We beg to differ.
This PM came to me the morning of March 29 2019 A not insignificant group of some 130 lay Christian leaders heeded the call. They organized themselves and discerned together the best senatorial candidates to support among the 62 contestants. Since 2015 these Christian leaders from the Catholic, Evangelical and Protestant persuasions have come up…
On cue, a bevy of social media “influencers” are cheering the latest conspiracy theories surrounding purported Russian “influence” on Philippine social media. In their “investigative report” Russian disinformation system influences PH social media, Rapplerettes Vernise Tantuco, Wayne Manuel, Michael Bueza, Glenda Marie Castro and Gemma Mendoza (collectively billed the “Rappler Research Team”) go to amusing…
To be fair, religion has long been an effective way politicians reach the masses. Indeed, even the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) are not above using “pastoral letters” as a means to deliver political messages to their flock who loyeally tune-in dressed in their Sunday best. Thus, one cannot really judge politicians who…
The Philippines’ newly-crowned Miss Universe Catriona Gray remarked that there is “beauty” in poverty in the interview section of the pageant which was held in Manila, Philippines this year. The interview sections of beauty pageants are usually the butts of popular jokes. This time, however, Gray, one of the more widely-admired Miss Philippines personalities, drew…
Read More “New #MissUniverse Catriona Gray proves Filipinos need to GET REAL about poverty” »
There are a lot of hypocrites in the Philippines. I think it has something to do with the country being religious. Mind you, being religious is different from being spiritual. Being religious is easy. It’s simply following dogma or “set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true”. One doesn’t have to think…
Read More “The self-righteousness and hypocrisy of activists ruin otherwise noble advocacies” »
One can admire the way Filipino “activists” vigorously campaigned for the boycott of Filipino food conglomerate NutriAsia. NutriAsia manufactures products marketed under iconic Filipino brands such as Mang Tomas, UFC, and Datu Puti among others. These brands are not just ordinary brands. They are ingrained in the Filipino tradition and, as such, the average Filipino…
Nowadays we see a lot of references to “Satan” and the “evil” this character of Medieval yore supposedly creates. Filipinos, the superstitious lot that they are, make liberal reference to these notions because they lack a strong tradition of evaluating cause-and-effect when confronting the many problems that beset their society. The trouble with this habit…
Read More “Filipinos need to believe in “Satan” because they need a scapegoat for their failures” »
Bizarre that a supposed “economist” like Winnie Monsod would highlight the notion of “evil” as the be-all-end-all core source of all of the Philippines’ troubles. In her latest Inquirer piece, Monsod writes a treatise on why “ordinary, so-called good, God-fearing people can move from good to evil”. Monsod cites the notion of a “banality of…
Read More “Filipinos should stop believing in “evil” in order to progress as a society” »