THIS writer once wrote of his failed search for the true religion, stressing that “I discovered God outside of religion.” Let this be a sequel to that article. The truth is that one religion’s goodness is another’s sin – as in worship or veneration of graven images. If I cited unassailable anti-religion
April 5, 2024
WE are still in the first week following the Holy Week. Fresh in our mind is how we shied away from “sins” last week when we followed the admonition of our priests and pastors to observe church-directed customs and traditions. We uttered no cuss, cursed nobody and made peace even with quarrelsome neighbors.
April 3, 2024
THE news item that made world headlines in the Holy Week was the arrival at the port of Manila of an Indian Coast Guard ship (ICGS) on Monday (March 25). The following day saw Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar paying a courtesy call to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Malacañang to affirm
April 1, 2024
“GENERALLY peaceful” is how the Philippine National Police (PNP) vaguely describes crime incidents unfolding during the Holy Week. We take it to mean that even hardened criminals take a week off from “sinning” in order to repent and seek God’s forgiveness. It could also be an occasion for foreign tourists to visit
March 27, 2024
NOW that the House of Representatives has approved the Resolution of Both Houses 7 (RBH7) seeking to amend certain economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution, we may expect the Senate to do likewise for its parallel RBH-6 (an exact copy of RBH-7) with the “yes” votes of at least three fourths or
March 25, 2024
OCTOGENARIAN Casiano “Cas” Mayor, who used to be my fellow reporter at Reuters news agency, wrote to express his excitement over the looming entry of the Negros Electric and Power Corporation (NEPC) to replace the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) as distribution utility in Bacolod City and suburbs. He is the owner
March 22, 2024
THE word “split” is in quotation marks because I doubt its accuracy to describe the ballyhooed break-up of Iloilo’s power players, Mayor Jerry “JPT” Treñas and Rep. Julienne “Jamjam” Baronda. On reading my column about it the other day, a friend asked me whether I had talked to Jamjam for confirmation. “No,”
March 20, 2024
IN a press conference last Friday, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry “JPT” Treñas announced that Congresswoman Julienne “Jamjam” Baronda had paid him a visit to say that she was not running for re-election in 2025. The announcement gave his audience the impression that Baronda was willingly giving way for his daughter Raisa Treñas-Chu to run,
March 18, 2024
WE were in high school when we first read about Robin Hood, a popular bow-and-arrow folk hero who robbed the rich to help the poor peasants in 14th-century England. Today, we have a Robinhood Padilla in the Philippine Senate, who seems to be helping the rich “appointed Son of God” – Pastor
March 15, 2024
ON March 16, 1521, history teaches us, Ferdinand Magellan “discovered the Philippines.” This means that on Saturday or three days from now, we will be marking the 503rd anniversary of that historical milestone. That historical event started the shameful conflict between the Church and State. As every grade schooler knows, it began with the arrival
March 13, 2024
IN this column many issues ago, I wrote about the lament of a bank depositor, retired Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) employee Bernardita Lerio, whose bank balance at the Landbank (Plaza Libertad, Iloilo City branch) had “evaporated”. To recap, she tried to withdraw money using her ATM card on a
March 11, 2024
IT is not surprising that the employees of Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) are worried over the possibility of losing their jobs. This is because of its impending transformation into Negros Electric and Power Corporation (NEPC) through a plebiscite-approved joint venture agreement. Under that agreement, Ceneco employees would be accorded hiring preference.
March 8, 2024