catholic churches crumbled

it’s a miserable time for the people of bohol and cebu.  apart from the shock and terror of tuesday’s 7.2 earthquake, lives have been lost, homes do not feel safe, life is disrupted.  worst of all, even their churches, sacred places of refuge and spiritual renewal, are either in ruins, or damaged and unsafe.  a dark time indeed.

in anc’s beyond politics, geologist dr. carlo arcilla tried to look at the bright side: this was stronger than the 7.0 earthquake that hit haiti in 2010, but the death and destruction numbers are much much much lower, which he partly attributed (if i heard him correctly) to the building code.

yes, let’s count our blessings, it could have been much worse.  like, if oct 15 had been a schoolday, the kids would have been in school; if it had been a sunday, the churches would have been packed.  thank allah for that muslim holy day.

but speaking of the building code, and barraged with tv images of collapsed facades and towers, fallen roofs and walls, of centuries-old churches that were centers of prayer and worship for a predominantly catholic population, i am aghast at how unsafe these structures were pala.  and i am scandalized to find that church authorities have done very little, if anything, to render them safe for the daily and weekly ritual gatherings of the faithful.  too expensive?  too inconvenient?  easier to trust in divine protection?

this gross sin of omission i lay squarely at the door of the catholic church.  read Catholic Church has billions invested in BPI, Philex, San Miguel.  the catholic church, which does not pay taxes, can well afford the expense of retrofitting, conserving, restoring, old churches without the help of government, and without burdening the faithful with impious requests to dig deeper into empty pockets for the salvation of their souls.

this is not just a matter of history or heritage, it’s also a matter of life and death.

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Bohol’s old churches: Nat’l treasures in peril Sept 1998
Historic Landmarks Reduced to Rubble by The Philippines Quake
Destruction of heritage churches lamented

today’s iglesia event

even before MMDA announced suspension of classes tomorrow in metromanila, husband says he was advised by an iglesia friend to stay away from manila especially, the traffic will be humongous, hundreds of thousands of members expected to converge on quiapo for march to palace.  anti-pork?  would neither confirm nor deny.  interesting.  we will see soon enough kung ek nga lang ang medical mission press release.

that’s the status i posted on facebook last night when i heard the news of the metrowide suspension of classes in the face of a huge iglesia ni cristo event today, na medical-dental mission daw, probably an NCR version of recent events held in albay, tayabas, davao, and bulacan, dubbed evangelical mission: kabayan ko, kapatid ko.

read Iglesia mission draws biggest Bulacan crowd last september 14, reportedly two-thirds of the 3-million population of the province: that’s two million!

San Jose del Monte Mayor Rey San Pedro said he got on a helicopter for the first time to see for himself how many people came to the outreach.

People were coming from all over Bulacan, he reported, with many walking for kilometers to get to the New Town open grounds where the INC mission was held. He said traffic was barely moving as far as back as Sta. Maria and Marilao towns.

The sky was overcast and there was a slight intermittent drizzle, but the people were accommodated at the 26-hectare site under huge tents. Around 1,000 policemen were deployed to the area and the roads leading to the grounds.

The medical-dental mission started at 6:30 a.m. and lasted until noon. At 10 a.m., Alvarado announced that around 20,000 people had been given medical and dental help by the mission.

Great help to province

Free medicines were given out, along with vitamins for the young and the elderly. There were hospital beds for minor operations. At one end of the medical tent, makeshift cubicles were deluged by people wishing to see a dentist.

Bulacan Vice Gov. Daniel Fernando said the medical-dental mission was a great help to the province. After the program, bags of rice were distributed.

The “Kabayan Ko, Kapatid Ko” evangelical-medical mission in Bulacan was the 15th such event conducted by the Iglesia ni Cristo and its partner, the Felix Y. Manalo Foundation.

The weekly evangelical-medical outreach missions are being conducted in preparation for the INC Centennial on July 27, 2014, which will also be held in Bulacan, at the Philippine Arena which is being constructed in the town of Bocaue, organizers said.

hmm, saan-saan kaya sila pupuwesto kung tipong medical tents ang eksena?  alam ba ng mga maralitang tagalunsod na may ganitong magaganap at kung saan-saan?  nanliligaw ba sila ng non-iglesia voters?  sino kaya ang kandidato ng iglesia sa 2016?  ano kaya ang stand ng iglesia sa pork?  susuportahan ba ng iglesia ang sigaw ng bayan?  abangan.

The Supreme Court’s crucial role

By Randy David

A lot of vagueness attends current discussions of the pork barrel. The lack of precision in the use of terms complicates questions like: what to abolish, who has the power to abolish, and how to reform the system. The ongoing hearings at the Supreme Court have clarified the meanings of many of the terms we take for granted. It is fascinating to see how issues are differently framed by the courts, by the media, by academe, and by the antipork movement.

Read on…

 

who is ma’am arlene? wanted: whistleblowers in the judiciary

on the eve of the first day of oral arguments in the supreme court re the TRO on what’s left of the PDAF, philippine star columnist jarius bondoc tossed in this bomb:

Just call her Ma’am Arlene – the Judiciary’s version of Janet Lim Napoles.

She throws birthday bashes for Appellate Court justices and trial court judges, and bankrolls their family junkets abroad. She is the magistrates’ go-to girl if they need to give an offspring an expensive graduation or wedding gift. She makes them dependent on her, for a reason.

Cases are won depending on which Ma’am Arlene’s rich client-litigant is. Her connections are not limited to the courts, but extend all the way to the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman. She is notorious as a fixer of cases, with investigators, prosecutors, and magistrates, mostly in Metro Manila. She has counterparts in other big cities.

Ma’am Arlene always gets what she wants. That’s because, sources say, court bigwigs and key personnel are in her secret payroll. The justices’ spouses are yearly recipients of luxurious birthday gifts. No one turns her down, lest she spill the beans on them.

Her criminal generosity knows no limits. But some magistrates avoid her. For, she has the funny habit of bragging about her connections. It’s no different from Napoles reportedly telling her employees that this senator or that congressman “is asking for money again.” Riding around town in as snazzy SUVs like Ma’am Janet does, she “owns the Judiciary” like the latter “own the Congress.” And, oh, like Napoles, Ma-am Arlene is no lawyer. Yet she “lawyers” inside chambers, for such “honorable clients” as a flour importer who allegedly also brings in banned substances.

a bomb that has yet to explode because this arlene woman has yet to be identified…

Bondoc did not provide the full name of Arlene, but court sources said she is married to a former judiciary official who is close to a prominent member of the prosecution service. She reportedly worked in the Arroyo administration. http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/10/10/1243487/napoles-judiciary  … court sources said she is known even to court employees, adding she is a native of Iloilo and related to a suspected Chinese smuggler of flour.  http://cefa.ph/sc-probes-maam-arlene/

… and evidence has yet to be presented.  googling ma’am arlene, i found posted on abs-cbn‘s facebook page a link to Sereno: Find judiciary’s own ‘Mrs. Napoles’ where the chief justice says there are many stories of hoodlums in robes but no evidence, and she doesn’t know if this arlene is involved.  and this comment:

Naku naman Madam Chief Justice, halos lahat ng nasa judiciary alam na kung sino si Madam Arlene, mukhang ikaw na lang ang di naka-kilala sa kanya?!

if true, and i have no reason to doubt jarius, then it would be interesting should the call for whistleblowers a la benhur luy to come forward prove futile.  this arlene woman must be doing something “right” that napoles didn’t?  no paper trails?  no records?  or maybe she’s just paying her staff really well and maybe treating them like family?  or, speaking of family, maybe it’s as simple as: she doesn’t have a daughter thoughtlessly flaunting her wealth on the internet?  puwede ring, all of the above.