Opinion

BY RJ RUSHDOONY One of the most pernicious and evil myths to plague the human race is the myth of neutrality. It is a product of atheism and anti-Christianity because it presupposes a cosmos of uncreated and meaningless factuality, of brute or meaningless facts. Because every atom and fact of the cosmos is then meaningless and also unrelated to every other fact, all facts are neutral. The Nonsense of Neutrality The word neutral is a curious one. It comes from the Latin neuter, meaning neither the one nor the other and has original reference to gender, i.e ., neither male nor female. It still has that meaning: a neutered man is a eunuch, a castrate. It now has also the meaning of not taking sides and, supposedly, the law and the courts are neutral. This in itself is nonsense. N...

HAVE you ever thought of giving up because you think you are not capable? Who among you thought that education is not for everybody? I did. I belong to a family that has nothing but poverty. Before, I had so many “buts” and “ifs”. I almost gave up! Nevertheless, my positive attitude towards learning and succeeding kept me going. When I became a teacher, I have always shared the goodness of willingness and faithful attitude towards learning. I believe that education and learning are based on our personal decision and choice so even if we motivate and encourage our students to learn if they are not willing, they will not achieve the purpose of learning because the achievement of something is desired, planned, or attempted. According to the Late Life Success Theory (Garcia, 2016), “succes...

THE recently concluded National and Local Elections (NLE) May 9, 2022, have resulted in the elected leaders for each place and the country as a whole based on the majority of votes from the Filipino citizens. With due respect to how democracy works, it is with high hopes that we all come to respect the result of the election and start our effort as citizens. Now that majority of the Filipino people have decided who they want to lead them for the next six years, I hope that the rest will also support the next administration because after all, we are all Filipinos who want the Philippines to become a better country. Plans and platforms are starting to be laid down as the government changes its leaders and had the transformation for the coming months. With this, it is but right that th...

IN recognition of the contributions and efforts of social workers in the implementation of the Philippine government’s social welfare and development programs and services, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), in collaboration with the ASEAN Social Work Consortium-Philippines, spearheaded the celebration of the Filipino Social Workers’ Day on June 19. With the theme “Resilient Filipino Social Workers: Moving Toward the New Socio-Economic, Political, Cultural and Environmental Challenges”, the celebration highlighted the unwavering commitment, dedication, and altruism of Filipino Social Workers as well as their significant role in the reduction of various socioeconomic vulnerabilities of individuals, families, and communities in the country. In his keynote address...

WITH few rights and little social protection, domestic workers were often cast aside during the Covid-19 pandemic to fend for themselves. On International Domestic Workers Day, Chihoko Asada-Miyakawa, International Labour Organization’s Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, explains why it’s time for a change. As the Covid-19 pandemic slowly abates, it is time for countries in Asia and the Pacific to provide better social protection for domestic workers and fully recognize and regulate their work as equal to any other. According to an ILO publication launched today (16 June), “Making the right to social security a reality for domestic workers”, more than two-thirds of domestic workers in the Asia and Pacific region are not covered by even one soc...

IN today’s hyper-connected world, with our interlinked economies, migrant diasporas and 24-hour news channels, it’s no surprise that the war in Ukraine is being felt across the globe. The war has upended the fragile economic recovery from the pandemic, not only triggering a devastating humanitarian crisis but also increasing food and commodity prices and globally exacerbating inflationary pressures. A new forecast released this week by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) shows how far global prospects have declined. According to the World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) as of mid- 2022, the global economy is now projected to grow by only 3.1 percent in 2022, down from the 4.0 percent growth forecast released in January. Global inflation is ...

REPUBLIC Act No. 11648, or the act increasing the age for determining statutory rape, received the President’s signature on March 4, 2022. The long-awaited law raises the age of sexual consent from 12 to below 16 years old. “I know this has been long-awaited by many families and child rights advocates, and as a parent to three young kids myself, I was really adamant that we get this out for the President’s signature this Congress,” said Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, author and co-sponsor of the law. He also co-chaired the Senate bicameral conference committee panel for the bill, along with Sen. Richard Gordon. “At thirteen or fourteen, our kids cannot make informed decisions about sex yet, especially sex with adults, so this is a really important law that will protect o...

GREENPEACE Philippines welcomed the adoption of a resolution mandating the creation of a global treaty to end plastic pollution. The group said the agreement provides a strong warning for plastic polluting companies to immediately align themselves to global ambitions by reducing their plastic production and shifting to reuse and refill models. The group said that the resolution, adopted at the 5th session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA 5.2) in Nairobi, Kenya last Wednesday, will be instrumental in forging a legally binding agreement that can help developing countries like the Philippines to stand up against corporate polluters. These include oil and chemical companies that produce raw plastic, as well as consumer goods manufacturers whose annual production of millions of tons of ...

BY JUAN PONCE ENRILE SCARCITIES and hoardings of prime commodities were recurrent problems of the Marcos regime in the early years of martial law. The experience I gathered in solving scarcities and hoarding in those days taught me that businessmen were a peculiar breed. They would take whatever risk there was for as long as they could generate profits for themselves. The first case of hoarding I handled in the early days of martial law was the sudden disappearance of sugar in the market. This happened a few weeks after martial law was declared. Malacañang was swamped with frantic telephone calls one morning in October 1972 from irate housewives and other users of sugar as raw material for their products. Their common complaint was the sheer absence of sugar in the market. Alarme...

BY MIKE DEL ROSARIO THE Forestland Management Bureau (FMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) launched a pilot program to assist people's organizations (POs) to diversify their revenue sources by enhancing consolidation in areas such as guyabano, rambutan, citrus and coffee production. On the other hand, through fostering the preservation and maintenance of biodiversity, soil, water, animal habitats and other natural resources, strategic integration benefits them. Apart from increasing resilience to climate change and the potential for mitigation, another key benefit for agroforestry producers is higher economic resilience since agroforestry provides many income sources throughout the year. The DENR's purpose is to provide an overview of agroforestr...