Tag: pope francis

Yikes! Pope Francis with Filipino celebrities in commemorative painting!

January 12, 2015 Kate Natividad 52 Comments

Ok, just when the whole brouhaha over the grandiose wedding of Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes is simmering down, I came across this supposedly recently-completed painting by Dante Hipolito… Apparently Hipolito is known in art circles as a “hyper-realist” and his favorite subject involves depictions of scenes of traditional Filipino rural life. Well, the scenes…

Culture, Glitz and Glamour, Lifestyle, Media, Religion, Society

Why do MMDA traffic officers need to wear diapers? They can just piss on Manila’s streets!

January 9, 2015 benign0 24 Comments

I don’t know what Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino was thinking when he issued — and, worse, publicised — a directive to his legions of “traffic enforcers” to wear adult diapers while on duty during the visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines this month. He said there would not be enough…

Civics, Culture, Development, Government, Lifestyle, Religion, Society

Why it is wrong to spend P100M on a celeb wedding in the #Philippines

January 7, 2015May 6, 2022 benign0 68 Comments

Filipinos’ values are indeed perverted beyond recognition. In many Filipino movies, the bad guys are often pointy-nosed fair-skinned snobs (keeping to the narrow-minded way Philippine cinema’s jeje-culture traditionally portrays the rich) living in obnoxious tacky mansions while the “hero” is an other-side-of-da-riles lad or lass living the Pinoy challenge of scraping together a “decent” life….

Civics, Culture, Economy, Glitz and Glamour, Lifestyle, Society

Will Pope Francis’s 2015 visit to the Philippines bring out the best or worst in the Filipino?

December 30, 2014December 30, 2014 benign0 29 Comments

Pope Francis’s visit to the Philippines is shaping out to be the country’s biggest coming event. Already there’s a scramble to fill precious slots that would bring ordinary folk within the pontiff’s breathing space — whether it be seats in the pope’s flight from Rome to Manila, or a place in His Eminence’s dining table,…

Culture, Education, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

It is not poor people but rich people who have a BIG problem with poverty

December 1, 2014December 1, 2014 benign0 35 Comments

So according the the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), 2015 will be “The Year of the Poor”, a declaration which coincides with the arrival of Poper Francis earlier that year… “We as the Church of the Poor are called to renew our commitment to Christ’s mission and to always take the side of…

Civics, Culture, Development, Economy, Lifestyle, Religion, Society

An open letter to Pope Francis on his visit to the Philippines in 2015

November 29, 2014November 29, 2014 Ilda 78 Comments

Dear Pope Francis, Information about your visit to the Philippines has been occupying the country’s local media for months. Members of the national and local government have been busy preparing for your arrival. The Manila City Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada recently declared a four-day holiday for Manila residence during your visit. The decision, he said…

Civics, Crime, Development, Government, Politics

A country under an inutile gov’t: The #Philippines 12 months since Typhoon #Haiyan struck

November 10, 2014November 10, 2014 benign0 29 Comments

The marking of the first year’s anniversary of the visit of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) to the Philippines in November 2013 is a bittersweet one. While the disaster devasted millions of Filipino lives, its most appalling legacy is the vast open wound it left in the Filipino’s collective psyche — the realisation that theirs is an…

Culture, Development, Environment, Government, Media, Religion, Society

Will Pope Francis’s prayers make a difference to Typhoon Haiyan’s victims in the Philippines?

August 8, 2014 benign0 31 Comments

There is a world of difference between (1) making a quick visit to the Philippines, and beholding all the usual stock-standard confronting sights of impoverished Filipinos “bravely” scraping together a living and (2) growing up in the Philippines, and experiencing that poverty (either as a part of it or as an observer) everyday for many…

Civics, Culture, Development, Lifestyle, Media, Religion