ABRIL 24 - 30, 2009
Mabuhay
LINGGUHANG PILIPINO MULA PA NOONG 1980
3
Depthnews
J
UAN
L. M
ERCADO
Political strip tease?
Regarding Henry
H
ENRYLITO
D. T
ACIO
Cebu Calling
F
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C
IMAGALA
Open to life
carious level of forest cover willnot be further jeopardized be-cause there will be no need toclear forests to produce agricul-tural land,” said Senator FrancisEscudero, who supports biotech-nology for the development in thePhilippines. “With biotechnology,plants grown on existing landarea, as well as those on poor soilsor stressful environments, can bemade more productive. Savingscan be attained from cutting down on agrochemical inputssuch as pesticides. Nutritionaldeficiencies among Filipinos canbe curbed because biotech allowsstaples like rice to be enrichedwith vitamins and minerals.”Technically speaking, humanshave been making use of biotech-nology since they discoveredfarming, with the planting of seeds to control plant growth andcrop production. Animal breeding is also a form of biotechnology.More recently, cross-pollinationof plants and cross-breeding of animals were macro-biologicaltechniques in biotechnology, usedto enhance product quality and/ or meet specific requirements orstandards.In fact, biotechnology has ex-isted since ancient times. Spiru-lina, one of the oldest forms of lifeon earth, is believed to be whatthe ancient Israelites of the OldTestament called “manna fromheaven.”The modern era of biotechnol-ogy, however, had its origin in1953 when American biochemist James Watson and British bio-physicist Francis Crick presentedtheir “double helix” molecularmodel of DNA (deoxyribonucleicacid). DNA molecules are foundin cells of organisms, where ge-netic information is stored.One of the most powerful toolsof modern biotechnology is mo-lecular biology. “Instead of spend-
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“IT’S a media striptease,” fumesthe United (?) Opposition. The Arroyo regime seeks to necklaceex-president Joseph Estrada withthe Best World Resources scan-dal. That scam almost shoved thelocal stock exchange over the cliff in 1999.This “burlesque” would politi-cally castrate Erap, protest presi-dential aspirant Francisco “Chiz”Escudero and Senator PanfiloLacson. This “vaudeville” couldalso scuttle his father’s chancesof retaking Malacañang, addsSan Juan Mayor JV EjercitoBut is this really just smokeand mirrors?
Philippine Star
published a BW chair Dante Tan letter thatdirected AT De Castro SecuritiesCorp, in July 1999: transfer300,000 BW shares to — guesswho? Then National Police chief Panfilo Lacson, that’s who. A BW share fetched P30 whenTan funneled shares to Erap’s po-lice chief — up from only P2.04in January. By October, BW stocks bolted to P107 per share.The July packet then would havefetched Senator Lacson P3.21million.This sharp spike in BW shareprices, in fact, triggered chargesthat the stock was being manipu-lated. Who was the manipulator?That question anchors theCourt of Appeals reversal of a Pasig court decision that clearedTan and eight others. It orderedcriminal prosecution instead.“ The decision was “like man-na,” cheered Justice SecretaryRaul Gonzales There’s a link be-tween the BW scam and the mur-der of PR man Salvador Dacerand driver Emmanel Corbito.Both were kidnapped, then mur-dered, by a Presidential Anti-Or-ganized Crime Task Force team.Did documents seized fromDacer, then burned, by his kill-ers, deal with the BW scam? Ex-tradition of ex-PAOCTF fugitivesCezar Mancao II and GlennDumlao could mesh these twocases into an “atomic bomb,”Gonzales adds.This “striptease” drives theopposition bonkers. The justicesecretary should deliver hardproof on scenarios he has dangled.“Tan was just a friend,” Erapmeanwhile insists. “Nothing more.” Like many of Erap’sfriends Tan skipped town whenPeople Power Two erupted. Heleft no forwarding address.He proved also quite a friend.The President co-owned BW Re-sources with Dante Tan, ex-Fi-nance Secretary Edgardo Espiri-tu said at Estrada’s impeachment.“One shocking document thatsurfaced is a letter by Estrada’sown lawyer, brazenly written onMalacañang letterhead,” wrotethen
Inquirer
columnist Anto-nio Carpio. “Addressed to Tan,(it) demands the turnover toEstrada of BW stocks worth overP500 million. This inextricablylinks Estrada to the BW stockscam” said Carpio, now a Su-preme Court justice.Dante Tan and Lucio Tan wereamong “New Money Chinese en-trepreneurs” that Estrada tappedin his presidential campaign ,writes ex-Malacañang chief of staff Aprodicio Laquian in his book:
The Erap Tragedy
.“The strategy worked well,”Senator Jovito Salonga quotes
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THIS was never put into ques-tion before. Even without study-ing, people in general, especiallyduring our parents’ and grand-parents’ time, took it for grantedthat every conjugal act should beopen to life. They understoodthat such act is meant for that.Now there’s need to be re-minded about the objective na-ture and purpose of the conjugalact. This is what the Compen-dium of the Social Doctrine of theChurch says about it:
“Conjugal love is by its nature open to the acceptance of life ...The dignity of the human being, called to proclaim the goodnessand fruitfulness that come fromGod, is eminently revealed in thetask of procreation.”
(230)
The Compendium goes fur-ther, explaining how procreationresembles us with God, whose im-age and likeness we are:
“Human fatherhood andmotherhood, while remainingbiologically similar to that of other living beings in nature, con-tain in an essential and uniqueway a ‘likeness’ to God which isthe basis of the family as a com-munity of persons united in love.”
But with the intrusion of thecontraceptive mentality that hasgone viral and, worse, left un-checked and allowed to fester,this pristine mindset and culturewas changed. The wreckage andthe devastation it caused are allover the place.People were told many thingsand seduced to abandon theirnatural attitude toward the con- jugal act. Difficult circumstancesfavoring this criminal contracep-tive mentality were put in boldrelief to distort people’s reason-ing.There was even that no-brainer, begging-the-questiontype of argument that to havebetter and faster development,we should decrease our popula-tion, because with less people,then more resources can onehave. What a brilliant nonsense!Later on, sophisticated philo-sophical and even theological andmoral rationalizations were clev-erly formulated to undergird thedisturbing phenomenon. Withthis anomalous thinking prevail-ing in many centers of influence,the slippery slope to abortion andother moral aberrations startedto take place.This is how Pope John Paul IIanalyzed the situation in his en-cyclical
Veritatis splendor
thattried to overhaul the current sadstate of moral theology:
“Today, it seems necessary toreflect on the whole of theChurch’s moral teaching … It isno longer a matter of limited and occasional dissent, but of an over-all and systematic calling into question of traditional moral doc-trine, on the basis of certain an-thropological and ethical presup- positions.”
(4)
The Pope then identified sometroubling trends:– rejection of traditional doc-trine regarding the natural law,and the universality and the per-manent validity of its precepts;– currents of thought that de-tach human freedom from its es-sential and constitutive relation-ship to truth. Freedom is madeto be self-created and self-defin-ing;– the questioning of the capac-ity of the Church Magisterium tointervene in matters of morality,limiting it only to “exhorting con-
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Fair & Square
I
KE
S
EÑERES
A green economic order
A CLEAN environment is goodfor agriculture. It also promoteslivelihood, because a clean envi-ronment opens up new spaces forgrowing all kinds of products thatcould be processed and sold. Whatis even better is to have greenagriculture, the kind that isfriendlier to the environment andis more sustainable.Green agriculture also pro-motes good health, because it pro-duces safer and healthier food toeat. Provided that we could pro-duce our own food for our ownconsumption, it also promotesfood security, because we will be-come more independent of for-eign food sources. Add to that ourprospective savings in foreignexchange, which is of course goodfor our economy.I am told that it is now a grow-ing trend in the United States forpeople to grow their own food, sothat they will know that the foodthey are eating is safe. Believe itor not, the rich people in the Americas are now paying othersto grow food for them, if theycould not grow it themselves.Until recently, we only had toworry about the safety of foodscoming from China. Who wouldimagine that now we have toworry about the safety of foodscoming from the Americas? Whowould have guessed that the daywould come when pistachioswould become dangerous food toeat? As it is now, our governmentbureaucracy is fragmented, be-cause there is a specific agencythat is in charge of environment,agriculture, health, and so on andso forth. Will the day ever comewhen there would be a govern-ment task force or something that could complement and inte-grate all of these concerns?I do not know when that daywould come, but first things first;I think that the governmentshould formally declare its sup-port for a new G
REEN
E
CONOMIC
O
RDER
, an order that would sup-port the integration of clean en-vironment, green agriculture andfood safety, among others.It’s good that the governmentappears to be doing something about climate change, or at leastit appears that they want to dosomething. Meanwhile, wastesegregation still appears to be a distant goal in most places here,and it seems that there is nosingle globally compliant landfillin sight. Up to now, our govern-ment officials still seem to be con-fused about the differences be-tween a landfill and a dumpsite. As I see it now, putting upmaterials recovery facilities(MRF) is a more doable optioncompared to putting up real com-
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THE expression Easter Laughter(
risus paschalis
) caught my eyesas I read Benedict XVI’s reflec-tions on the symbolisms of Easter.
(Found in his book
Behold The PiercedOne An Approach to a SpiritualChristology,
which is a collection of Christological meditations and reflec-tions, Ignatius Press 1984. Quotedparts are italicized.)
It amused meto learn that in the Baroque pe-riod, the Easter homily had to in-clude something to deliberatelymake the faithful laugh. This wasdone to invite them to literally ex-press and share the joy of Jesus’Resurrection.The history of this unique andinteresting tradition is found inthe Jewish reflection on the figureof Isaac. The name Isaac containsvarious meanings which containsthe root “laughter”. It refers to theunbelieving laughter of Abrahamand Sarah who doubted they couldstill have a son in their old age,and also their happiness whenIsaac was born to them as Godpromised.Later on this joyful responsewas applied to Isaac himself. Isaacdid not know that God had asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son. When he asked his father whatthey would sacrifice, all he wastold was, “God will provide.” Onceon the sacrificial pyre Isaac wasfilled with sorrow. His sad plight,however, was turned to “laughter”when he escaped death after Abraham caught sight of the ramentangled in the thistles and of-fered the animal instead.The Church Fathers deepenedthe implications of these Jewishreflections by applying it to theperson of Christ. Jesus was theLamb caught in the brambles, andwho was sacrificed for our sins. Hewas also like Isaac when He suf-fered the agony before and during His Passion, and experienced joy(laughter) in His Resurrectionwhen He conquered death, sin andthe devil.Benedict XVI further observeshow this idea of being saved by theimage of the Lamb is reiterated inthe fifth chapter of the Book of Revelation. “And between thethrone and the four living crea-tures and among the elders, I sawa Lamb standing, as though it hadbeen slain ... .” Our life, the Popereflects, would be meaningless andsad if we climb the “
mountain of time
” [his limited life] “
bearingwith us the instruments of our owndeath
” [his sinfulness] withoutany sight to God. At first man isn’taware of the dangers that lurkwithin and without, but as he jour-neys he then experiences his soli-tariness and begins to doubt in
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Forward to Basics
F
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RANCIS
B. O
NGKINGCO
‘Risus Paschalis’Biotechnology: Ending hunger
“GLOBAL food insecurity willnot disappear without effectiveapplication of new technology,”Nobel Peace Prize winner Nor-man Borlaug declared. “To ignorethis reality will make future so-lutions to food security all themore difficult to achieve.”Borlaug was referring to bio-technology. Many people thinkthat biotechnology only involvesgenetic research. Cloning, thehuman genome project, movies,news, and pop culture focusing ongenetic research have contrib-uted to this. But there’s more tothat. Genetic engineering of crops for agriculture, bioreme-diation, food processing, drugs,and proteomics are all includedin the field of biotechnology.Former World Bank Vice-President Ismail Serageldin seesbiotechnology playing a crucialpart of agriculture in the 21stcentury. “All possible tools thatcan help promote sustainable ag-riculture for food security mustbe marshaled, and biotechnology,safely developed, could be a tre-mendous help.”Food security, according to theUN Food and Agricultural Orga-nization means “ensuring allpeople at all times have access tothe food they need for a healthy,active life.” It comes about whenfood is available throughout the year at prices affordable to every-one.In a way, food security can beachieved partly through biotech-nology. Biotechnology (from twowords: “bio” meaning life and“technology” referring to toolsand techniques used to achieve a particular purpose) is broadlydefined as “the art of utilizing liv-ing organisms and their productsfor the production of food, drink,medicine, or for other benefits tothe human race, or other animalspecies.”“With biotechnology, the pre-
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mabuhay ka!! sana dumami pa ang katulad mo na hindi gahaman sa salapi. Gob Bless you. tinanggap mo na ang reward mo mula kay Bro!