation backwards,” he said.

 

Felma, the victim’s mother, confirmed that at first, she had doubts that the body in the suitcase was that of her daughter because “the girl’s nose was flat.”

 

“But it could have been her and the features also looked different because the body was bloated. They had the same build. But it’s fine with me if they have her body dug up so that the truth will come out,” she said.

 

Despite the recent developments in the case, Gerald maintained that what happened was a case of kidnapping.

 

“I still believe it’s still a kidnapping incident unless Marites (Ontog, the girl’s nanny) shows up and reveals what really happened,” he said.

 

Gerald likewise denied rumors that he had his daughter insured.

 

“It’s not true. I’m the one who’s insured and she was one of my beneficiaries. I never thought she’d go first,” he said.

 

Charges have been filed against the five suspects in the Palma rape-slay case, but the city chief prosecutor said it might be dismissed if the body turns out to be someone else’s.

 

Manila Chief Prosecutor Jhosep Lopez said the credibility of the witnesses would suffer if they had identified the girl in the suitcase as Palma.

 

“It’s already with the court so it’s up to the court to decide. We based it on the evidence of the police identifying the corpse as that of Geraldine Palma’s … But I think they (accused) can file a motion to quash the information or a motion to dismiss. The court might dismiss it because there’s no case to speak of if that is not Palma’s body,” he said.

 

Ramil Diorico, Raffy Nepa, Renato “Rick-Rick” Bohol, Joey Igos and alleged mastermind Henry “Hemlet” Tesado had been charged with rape with homicide at the Manila Regional Trial Court. They were tagged by their supposed cohorts, Rosdam Mesias and Domingo Agnote, who turned state witnesses, and a certain “Berta.”

 

Lopez added that it was up to the judge to decide whether or not to dismiss the charges.

 

“If the witness can prove that the suspects committed a crime against the victim even though the girl found in the suitcase was not Palma, we will continue the case but amend the information,” he said.

Loi Ejercito Estrada

STAND BY YOUR MAN. Former senator Loi Ejercito Estrada with son Jude Estrada interviewed by the media after the Sandiganbayan verdict finding her husband, deposed president Joseph Estrada, guilty of plunder. INQUIRER/AUGUST DELA CRUZ

Baby

FAREWELL KISS. Navy Ensign Jeffrey Legaspi, 27, kisses his 4-month old son Genesis Matthew before deployment to Basilan with the 1st Naval Mobile Construction Battalion and the 355th Aviation Engineering Wing of the Philippine Air Force as part of the government’s humanitarian offensive. INQUIRER/REM ZAMORA

Princes

REMEMBERING DIANA. Britain’s Prince Harry (left) and Prince William greet guests as they arrive for the Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Diana at the Guards’ Chapel, in London on August 31. Prince William and Prince Harry organized the Thanksgiving Service to commemorate the life of their mother on the tenth anniversary of her death. AFP PHOTO/LEWIS WHYLD/POOL

EDITORIAL

Wasted lives

Inquirer
Last updated 01:04am (Mla time) 08/21/2007

There never was a good war nor a bad peace. — Benjamin Franklin

 

If the government is thinking of the greater good of Mindanao and the country, it had better call off the all-out offensive that has been launched by its hawkish generals in Sulu and Basilan. If it has to go after the Abu Sayyaf bandits that killed 14 Marines and beheaded 10 of them, it should conduct small, commando-type operations instead of set battles. Decades of encounters with Moro separatists and bandits have shown that conventional warfare does not work well in Mindanao.

 

Church and political leaders, civic and women’s groups have lamented the waste of lives in Mindanao. The latest to die on the government side were 10 Marines and five junior officers who, reports said, were mowed down “like sitting ducks” by the Abu Sayyaf after they ignored their guides’ advice on what trail to take.

 

What is strange is that, as disclosed by an Army officer on condition of anonymity, the encounter was “considered part of their training in close-quarters combat” and “was just a test mission.” What? Are the generals playing with the lives of soldiers, sending them on “test missions” to find out which tactic will work against the Abu Sayyaf? If this is true, this is the height of callousness and insensitivity on the part of these desk-bound generals.

 

Many lives have been wasted in the all-out offensive against the Abu Sayyaf. And most of the victims have been soldiers in the flower of their youth. Their deaths bring to mind what US President Herbert Hoover said about war: “Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. And it is the youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.”

 

Actually, no one wins in a war; everyone is a loser. The casualties lose their lives or some of their limbs. Wives become widows; children are left orphans. Their fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters all grieve for them. The world of the soldiers’ families is turned upside down.

 

An all-out war is bad not only for the families of the soldiers, but also for the regional and national economy. Senators last week said that an all-out war could cost the government P1 billion a month. Think of what P1 billion could finance to improve the lives of the people in Sulu and Basilan, two of the most underdeveloped places in the South. One billion pesos could pay for more low-cost houses, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and livelihood programs.

 

Joseph Gloria of the Social Watch Philippines-Mindanao last week said that the all-out offensive in Sulu and Basilan is further setting back the eradication of poverty and other Millennium Development Goals in Region 12. He added that in a conflict, the most affected are the children because when wars erupt, people take refuge in the nearest schools and deprive the children of places for their education.

 

Already, 15,000 people have been “affected” or “displaced” by the hostilities in Sulu and Mindanao. The government officials’ terms — “affected” and “displaced” — do not fully convey the depth of suffering and fear of uncertainty that the people affected by the war are feeling. Truly, as writer Arthur Koestler once said, wars consist of only 10 percent action and 90 percent passive suffering. And it is mostly the women and the children, aside from those who die and are maimed at the front, who greatly suffer.

 

As of last week about 9,000 soldiers had been committed to the all-out offensive in Sulu and Basilan. Nine thousand soldiers going after what — 150 or at most 200 — Abu Sayyaf bandits reinforced by some rogue guerrillas belonging to the Moro National Liberation Front. The imbalance of forces is very overwhelming in favor of the government, and yet up to now the encounters have resulted only in the massacre of young officers and soldiers. Clearly, the situation shows again that conventional warfare, set battles will not turn the tide in Mindanao.

 

It is not too late to de-escalate the hostilities. If the Marines have to avenge their slain and beheaded comrades, so be it. But limit their activities to surgical operations that will not affect entire islands. Macho warriors cannot forget the Old Testament maxim of “a tooth for a tooth” and “an eye for an eye.” And it is always easy for generals who stay in the comfort of their airconditioned war rooms to wage war and play with the lives of their men. But the morally courageous stand is to call for the reduction of hostilities and to work for peace.