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 I MPACT April 2006 / Vol 40 • No 4
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
Damaged Democracy .................................................. 2 5
COVER STORY
The Ailing Public Health ............................................. 1 6
COVER PHOTO CREDIT: DENNIS BALDOZA DAYAO
ARTICLES
Bioethical Challenges in the New Millennium ....... 4
Sowing Seeds of Hope Through Moral Values ........ 8
Building Peace Through A Spirituality of Public
Service ................................................................................ 9
Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for
Lent 2006 ....................................................................... 1 0
Alay Kapwa 2006: Making Integrity a Challenge to
the Church and the Filipino People .......................... 1 2
Why People of Faith (Must) Oppose Deforestation,
Mining and Other Ecological Abuses ..................... 1 4
Who Cares about the Rising Cost of Medicine? ... 1 5
STATEMENTS
Call to Patriotism ......................................................... 2 6
To Our Muslim Brothers and Sisters ....................... 2 7
DEPARTMENTS
Quote in the Act .............................................................. 2
Cinema Review ............................................................. 2 3
Quotes in Quiz .............................................................. 2 3
From the Blogs ............................................................... 2 4
From the Inbox .............................................................. 2 8
Vanilla Bytes ................................................................. 2 9
News Briefs ...................................................................... 3 0
It was by sheer twist of fate, or providential if you
may, that the CBCP Communications Development
Foundation took over the ownership and management
of Impact in April last year. Because April—the
cruelest month, if you go by the rhyme of T.S. Eliot’s
Waste Land, where lilacs are bred out of the dead land,
mixing memory and desire—of 1966 is when this
magazine now turning 40 first saw print.
Yet there is nothing creepy or even superstitious
about taking charge of a magazine on the same month
it was founded several decades later. But it’s fun to
dwell on the memories of ’66 when you have the likes
of Ferdinand Marcos, who had just then floored
Diosdado Macapagal, the father of the incumbent
GMA, in the Presidential bid, soaring to immediate
popularity due to his avid pursuits in education, agricul-
ture, industry and the sending of a civic action unit
(PHILCAG) in support of the U.S. war in Vietnam—
while Imelda would gain international prominence in
her first controversy of driving out the Beatles who
refused to dine with her at Malacañang. But what
remains of one’s vestiges is the desire that somebody
could floor Malacañang again given the current con-
troversies that has grown to astronomic proportions.
In Impact and Founder Turn 40, Ace Baltazar
and Cicero Lagarde would get closer to the perfection
of the mixing of memory and desire in a “consummate
activist” personified in Bishop Julio Labayen who at 79
refuses to surrender his dream of a transformed
society despite the seemingly irreversible onslaughts
of social injustice and political catastrophe.
Making integrity a challenge to the Church and the
Filipino people is the theme of Alay Kapwa 2006.
With Malou Mahilum, one can only surmise without
the risk of consequence that the most plausible back-
drop is a society where integrity has gone pfffttt,
because both its political and religious leaders have
become numb and calloused to the evils of cheating,
deceit, corruption and gambling as a comfortable way
of national life and governance.
While Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi, OP, bril-
liantly discusses the Bioethical Challenges in the
New Millennium, our cover story tries to uncover the
“diseases” plaguing the health program of the govern-
ment today. In The Ailing Public Health, Bob
Acebedo points out how health services have become
inaccessible and inutile to the poor Filipino—which has
become very normal as in other politicized programs of
a corrupt government. Read on.
Volume 40 • Number 3 3

I
f there is any field of interest that has
engaged both philosophers (ethicists)
and theologians (moralists) alike more
than any other in recent years, perhaps it
is bioethics. If one examines the literature
in this area, one will discover a plethora of
writings of both ethicists and moral theo-
logians. The topic is interesting, for sure,
but more so intriguing, generating as it
does much debate and controversy. The
reason is obvious. No other discipline has
grown and developed in scope in recent
years as to include wide-ranging issues
that directly affect people’s lives and have
a bearing for the future of humanity. No
other discipline has posed such challenges
of utmost urgency that require immediate
scrutiny and discussion. This paper is
about these challenges.
But first, there is a need to clarify the
term “bioethics” and the sense of it that
is used in the present discussion. It was
actually Van Rensselaer Potter and
Sargent Shriver (independently of
each other) who coined the term bio-
ethics in 1970. And Potter, in particu-
lar, used it to refer to that branch of
ethics that can incorporate our obli-
gation, not just to other humans, but
to the biosphere as a whole. The
accent in meaning is obviously eco-
logical. As it is used nowadays,
and will have a strong impact on
however, it refers to the study of
ethical issues arising from the bio-
logical and medical sciences. In fact,
it also used to be called biomedical or
simply medical ethics. In this more
popular usage, it has become an inter-
disciplinary, albeit specialized, study. It
is not surprising then to see how ques-
tions originally arising from health care
issues, for example, have become a matter
for bioethical discussions as well. Today,
health care can no longer be isolated from
bioethics.
And what are challenges? Usually,
we think of challenges as referring to dif-
ficult, demanding and stimulating tasks.
Thus, they can be events or occurrences
in life that require attention and human
effort; events that require the exercise of
responsibility because the lack of it can
mean harmful if not disastrous conse-
quences for humanity. These develop-
ments are precisely what we face in the
area of bioethics in the new millennium.
There are methodological challenges, as
well as challenges posed by technological
advances in bioethics, and the challenge
to put priorities in place in the context of
poverty.
44 IMPACT
IMPACT •• April
April 2006
2006
Challenges in Method and
Approach
a) The Challenge of Inculturated
Bioethics
First of all, globalization has become
a fact of life in the new millennium. We see
this not the least in the area of bioethics.
Indeed, bioethical problems in West are
easily transported and communicated to
the developing world. In fact, some if not
many of the problems in the West have
also become the problems of the develop-
ing world. In a way, there are no longer
problems that can be isolated without af-
fecting the global community as a whole.
The life sci-
ences are constantly
adding to these already
numerous and often inter-
twined problems. The appli-
cations of genetic research,
those already available and
those yet to come, are having
health, the economy, social life
and also on private life, on
relations between generations
etc.—indeed they are now
real challenges that can
no longer just be
ignored.
Still, it must immediately be said that the
solutions to the problems that are born in
the West may not necessarily be the solu-
tions that should be adopted in the devel-
oping world. These problems may even
come in the developing nations not only
as they are received in a different (e.g.,
Asian) context, but they may also come in
different forms. Thus solutions from the
West should not be automatically imported
as it were because they may be culturally
determined and may not work in the cul-
ture where they are transported. In social
ethics, for example, nursing homes may
not necessarily be the solution to the
problems surrounding the elderly in Asia
where family ties are still strong. For such
A R T I
being the case, the best environment for
the care of the elderly remains to be the
family and the home.
Therefore, as in any other discipline,
there is a need for an inculturated method-
ology and approach to bioethical issues.
There is indeed a need to construct for
example an Asian or more specifically Fili-
pino bioethics. Instead of a bioethics that
is built on Western values and principles,
efforts must be made to draw out a bioet-
hics that flows from the Asian or Filipino
setting. Some attempts have already been
initiated as far as this is concerned.
D. Miranda’s Pagkamabuhay is one
such example, but the task remains basi-
cally unfinished. As Miranda himself
claims, the basis exist for constructing
something which could eventually and
properly be called Filipino bioethics and
that Filipino bioethics is possible in prin-
ciple. Indeed, the principles are already
there but it still demands quite a bit of
work, not only to specify these values,
norms and principles but also to sys-
tematize them into coordinated catego-
ries.
The task of construction could be
done from various perspectives, for
instance from the scientific or medical
view, or from the nationalist political
view. But it seems more appropriate to
do it from the socio-cultural view so
that the bioethics drawn out of this
perspective can truly be responsive to
the bioethical problems of Filipinos to-
day. Bioethics must have cultural and
contextual relevance as well as cultural
and contextual validation. Bioethics can
truly be recognized as indigenous and
contextual if it is extracted from the Fili-
pino-medical ethos and continuous with
Filipino basic ethics.
The challenge then is for bioethics to
reflect an awareness of cultural patterns. It
must not overtly or subtly threaten to
replace the religious and family traditions
which are so much part of the culture of a
society. It must not replace powerfully
symbolic expressions of meaning, love
and hope which come from a religious,
ethnic, national or familiar tradition. Bio-
ethics in fact is impoverished if the human
person’s cultural context and resources
are ignored. Thus, bioethics must strive to
promote a sensitivity and respect for cul-
ture.
b) Christian Bioethics in the Midst
of Relativism and Pluralism
The next challenge is that of relativ-
ism and pluralism. Pluralism is due to the
fact that there is a plurality of ideals, as
C L E S
Bioethical Challenges
in the New Millennium
By Leonardo Z. Legaspi, O.P., D.D.
there is a plurality of cultures and of tem-
peraments. In fact, epistemological plural-
ism holds that there is no single meaning
or truth. Meaning varies as the conse-
quences vary for the individual and truth
is the expedient way of thinking. Because
of this, there is a plurality of values which
men can and do seek and these values
differ. But values are objective, that is to
say, their nature, the pursuit of them, is
part of what it is to be a human being, and
this is an objective give. So while values
are multiple, they are objective, that is, part
of the essence of humanity rather than
arbitrary creations of men’s subjective fan-
cies. In the area of bioethics, relativism
could pose a real danger because people
can become too subjective: “My values
are mine, yours are yours, and if we clash,
too bad, neither of us can claim to be
right.” Thus, one can feel free to proceed
as one wishes. What this tendency has
generated is not only diversity but also
individualism in the interpretation of moral
truth. Ethical judgment and decision be-
(First of Two Parts)
come a matter of opinion or truth that is not
amenable to argument.
Pluralism is actually the root of rela-
tivism. While pluralism cannot be avoided
and that while it calls for respect between
systems of values, it cannot stand as a
valid view or system itself or it degener-
ates into relativism. Pluralism can be the
source of enrichment but it can also be the
source of confusion. The challenge here
is how the Christian view can stand up to
this confusion and survive without get-
ting drowned among the plurality of value
systems.
Some theologians will argue that there
could be nothing necessarily specifically
Christian about an ethical approach be-
cause the values Christians uphold may
also be values that non-Christians or even
atheists can uphold, but there is a way that
Christians can insist on a particular value
given its sources (e.g. Catholicism’s re-
course to Scriptures, tradition and human
experience and the natural law).
But that is not the real challenge. The
© Tarhill Photos Inc. /CORBIS.COM
fact is, the fragmentation and decomposi-
tion of the traditional tenets of the general
ethics of the past and what we might call
popular morals has led to the
marginalization and near expulsion of reli-
gion/faith-inspired positions from the aca-
demic and public spheres and debates.
The obvious result is the secularization of
contemporary bioethics. Whereas bioet-
hics drew heavily on religious tradition
(v.gr. Christian and Jewish) in the past,
this is already overtaken by philosophical
ethics without any pluralism. Accord-
ingly, religion-based moral norms are no
longer the rule of the day. Various philo-
sophical systems instead now provide as
it were the groundwork for any bioethical
discussion.
While pluralism can result in mutual
enrichment among the many philosophi-
cal systems and perspectives, it has also
unavoidably sown confusion, if not out-
right discord. In the midst of such con-
fusion and sometimes even dangerous
situation, the ever renewed mission and
Volume
Volume 40
40 •• Number
Number 44 5
5
 A R
responsibility of the Catholic Church is
to bring to everyone God’s healing power
and the liberating light of His Word. The
Church is to proclaim the good news that
brings with it the message of compas-
sion, hope and redemption.
Christians cannot just “stand by” the
flow of rushing bioethical challenges and
allow themselves to be drawn by efforts
underway in search for meaning of human
life that is purely secular and shaping its
destiny outside the purview of religious
conviction. In the midst of these…trends
to secularization, deconstruction and
derationalization of bioethics there is the
need for an informed body of Christian
health professionals, who know the ori-
gins and foundations of their own faith,
and its place in bioethical decisions and
policies.
That is for Christians to develop a
sound and comprehensive stand on bioet-
hical issues and offer their contributions
with firmness, persuasive scholarship and
commitment to their faith convictions. In
these efforts the bioethics education that
is inspired and informed by faith should
form an integral and necessary part.
Challenges of Technological
Advance
While the foregoing challenges ap-
pear as urgent particularly in the develop-
ing world, the challenges in the West,
where advance in bioethical technology
has been rapid, and where governments or
private enterprises can afford to fund such
technology, go beyond these academic
issues. Here, the basic question is whether
everything that is technologically pos-
sible is likewise imperative, let alone mor-
ally acceptable. Scientific discoveries are
raising questions that have become more
pressing than ever in view of humanity’s
newly acquired capacity to manipulate the
very process of life itself and have conse-
quences that can alter human behavior.
This has led to a wide range of questions
from human cloning to the use of transgenic
technology in agriculture for the produc-
tion of genetically modified organisms.
Old questions linked to genetics are resur-
facing once again, i.e. palliative medicine,
care for the terminally ill, prenatal diagno-
sis, organ donation, medically assisted
procreation, etc. New questions are also
being raised on such issues as genetic
data, stem cell research, pre-implantation
diagnosis, participation of human sub-
jects in experimentation and end of life
care. In view of these new questions,
6 IMPACT • April 2006
T I C L E S
values must be reviewed. Are they still
defensible in view of new technologies?
Among these, research on embry-
onic stem cells is certainly one of the most
controversial issues today. Such research
should in the future make it possible to
create organs and tissues, of which there
is currently a severe shortage, for trans-
plantation purposes. Stem cells are the
unprogrammed master cells found in early
stage embryos that can turn into nearly
every cell type in the body (totipotent).
At first, scientists have only tried to re-
search on these embryos (mostly donated)
for purposes of studies on infertility and
the detection of birth defects. But given
the potential the stem cells that are derived
from these embryos possess, scientists
are now trying to use them for other pur-
poses that are mainly therapeutic, for ex-
ample, transplants that would prevent or
cure scores of illnesses like Parkinson’s
disease and diabetes. The idea is to extract
stem cells from the embryo and allow these
cells to grow (within 3 to 4 days) and to be
manipulated in the laboratory to become
any desired cell or tissue type than can be
used for transplant. This way, neurons for
examples could be created to replace nerve bryo. There are of course three principal
cells in a brain killed by Parkinson’s dis- positions: a) the use of human embryos for
ease. Blood cells from the bone marrow generating embryonic stem cells is intrin-
could likewise be grown into nerve cells to sically immoral; b) such use is morally
repair a damaged spinal column or reverse acceptable for certain medical purposes
the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. Skin and subject to rigorous safeguards; and c)
could also be fabricated to repair burns, taking into account the present risks linked
and pancreatic cells could be manufac- with this research and its possible ethical
tured to produce insulin for diabetes. All implications (notably the risks of manipu-
these show that through genetic manipu- lation of the embryo), embryonic stem cell
lation, it is now possible to develop from research should not be allowed.
these stem cells various tissues that can The prospect of human cloning is also
be used to repair damaged tissues in the generating and provoking intense debate.
body. There seems to be the persistent danger
But the fact that these stem cells mainly that cloning for reproductive purposes
come from human embryos is where the will be pursued and carried out, despite the
problem really is. It appears that embryos fact that it has been banned both by the
are being created for the sole purpose of Universal Declaration on the Human
facilitating research. May embryos be Genome and Human Rights, which quali-
destroyed to obtain stem cells? Further- fies cloning as contrary to human dignity
more, can embryonic stem cells taken from and by legislation in many countries. Al-
embryos no longer destined for the pur- though the international community has
pose of procreation (for example, embryos already rejected human cloning for repro-
frozen after in-vitro fertilization) be dis- ductive purposes as an unacceptable ma-
posed of? Other questions remain. For nipulation of the human being, questions
example, how does one gauge whether the remain regarding therapeutic cloning. Is it
research itself is acceptable and how does acceptable insofar as it may lead to the
one guarantee that the rights of the donor possible treatment of incurable and dis-
parents are respected? abling diseases? Does accepting human
Opinions on the subject of embryonic cloning for therapeutic purposes imply
stem cells differ widely, but the moral le- taking the risk of making reproductive
gitimacy of performing human embryonic human cloning possible? In any event, the
stem cell research depends basically on issue of the embryo remains, since thera-
the status which is attributed to the em- peutic cloning necessarily and inevitably
 Bioethical Challenges in the New Millennium
© Matthias Kulka /CORBIS.COM
consists of creating an embryo for the sole
purpose of obtaining stem cells.
Though less frequently raise, there
are questions which are just as important
from an ethical standpoint. Diagnosis,
which is at the very heart of medical prac-
tice, is one of these questions. Bioethics
already had to tackle prenatal diagnosis
and address the question of how to pre-
vent the use of prenatal diagnosis not only
for legitimate medical purposes but for so-
called “fetus-sex-identification”, that is,
to eliminate female fetuses in favor of male
fetuses. With the progress of genetics, a
new type of diagnosis, which also pre-
sents a threat, has come to light: pre-
implantation genetic diagnosis. Such di-
agnosis—currently restricted for the de-
tection of serious diseases—may yet be
used again for eugenics, in other words,
for eliminating undesired individuals. It
may become very tempting to use this
diagnosis technique for enhancement
purposes or to select certain physical char-
acteristics.
The status of the human genome is at
the heart of another major question: who
owns and controls genetic information?
The person who has donated part of his or
her genetic material? The researcher who
has found an application for a discovery?
The company that paid for the research?
In principle, only real, useful inventions,
or inventions likely to have industrial ap-
plications, can be patented. Nevertheless,
there has been a rise in the number of
requests for patents linked to the human
genome and its applications, including
gene sequences, whose future applica-
tions remain uncertain.
Because of the explosion in the num-
ber of patents the costs of future therapies
and genetic tests will become prohibitive
for most human beings and nations.
Should these discoveries be protected,
depriving some people of their potential
benefits? Or should intellectual property
protection in this area be reduced, at the
risk of deterring corporate investment
because of diminishing profitability? Al-
though discoveries in genetics compound
this problem, it is not a new one, as can be
seen from the debate regarding the cost of
AIDS drugs, which are protected by pat-
ents and therefore too expensive for some
countries.
The collection, treatment, storage and
use of genetic data raise a host of ethical
questions, such as questions on the aim of
the collection, informing sample donors,
free and informed consent on the part of
donors, regard for particular sensitivities
of particular social, religious and ethnic
groups regarding human tissue; precau-
tions which must be taken when conduct-
ing genetic tests (such as parentage test-
ing) considering their implications for the
people tested and others; the confidenti-
ality; and fate of the samples. Here too, the
progress of genetics entails potential dan-
gers. For example, the systematic compi-
lation of files containing genetic data about
individuals could open the door to many
new types of discrimination, not least,
discrimination against individuals show
to have a genetic anomaly signaling dis-
ease or the risk of developing a disease.
People could be barred from jobs by em-
ployers wishing to prevent the develop-
ment of occupational diseases among their
employees. They may also be refused, or
charge more for insurance. Some people
may even be blacklisted by credit organi-
zations. There is also a risk of other types
of discrimination where the findings of a
genetic survey conducted on a given popu-
lation may lead to the stigmatization of
entire groups.
Population genetics provide many
examples of the complex issues bioethics
must address. The study of genetic varia-
tions in populations makes it possible to
identify migrations or trace the spread of
diseases. But here too we find some ethi-
cal issues already raised earlier. Popula-
tions being studied must give their con-
sent, their informed consent. However,
does the notion of individual consent,
prevalent in western societies, mean any-
thing, for example, among indigenous com-
munities? In which language should the
explanation required to obtain informed
consent be given? And if research bears
fruit, in the form of patents, without ben-
efiting the community that donated the
sample, would this not be tantamount to
so-called biopiracy?
In fact, some of the problems concern-
ing genetic data, such as confidentiality
and consent, can already be found in con-
ventional medical practice. As far as hu-
man organ and tissue donations are con-
cerned, we can observe that the field of
bioethics is expanding. This field has been
facing major questions for some time. For
instance, how could the emergence of traf-
ficking in human organs—such as kid-
neys, liver and pancreas—or of human
tissue—cornea or bone marrow etc.—for
which there is a strong demand be avoided?
Genetics now raise new questions about,
notably, the use of xenotransplantation
(the transplantation of genetically engi-
neered animal organs into a human body)
and genetic engineering in stockbreeding
as a potential source of organs which are
compatible with the human body.
The donations of human organs and
tissues bring us back to the question al-
ready raised about patents. Even if the
current imbalance between organ supply
and demand were to be corrected, this
success would come at a cost—especially
heavy for the developing countries—and
there is no reason to believe that some sort
of equity will be found among those in
need of organs and tissues. Here we face
the more general, ethical problem of soli-
darity. If the human genome is the heritage
of humanity, should not the benefits of
research—mainly conducted in the indus-
trialized countries, often using material
from other countries—be better shared?
The life sciences are constantly add-
ing to these already numerous and often
intertwined problems. The applications of
genetic research, those already available
and those yet to come, are having and will
have a strong impact on health, the
economy, social life and also on private
life, on relations between generations
etc.—indeed they are now real challenges
that can no longer just be ignored. I
(See next issue for the second part of this article.)
(Most Rev. Leonardo Z. Leagaspi,OP, Archbishop of
Caceres, used to be the Chairman of the CBCP
Office on Bioethics. This article is lifted with permission
from his book Light to All)
Volume 40 • Number 4 7
 A R
SOWING SEEDS OF HOPE
THROUGH MORAL VALUES
By Angel N. Lagdemeo, DD
T
he Catholic Bishops of the Philip
pines have been issuing pastoral
letters to provide a moral compass
for the decisions being made or proposed
for the common good of our people. We
can not stop doing what it is our duty to do:
to remind our people and those who pur-
port to lead them that core values drawn
from natural law and the eternal law should
serve as the moral foundations upon which
we further build our nation.
Foundations securely are anchored
on morals, and therefore on ethics, social
responsibility and good governance make
the institutions in our country strong; and
such strong institutions can then work
together to enhance the personal dignity
of every individual as well as to promote
the common good of our country. This
happens, however, only if the agents of
change and the transmitters of values in
our society are empowered and invested
with a deep sense of responsible citizen-
8 IMPACT • April 2006
T I C L
© Denz Dayao / IMPACT
ship. The family, the school, the business
enterprise, and governance units at all
levels should be at the forefront of our
attention: through them we should ensure
that all the programs we formulate, the
projects we undertake, the targets we set,
as one national community, are pervaded
with the proper values that lead to the
genuine development of our people.
Considering the social, economic,
political and cultural imbalances and cri-
ses we are in, our vision of renewing Phil-
ippine public life is almost like a utopian
dream. Both EDSA People Power I and II—
successful and non-violent revolutions—
stand in support of this dream. But we
want this dream to become a growing
passion and an obsession for every Fili-
pino. To achieve this, we need to have at
least a critical mass of nationalists who are
willing to jump on to the beginning of a
new political wave, to move into a new
cycle of development, to operate with a
E S
social consciousness and conscience not
for their individual or group safety and
security, but for the good of the greatest
number. We need servant-prophets of a
new social order.
The scientist, Albert Einstein, offered
a formula for solving the problems and
crises that institutions, governments and
churches are facing when he said: “The
significant problem we face today cannot
be solved at the same level of thinking we
were at when we created them.” We will
not solve our problem by insisting on
doing the things that have produced the
problem. Jesus Christ began his public
ministry with a similar message “The time
fulfillment has come…Repent (i.e. change
your mind and behavior), and believe in
the Gospel” (Mk. 1/15). The great Apostle
Paul gives his rejoinder: “Be renewed in
the spirit of your minds, and clothe your-
selves with the new self, created accord-
ing to the kindness of God in true righ-
teousness and holiness” (Eph. 4/23).
The National Roadmap that has been
unveiled fortunately captures these core
ideas and invites all sectors of our society
to taken them into so serious and account
as to actually try to observe them. It estab-
lishes a fundamental and essential link
between core values and strategic pro-
grams. It calls for full consistency between
our core values and the measures we take,
the targets we set, and the initiatives we
undertake. Moreover, it asks all the drivers
of change—the family, the school, the
business enterprise, the governance units,
and I might add all sectors of our society—
to begin posing this question: what can we
do for the common good of our national
community? And in trying to answer this
question, it strongly suggests that what-
ever answer we give must be fully consis-
tent with the vision and mission we should
have for our country and the core values
that should underlie all aspects of our
national life.
The most seriously affected by the
crisis of moral values in the country are the
poor, the marginalized, oftentimes ex-
ploited and treated like commodities. Graft
and corruption have been flagrant and
endemic, breeding poverty. Widespread
poverty in turn breeds graft and corrup-
tion. The crisis of leadership at the highest
level is like the tip of an “iceberg.” There
is a concatenation of corruption that goes
down to the barangay level, up and down
and up, infecting the whole body politic
like a contagious cancer. It deprives the
Sowing Seeds / p. 22
 A R T I C L E S

O BUILDING PEACE
n this fifth anniversary of
Zamboanga Sibugay, we have
many blessings to be thankful for—
a completed highway, more farm-to-mar-
ket bridges, higher prices for rubber, and,
despite some outbreaks of violence, rela-
tive calm and quiet throughout the prov-
THROUGH A
SPIRITUALITY OF
ince.
Yet, we cannot close our eyes to the
shadows around us—the continuing pov-
erty of many rural households, the lack of
basic services, and the growing threat to
our environment with the coming in of
mining operations, whether large or small-
PUBLIC SERVICE
scale. We should also not forget the killing
of our Provincial Accountant, Mr.
Venancio Ferrer, Jr., more than a year ago. By Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ, DD
This brazen crime remains unsolved up to
this day.
In the latest Philippine Human Devel-
opment Report of 2005, our new province,
which is still included in the mother prov-
ince of Zamboanga del Sur, is listed among
the bottom ten “most inequitable prov-
inces” (p. 111). Comparing measures for
inequality from the years 2000 to 2003,
Zamboanga del Sur (and Sibugay) ranks
as the second least improved province,
being outdone only by Lanao del Sur (p.
112). In sum, our province together with
its mother province manifests extremes of
wealth and poverty that accounts for the
marked degree of inequality among resi-
dents.
It is in this light that we can soberly
count our blessings along with the many
more challenges that confront us—either
as private citizens, or as public officials
and civil servants for those of you who
have been vested with some form of public
authority.
The recent pastoral statement of the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Phil-
ippines calls for “renewing our public life
through moral values.” It points out that
the root of our crisis is the erosion of moral
values. It invites public servants and citi-
zens’ groups alike to promote “a spiritual-
ity of public service, integrity and stew- Pope Benedict XVI dwelt on “the truth of God—whom we acknowledge as Creator,
ardship.” “These forms of social spiritual- peace.” We invite all men and women of Father, or Transcendent Being. Together
ity,” the statement continues, “should good will to reflect with us over the salient we can help bring about the order in soci-
counteract the persistent evils of gam- points in this papal message: ety that God has willed for all of us.
bling, drug-pushing, usury, destruction 1) Peace cannot be equated simply 2) The truth about God enables us
of our environment, and corruption in with the absence of armed conflict, but to know “the truth about man.” Despite
public office.” should be viewed as “the fruit of an order our differences in creed, culture, and socio-
The CBCP statement is addressed not which has been planted in human society economic class, we all share the same
only to one person or political party, but to by its divine Founder.” It is this fundamen- origin and destiny from God as well as the
all of us. How then do we develop a spiri- tal truth about God and the “tranquility of same nature as human beings. It is this
tuality of public service—that builds last- order” that he has established that drives realization of our common humanity that
ing peace and development in our land? us to express our own yearnings and hopes enables us to regard everyone as our
II. In his Message for the World Day for peace in our land. brother and sister.
of Peace at the beginning of this year 2006, We reach out to all believers in one Building Peace / p. 22

Volume 40 • Number 4 9
 M E
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
L
ent is a privileged time of interior
pilgrimage towards Him Who is the
fount of mercy. It is a pilgrimage in
which He Himself accompanies us through
the desert of our poverty, sustaining us on
our way towards the intense joy of Easter.
Even in the “valley of darkness” of which
the Psalmist speaks (Ps 23:4), while the
tempter prompts us to despair or to place
a vain hope in the work of our own hands,
God is there to guard us and sustain us.
Yes, even today the Lord hears the cry of
the multitudes longing for joy, peace, and
love. As in every age, they feel aban-
doned. Yet, even in the desolation of
misery, loneliness, violence and hunger
that indiscriminately afflict children, adults,
and the elderly, God does not allow dark-
ness to prevail. In fact, in the words of my
beloved Predecessor, Pope John Paul II,
there is a “divine limit imposed upon evil”,
namely, mercy (Memory and Identity, pp.
19ff.). It is with these thoughts in mind that
I have chosen as my theme for this Mes-
sage the Gospel text: “Jesus, at the sight of
the crowds, was moved with pity” (Mt
9:36).
In this light, I would like to pause and
reflect upon an issue much debated today:
the question of development. Even now,
the compassionate “gaze” of Christ con-
tinues to fall upon individuals and peoples.
He watches them, knowing that the divine
10 IMPACT • April 2006
S S A G
“plan” includes their call to salvation.
Jesus knows the perils that put this plan at
risk, and He is moved with pity for the
crowds. He chooses to defend them from
the wolves even at the cost of His own life.
The gaze of Jesus embraces individuals
and multitudes, and he brings them all
before the Father, offering Himself as a
sacrifice of expiation.
Enlightened by this Paschal truth, the
Church knows that if we are to promote
development in its fullness, our own “gaze”
upon mankind has to be measured against
that of Christ. In fact, it is quite impossible
to separate the response to people’s ma-
terial and social needs from the fulfillment
of the profound desires of their hearts.
This has to be emphasized all the more in
today’s rapidly changing world, in which
our responsibility towards the poor
emerges with ever greater clarity and ur-
gency. My venerable Predecessor, Pope
Paul VI, accurately described the scandal
of underdevelopment as an outrage against
humanity. In this sense, in the Encyclical
Populorum Progressio, he denounced
“the lack of material necessities for those
who are without the minimum essential for
life, the moral deficiencies of those who are
mutilated by selfishness” and “oppres-
sive social structures, whether due to the
abuses of ownership or to the abuses of
power, to the exploitation of workers or to
unjust transactions” (ibid., 21). As the
E
antidote to such evil, Paul VI
suggested not only “in-
creased esteem for the dig-
nity of others, the turning to-
wards the spirit of poverty,
cooperation for the common
good, the will and desire for
peace”, but also “the
acknowledgement by man of
supreme values, and of God,
their source and their finality”
(ibid.). In this vein, the Pope
went on to propose that, fi-
nally and above all, there is
“faith, a gift of God accepted
by the good will of man, and
unity in the charity of Christ”
(ibid.). Thus, the “gaze” of
Christ upon the crowd impels
us to affirm the true content of
this “complete humanism”
that, according to Paul VI,
consists in the “fully-rounded
development of the whole man
and of all men” (ibid., 42). For
this reason, the primary con-
tribution that the Church of-
fers to the development of
© Images/CORBIS
mankind and peoples does not consist
merely in material means or technical solu-
tions. Rather, it involves the proclamation
of the truth of Christ, Who educates con-
sciences and teaches the authentic dig-
nity of the person and of work; it means the
promotion of a culture that truly responds
to all the questions of humanity.
In the face of the terrible challenge of
poverty afflicting so much of the world’s
population, indifference and self-centered
isolation stand in stark contrast to the
“gaze” of Christ. Fasting and almsgiving,
which, together with prayer, the Church
proposes in a special way during the Lenten
Season, are suitable means for us to be-
come conformed to this “gaze”. The ex-
amples of the saints and the long history
of the Church’s missionary activity pro-
vide invaluable indications of the most
effective ways to support development.
Even in this era of global interdependence,
it is clear that no economic, social, or
political project can replace that gift of self
to another through which charity is ex-
pressed. Those who act according to the
logic of the Gospel live the faith as friend-
ship with God Incarnate and, like Him, bear
the burden of the material and spiritual
needs of their neighbors. They see it as an
inexhaustible mystery, worthy of infinite
care and attention. They know that he who
does not give God gives too little; as
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta frequently ob-
served, the worst poverty is not to know
Christ. Therefore, we must help others to

MESSAGE OF HIS
find God in the merciful face of Christ.
Without this perspective, civilization lacks
a solid foundation.
Thanks to men and women obedient

HOLINESS
to the Holy Spirit, many forms of charitable
work intended to promote development
have arisen in the Church: hospitals, uni-

BENEDICT XVI FOR

versities, professional formation schools,
and small businesses. Such initiatives
demonstrate the genuine humanitarian
concern of those moved by the Gospel

LENT 2006
message, far in advance of other forms of
social welfare. These charitable activities
point out the way to achieve a globaliza-
tion that is focused upon the true good of
mankind and, hence, the path towards
authentic peace. Moved like Jesus with
compassion for the crowds, the Church “Jesus, at the sight of the crowds, was moved with pity” (Mt 9:36)
today considers it her duty to ask political
leaders and those with economic and fi-
nancial power to promote development
based on respect for the dignity of every
man and woman. An important litmus test
for the success of their efforts is religious
liberty, understood not simply as the free-
dom to proclaim and celebrate Christ, but
also the opportunity to contribute to the
building of a world enlivened by charity.
These efforts have to include a recogni-
tion of the central role of authentic reli-
gious values in responding to man’s deep-
est concerns, and in supplying the ethical
motivation for his personal and social re-
sponsibilities. These are the criteria by
which Christians should assess the politi-
cal programmes of their leaders.
We cannot ignore the fact that many
mistakes have been made in the course of
history by those who claimed to be dis-
ciples of Jesus. Very often, when having
to address grave problems, they have
thought that they should first improve this
world and only afterwards turn their minds
to the next. The temptation was to believe
that, in the face of urgent needs, the first
imperative was to change external struc-
tures. The consequence, for some, was © Images/CORBIS

that Christianity became a kind of moral-
ism, ‘believing’ was replaced with ‘doing’.
Rightly, therefore, my Predecessor, Pope
John Paul II, of blessed memory, observed:
“The temptation today is to reduce Chris-
tianity to merely human wisdom, a pseudo-
science of well-being. In our heavily secu-
larized world, a ‘gradual secularization of
salvation’ has taken place, so that people
strive for the good of man, but man who is
truncated…We know, however, that Jesus
came to bring integral salvation”
(Redemptoris Missio, 11).
It is this integral salvation that Lent
puts before us, pointing towards the vic-
tory of Christ over every evil that op-
presses us. In turning to the Divine Mas-
ter, in being converted to Him, in experi-
encing His mercy through the Sacrament
of Reconciliation, we will discover a “gaze”
that searches us profoundly and gives
new life to the crowds and to each one of
us. It restores trust to those who do not
succumb to skepticism, opening up before
them the perspective of eternal beatitude.
Throughout history, even when hate seems
to prevail, the luminous testimony of His
love is never lacking. To Mary, “the living
fount of hope” (Dante Alighieri, Paradiso,
XXXIII, 12), we entrust our Lenten jour-
ney, so that she may lead us to her Son. I
commend to her in particular the multi-
tudes who suffer poverty and cry out for
help, support, and understanding. With
these sentiments, I cordially impart to all of
you a special Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 29 September, 2005.
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

Volume 40 • Number 4 11
 A l a y K a p w a 2 0 0 6

responsible for his neighbors. component concepts. It is more than just

Victor "Tata Vic" Pehipol, the longest serving Diocesan Alay Kapwa
coordinator.
or Victor Pehipol, fondly called Tata for one another.”
Evangelization is the primary
mission of the Church. It en-
compasses the three-fold
apostolate of formation, wor-
ship and social service. To-
tal human development
means the authentic growth
of the person whether con-
sidered in himself or in rela-
tion to other people, to the
structures of society, to the
world of things and to God.
This aims to achieve for ev-
eryone the quality of life that
befits man’s dignity as chil-
dren of God, co-responsible
a literal giving or “doling out”, for mere
social services without formation or evan-
gelization is plain philanthropy and es-
chews the real meaning of Christian char-
ity. It is more than just social action be-
cause, if devoid of formation and evange-
lization, it is but plain activism. Alay
Kapwa is not exclusively evangelization
or formation, lest it may be accused of “not
practicing what it preaches.” Also, Alay
Kapwa is not ‘worship’ alone, for worship
or spirituality without formation or educa-
tion may easily slide into superstition; and
worship without social services or “praxis”
is out-of-this-world spirituality that is di-
vorced from life. Lastly, Alay Kapwa is not
just giving oneself for one’s sake, for tak-

F Vic, of the Diocese of Malolos Evidently, this explanatory note can-

(Bulacan), his work as an Alay Kapwa not fail to demonstrate the “integrative” or
(AK) implementer has become, as it were, “encompassing” character of Alay Kapwa.
ing away Christ from the act of giving is
obviously not Christian charity.
This Lenten season of 2006, Alay
a way of life. At 66, Tata Vic has, by far, As the Church’s Lenten evangelization- Kapwa has adopted the theme, “Integrity:
already spent some 30 years or so of his life action program for the impoverished and A challenge to The Church and to the
supervising Alay Kapwa’s component marginalized, it comprehensively embraces Filipino People.” The choice of the theme
projects and activities for the Malolos the core apostolate aspects of ‘formation’, resonates with the current socio-political
Diocese, earning him the distinction as the ‘worship’, and ‘social services’. These turmoil hovering the country. It calls for a
longest serving Alay Kapwa implementer three-fold apostolate aspects, Alay Kapwa radical personal and social renewal, and
in the country. And from all indications, National Program Coordinator Carlito challenges the Church and the Filipino
the seemingly inexhaustible enthusiasm Noneil Santos explains, must co-exist in people to a life of integrity amid the wrench-
and commitment that he exudes can only sine qua non to each other, lest the inte- ing social, economic and political malaise.
suggest that quitting his job is yet far off grative balance between evangelization The 2006 Alay Kapwa Reflection Book
from his mind. “Really, Alay Kapwa af- and action is rendered skewed. In other specifies some of these “complex events
fected not only my life but also that of my words, hence, Alay Kapwa is best under- that mark our time” that require moral and
family. And, certainly, I have no regrets at stood or realized, not by exclusive repre- pastoral discernment: “Dishonesty and
all,” Tata Vic proudly enthused. sentation of a single part, but by the “sum moral deterioration is more evident in the
No denying, Tata Vic’s story is just of its parts.” sphere of politics…In an economic sys-
one among the countless others whose In clearer terms, Santos argues, Alay tem wherein the sense of corruption pre-
lives have been touched or transformed Kapwa is more than just any of its parts or vails, corruption is truly a temptation, which
(“affected,” in Tata Vic’s parlance) by Alay © Denz Dayao / IMPACT
Kapwa, the Catholic Church’s Lenten Evan-
gelization-Action Program in the Philip-
pines.
The Alay Kapwa program, which liter-
ally means offering (alay) for one’s neigh-
bor (kapwa), was created on January 31,
1975 by the Catholic bishops and is imple-
mented by the National Secretariat for
Social Action (NASSA) of the Catholic
Bishops Conference of the Philippines. It
was originally a Lenten fund campaign
aimed at building up a self-reliant disaster
response mechanism and a logistical re-
source for human development programs.
Now on its 31st year, Alay Kapwa has
veritably lived up to its mission of “shar-
ing for evangelization towards human de-
velopment.” The Alay Kapwa Resource
Book explains this principle: “sharing is
the offering of what one has (his time,
talent and/or treasure) or what one is out
of his earnest concern to show his being

12 IMPACT • April 2006

 A R T I C L E S

Alay Kapwa 2006

Making Integrity
a Challenge to
the Church and
the Filipino
People

By Malou Mahilum

aggravated the situation of the people and the nation.

No wonder corrupt practices are now in alarming fre-
quency and proportion, permeating all levels of society,
including private and public offices, schools, Churches
and homes.”
The current, and pervading, “dishonesty and moral
deterioration” cannot however be attributed solely to
structural institutions and politicians but on all Filipi-
nos. The 2006 Alay Kapwa Reflection Book further
exhorts, “Blame, however, should not be solely placed
on the politicians but on all Filipinos, including the
Church, for tolerating dishonest stewardship. We, too,
are responsible. We complain about corruption and
dishonesty, yet we do nothing about it. Apathy trans-
lates to tolerance. Our fears hinder us from confronting
these social evils. We were given the power to choose
our leaders but we did not exercise it wisely and respon-
sibly. Instead we reduced elections into a popularity
contest. Our high tolerance of wrong doings speaks a
lot of us as a people and magnifies our degenerated
moral values…We, as a people, nation and a Church, are
challenged to renew our moral integrity because we,
who wish and pray for social transformation and total
human salvation, can do more than just allow ourselves
to be co-opted by the present realities.”
That, exactly, is Alay Kapwa’s tall order of the day.
Perhaps, in the quiet lull of this Lenten season, this
timely exhortation aptly calls for serious reckoning. I

Volume 40 • Number 4 13
 A R
M
ake no mistake about it. When
the CBCP made a stand against
the Mining Act of 1995 or when
bishops, priests, deacons and concerned
lay faithful rise as one against the threat of
deforestation or against existing and pro-
spective mining and other anti-environ-
ment practices, they simply act from con-
victions deeply rooted in the Christian
faith. Let me go through a few of these
convictions.
1. Integral Development. There is no
development worth the name unless it is
integral. Neither abstract nor banal, inte-
gral development is so called because it
covers not simply the economic dimen-
sion but all the other dimensions of human
life as well, including the interior, i.e., the
cultural, moral and spiritual, in addition to
the material and physiological. It ad-
Why People of Faith (Must)
Oppose Deforestation, Mining
and Other Ecological Abuses
Fr. Euly B. Belizar, SThD
14
14 IMPACT
IMPACT •• April
April 2006
2006
T I C L E S
dresses not simply the individual but also
the community for the “good of one and
the good of all” intersect (Sollicitudo Rei
Socialis, nn. 29, 38). Considering their
destructive effects to health in the long
haul, the eventual depletion of the
country’s natural resources, environmen-
tal hazards such as deforestation and min-
ing effect an impoverishment of the total
human life of the Filipino. That betrays an
unbalanced and, hence, inauthentic de-
velopment.
2. Social Justice and Love. Denying
future generations of Filipinos their for-
ests, mountains, clean air, rivers and seas
both as sources of livelihood and as part
of their identity of heritage is a gross
injustice (Plenary Council of the Philip-
pines II, n. 304). It can also be an indict-
ment of the present generation for being
© Denz Dayao / IMPACT
short-sighted when it gives in to short-
term, if not self-oriented, benefits or such
other political or economic considerations.
Second, love which is the crown of all
virtues, impels us to work for the wise use
and conservation of our natural resources
not so much for ourselves as for our chil-
dren and their children’s children as well.
It is love that sees the future generations
as “our children” to be cherished whose
patrimony is to be assured, not as strang-
ers or aliens whose welfare matters little
(PCP II, 305).
3. Stewardship and the Integrity of
Creation. Christian faith teaches that
human beings are stewards, not licensed
abusers of creation (PCP II, 324: CBCP,
What is Happening to Our Beautiful Land,
Jan. 29, 1988). Though we are sent to
“subdue the earth” (Gen 1:28), we are also
tasked to “cultivate and care” for it (Gen
2:15). Stewards do not own; they manage
someone else’s property. Creation comes
from
God to whom alone it belongs abso-
lutely. Even the right to private property
does not take away our basic identity and
responsibility as stewards. Care for, and
not mindless exploitation of, the earth fol-
lows from faith in God the Creator.
4. Creation’s Purpose: to Manifest
God’s Glory, not its Debasement. Chris-
tian faith goes into a paean of God vis-à-
vis creation because it sees God’s glory as
overflowing into it and thus, to a wonder-
ful extent, manifests the face of
its Creator (Catechism of the
Catholic Church, nn. 293-294).
St. Bonaventure holds that cre-
ation exists to show the glory of
God ( In II Sent., I, 2, 2, 1). Profit-
oriented explorations and ex-
ploitations, as seen in the after-
math of logging (both legal and
illegal) and mining operations
(both large-scale and small-
scale) in the country, destroy
and not enhance God’s self-
revelation in nature. Reacting
to the DENR Secretary’s remark
that the Philippine bishops are
“not against mining per se” but
against “irresponsible mining”,
one bishop of mining-infested
dioceses quipped, “Well, ‘min-
ing per se’ has never existed in
the Philippines but only irre-
sponsible mining. And there is
no guarantee things will
change.” To take a stand con-
Why People / p. 22
 A R T I C L E S

M Who Cares about the

edicines make lucrative business.
This is why multinational phar
maceutical companies and their
local representatives will move heaven
and earth to adhere to their business inter-

Rising Cost of
ests in the Philippines. But while the
pockets of businessmen are comfortably
medicated and undoubtedly healthy, hun-
dreds of poor Filipinos die annually from

Medicine?
common diseases, such as tuberculosis
and diarrhea, due to their failure to afford
the right medicine.
To date, the cost of medicines in the
Philippines remains high and is even
higher by 40% to 70% compared to other
Asian countries. Of the ten countries
surveyed by the Health Action Interna- By Roy Q. Lagarde
tional in 1995—India, Nepal,
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thai-
land, Malaysia, Philippines and Indone-
sia—the Philippines register the second
highest prices of drugs after Indonesia.
The returns are awesome. Philip-
pines pharmaceutical market makes
around P80-billion business annually
which is dominated by branded medi-
cines that accounts for 97 percent of the
market, while generics constitute only 3
percent.
The age-old stereotype propounded
by Multinational drug companies is that
medicines are costly because they need
to recapture their high costs or research
and development (R&D) that went into
their development. They need to recover
the investments they made into devel-
oping these medicines. But are not the
cost of production of medicine the same
with other Asian countries? It goes
beyond normal comprehension why
Pfizer, for instance, exact higher produc-
tion cost for medicine shipped to the
Philippines than to other Asia countries.
Some multinationals apologetically © Images/CORBIS

explain that they price drugs according
to what the local purchasing power is.
But how does one explain without bat-
ting an eyelash why Thailand being
wealthier than the Philippines and, defi-
nitely, with better purchasing power,
offer lower cost of medicines.
At the barber shop, you can hear a
number of reasons why the high cost of
medicine in the Philippines. One is the
alleged graft and corruption in govern-
ment purchases that begets collusion
and price-fixing by pharmaceutical com-
panies with retail outlets. Another is the
lack of political will to properly imple-
ment appropriate laws relative to the
pharmaceutical industry.
Why is India, a poor country, able to
make its drugs cost so affordable if the
same companies produce them? The an-
swer is glaring according to critics: the
Indian government has a political will
and wrestles with the multinationals to
keep its citizens from prohibitive costs.
The government’s action, or inac-
tion, to address this problem, so far, has
remained futile. It has been 18 years now
since the Generics Law was passed—
the first legislative move to provide
greater access to safe and affordable
medicine. This law is supposed to en-
courage generic alternatives to brand-
name medicines, and require pharma-
ceutical companies to manufacture the
generic equivalents of their branded
drugs as a solution to the high cost of
branded products. But, sadly enough,
this did not work as in all other govern-
ment initiatives aimed at alleviating the
suffering of its constituents.
Down the streets, still many con-
sumers do not buy generic drugs be-
cause doctors and pharmaceutical com-
panies continue to recommend branded
medicine. Reportedly, huge budget are
also set aside by drug companies—which
is no longer surprising—for luring phy-
sicians into prescribing branded drugs,
thus making the Generic Drugs Act in-
utile.
Senator Mar Roxas filed Senate Bill
No. 2139 that intends to amend the Intel-
lectual Property Code of the Philippines
Who cares / p. 21

Volume 40 • Number 4 15
I
n one precisely stunning instant, the
maverick Ligaya Acosta, former top-
ranking official of the Department of
Health’s Eastern Visayas Regional Office,
can never be more unregretful when she
bolted and made a 360-degree turn from
her 28-year career with the government’s
principal health agency early last year.
After reportedly claiming to have stumbled
on a “Pandora’s box” or hidden agenda
about the government’s family planning
program erstwhile as DOH’s Program man-
ager for Natural Family Planning, Acosta
huddled to expose what she claimed as a
16 IMPACT • April 2006
“deadly deception” about the DOH’s
“Ligtas Buntis” Program, purportedly the
government’s maternal and child health
care campaign which was launched some-
time in January of last year. “I was very
sad. We are supposed to be a Department
of Health, we should be more concerned of
the health and welfare of our people…but
they were only concerned of the targets.
In fact, as an incentive to ensure that
targets were met, health workers were to be
paid an honorarium of P200.00 per day
from the one hundred million peso budget
of the program, which I learned later, was
increased to two hundred million. Indeed
everything about the program is plain
deception—the worst corruption ever, as
it is not only corrupting money, but also
corrupting human lives,” Acosta told Im-
pact.
“When the very deplorable ‘Ligtas
Buntis’ was launched in 2005, I decided I
could no longer keep quiet. Thus, on
February 14, 2005, I decided to give up my
job and risk my life and my family to
expose the deadly deception,” Acosta
added.
Ostensibly, as the government’s prin-

© Denz Dayao / IMPACT
cipal health agency, the Department of
Health flaunts, in broad terms, its touted
mission of “providing equitable, sustain-
able and quality (underscoring mine) health
for all Filipinos, especially the poor.”
But Acosta can only be more skepti-
cal if indeed the DOH has lived up to
deliver its flaunted mission. “How can we
ever say ‘quality, equitable, and sustain-
able health’ when, for example, we mas-
sively promote contraceptives and steril-
ization services, because voluminous
documents prove that it ‘kills’ and cause
a lot of horrible side effects.”
COVER
The Ailing
Public Health
By Bob Acebedo
State of Public Ill-health
No. Not only contraceptives and
population control program have rendered
skew and inutile the government’s deliv-
ery of supposedly “equitable, sustain-
able, and quality” health services, particu-
larly for the impoverished—but, as health
experts and informed observers contend,
the glaring indicators of the current ailing
state of the country’s health situation
have become even more appalling as be-
fore. More so, with the pervading issues
of geographical inequity (where people
who live in rural and isolated communities
receive less and lower, if substandard,
quality health services) and socio-eco-
nomic inequity (where the poor do not
receive health services due to inaccessi-
bility and unaffordability) prevailing
throughout the country, observers be-
lieve that the touted mission of delivering
“equitable, sustainable, and quality” front-
line health services to Filipinos is con-
spicuously yet far from real.
Already, the perennially wrenching
economic slump has, according to the
2003 National Demographic Survey,
pushed more Filipino households to opt or
visit public health facilities than private
hospitals and clinics. Barangay health
stations, which are supervised by the Rural
Health Units (RHUs) and urban health
centers, have registered the most clients,
followed by the RHUs and urban health
centers themselves. Similarly, a survey
done by the social Weather Stations for
the World Bank in 2001 also shows the
country’s poorest 30 percent, or one-third
of the national population, seeking help
mostly from the local health units for their
aches and pains.
This national state of ill-health is
worsened even more by the equally dis-
STORY
turbing trend of mass migration of doctors
and nurses from both the public and pri-
vate health sectors to inarguably hefty-
paying jobs abroad, thus making rural ar-
eas—which comprise 60% of the popula-
tion—even more vulnerable to human re-
sources deficiencies. The U.P.-Philippine
General Hospital alone, the World Health
Organization-Regional Office for the West-
ern Pacific reports, loses 300 to 500 of their
nurse workforce every year. Midwives
who are in the front-line in providing health
services, the same report revealed, are
seeking jobs as caregivers in other coun-
tries. It is important to note that, according
to the Department of Health’s 2002 Demo-
graphic Report, midwives registered the
highest attendance in infant deliveries in
the country with 39.3%, surpassing other
health workers—doctors, 26.9%; trained
“hilot,” 26.0%; untrained “hilot,” 3.4%;
and nurses, 1.2%.
Sadly enough, then, it is not far-
fetched to infer that the ever growing num-
ber of impoverished Filipinos who are
helplessly impelled to seek help from local
government-funded health care centers
are yet likely to find nothing more—nei-
ther the doctor nor the medicine or cure—
as even local health centers, long devolved
since 1993 to the local government units
(LGUs), are equally infested with the ailing
problems of corruption and local politics,
let alone the minuscule budget allotted to
health, resulting to a teeming host of prof-
ligate practices as, among others, bribery
or kickbacks and overpricing in the pur-
chase of medicines, short and ghost deliv-
eries (of medicines) or purchase of sub-
standard drugs, rigged biddings, absence
of procedural procurement plan, and what-
not.
Then and even worse as now, the
national state of ill-health, particularly in
Volume 40 • Number 4 17

the public health arena, has even more
accommodated dismal consequences—
prevalence of supposedly preventable
diseases as main causes of morbidity or
mortality, high occurrence of locally en-
demic diseases, high infant mortality rate
as compared with those of neighboring
countries, nutritional problems and para-
sitism being common among children, and
others more.
The Manila-based Regional Office for
the Western Pacific of the World Health
Organization reports some facts about the
current health situation in the country: “In
rural areas, people’s health is affected by
difficult access to health services and by
the presence of locally endemic diseases
like malaria, filariasis and schistosomiasis.
The four leading causes of morbidity are
communicable diseases, the fifth being
hypertension. The prevalence of commu-
nicable diseases is still very high, while
that of noncommunicable diseases is in-
creasing and will continue to do
so…Nutritional problems and parasitism
are common among children…From 2000
to 2004, outbreaks of malaria, dengue,
measles, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and
diarrhea were investigated.”
The Department of Health’s 2002
Demographic Report revealed the top ten
causes of morbidity in the country, namely:
(1) Pneumonia, (2) Diarrhea, (3) Bronchitis,
(4) Influenza, (5) Hypertension, (6) Tuber-
© Denz Dayao / IMPACT
18 IMPACT • April 2006
T h e A
culosis/Respiratory, (7) Diseases of the
Heart, (8) Malaria, (9) Chicken Pox, and (10)
Measles.
Perceptibly, it may be gleaned that
most of the ten causes of morbidity are
supposedly ‘preventable’ as deigned ac-
cording to the capability and sophistica-
tion of modern medical science. But appar-
ently, with the same diseases yet plaguing
high in the country, the Philippines likely
fails so to possess neither the capability
nor the sophistication to prevent these
diseases.
Inadequate health care financing is
one perennial concern. Health experts and
informed observers are quick to blame the
meager budget allocated to the health sec-
tor as the primary reason for the country’s
inability to combat the supposedly pre-
ventable top-killer diseases. The World
Health Organization (WHO) cites “poor
health care financing” as the number one
(1) factor contributing to the Philippines’
limited or inadequate health care system.
Other factors cited by WHO include: (2)
inappropriate health service delivery sys-
tem; (3) brain drain of health profession-
als; (4) excessively high price of medi-
cines; (5) inadequate enforcement of regu-
latory mechanisms; and (6) insufficient
effort expended on prevention and control
of new diseases.
Statistics from the WHO’s Health
Databank show that the country’s per
i l i n g P
capita health expenditure decreased from
Php 1,484 (US$ 26.69) in 2001 to Php 1,435
(US$ 25.80) in 2002. As of 2001, the
government’s allocation for health only
contributed a minuscule 0.41% of the total
government expenditure. This is undeni-
able far below than Thailand (11.6 per-
cent), Malaysia (6.5 percent), Vietnam (6.1
percent), Indonesia (3.0 percent), Cambo-
dia (16 percent), and even Bangladesh (8.7
percent), which is believed to be Asia’s
most economically distressed.
Moreover, WHO statistics revealed,
while 77% of health expenditure was used
on personal health care in 2002, only a
meager 11% was used for public health;
and in 2002, only 33% of the Department of
Health’s budget was allocated to public
health, while 57% went to hospital ser-
vices.
Currently, the Philippine Congress has
earmarked P10.6 billion for the Department
of Health for year 2006. This is much lower
than those of other government agencies
or departments like—the Department of
Education (P119.1 B), Department of Pub-
lic Works and Highways (P62.3 B), Depart-
ment of National Defense (P46.6 B), De-
partment of Interior and Local Govern-
ment (P45.6 B), Department of Agriculture
(P15.7 B), and the Department of Trans-
portation and Communication (P14.3 B).
Clearly, also, the 2006 P10.6 billion budget,
even lower from 2002 (P 11.4 billion), of the
health department constitutes barely 1
percent of the P1.053 trillion 2006 total
national budget and certainly not enough
to cover the health needs of more than 80
million Filipinos, let alone the salaries and
benefits of more than 200,000 public health
workers assigned to the more than 2,000
rural health units (RHUs) and urban health
centers.
Amid the debilitating problems and
challenges that have wracked the health
sector no end, not even the implementa-
tion of DOH’s Health Sector Reform
Agenda (HSRA) of 1999, which sought to
improve the financing and delivery of health
services, as well as the passage of the 1992
Republic Act 7305, dubbed as the Magna
Carta for Public Health Workers, have pro-
vided relief to the ailing plight of public
health in the country.
The implementation of both the Ma-
gna Carta for Public Health Workers (R.A.
7305) and the Health Sector Reform Agenda
(HSRA), Ligaya Acosta says, has equally
been found wanting and, worse, has even
contrived some unseemly consequences.
“The implementation of the Magna Carta
for Public Health Workers has been found
u b l i c H
wanting. Since there were no additional
funds that went with it, not all provisions
could be implemented, or it is not the same
in all sectors, thus causing demoralization.
Some LGUs implemented the financial pro-
visions, while others did not, reportedly
because of lack of funds. Even the Depart-
ment of Health has not been able to imple-
ment the Magna Carta for the same reason.
And, although it is specifically provided in
the Magna Carta that health workers can-
not be transferred without their consent,
this was not followed when DOH had a
reorganization, and many health workers
were displaced.”
Acosta further explained, “The Health
Sector Reform Agenda has both its advan-
tages and disadvantages. While the con-
cept maybe laudable as it is meant to ulti-
mately make the health facilities self-reli-
ant by having it run like a private corpora-
tion, it still has much to be desired. Worse,
the public health insurance (PhilHealth)
which was supposed to go with it has been
politicized, and prominently figured in a
scandal in the last (2004) presidential elec-
tions.”
Wrong Priorities and Donor-
driven
On cursory blush, however, the per-
vading problem plaguing public health in
the Philippines is not only scarce resources
or inadequate health care financing as
misprioritizing health programs and activi-
ties. Health experts and critics decry that
current priorities are skewed to focus more
on health programs, like population con-
trol, that are largely or completely donor-
driven or funded by powerful transnational
agencies, and thus leaving very little re-
sources for strengthening other essential
health activities and programs—includ-
ing, among others, health regulation and
standards setting, health information gath-
ering and surveillance, preventive health
care services, such as immunization.
“While the DOH or the government as a
whole is admittedly trying to do its best to
achieve its objectives, it is focusing on the
wrong priorities, which is dictated by in-
ternational funding agencies, which we
now know for certain have their own ‘hid-
den’ agenda,” Acosta told Impact.
That the government’s health agenda
is influenced, if beholden, to transnational
funding agencies—like the USAID,
UNFPA, WHO, UNICEF—is a known fact,
according to informed sources and critics.
In the case of population control, for in-
stance, Acosta revealed how these for-
e a l t h
eign agencies’ fund flow into some gov-
ernment agencies, and even NGOs or other
local groups. “These international agen-
cies not only fund the Department of Health
but other government and non-govern-
ment organizations as well—the Depart-
ment of Education, among them. Thus,
they also could influence the contents of
the textbooks being used in schools. They
also fund the Philippine Legislators Com-
mittee on Population and Development
(PLCPD), an NGO based in Congress.
These agencies give huge funds for train-
ing programs and services which are
tailored accord-
ing to their ob-
jectives. They
also fund nu-
merous Infor-
mation-Edu-
cation and
Communica-
tion(IEC)ma-
terials to
brainwash
everyone
to believe
what they
are preaching.
These funds are either directly
offered, or the agencies like the DOH make
project proposals and submit them to the
funding agencies.”
Acosta further argues that while the
top ten leading causes of illnesses and
death in the country are deigned prevent-
able if given the funding priority they
deserve, the bulk of funds is placed on
population control. “The program, like
population control, which has the most
funds get the most aggressive promotion
and services, and while the others are
relegated to the background. We have, for
example, flooded for almost 40 years our
rural health units with pills, condoms, and
depo-provera, but we lack medicines for
Pneumonia, Diarrhea, Bronchitis, Influenza,
and Hypertension which represent the top
five leading causes of death in the coun-
try. As health programs and services
should be based on a thorough analysis of
actual health problems and conditions, so
also that public health should focus on the
preventive aspect, especially on the top
ten leading causes of illnesses and death
in the country, which is not being given
the funding priority it deserves.”
Devolution Woes
Since its implementation in 1993, the
country’s health department is still reeling
from the effects of devolution. The Local
Government Code split the health depart-
ment into three. Big hospitals remained
under the control of the health secretary.
Regional hospitals as provincial health
workers went to the provincial govern-
ments while district hospitals and munici-
pal health workers are controlled by may-
ors.
But while the devolution of public
health facilities and services would have
been expected to enhance or strengthen
the capabilities of local governments to
formulate and implement their own health
programs, it has more likely aggravated
the already ailing condition
of public
health in the
country as to
even more
pave for new
forms of corrup-
tion, health poli-
tics, and health
workers’ demor-
alization in the
local government
fronts.
According to
Avigail Olarte and
Yvonne Chua of the
Philippine Center for Investigative Jour-
nalism, in their investigative report “Up to
70% of Local Health Funds Lost to Cor-
ruption” dated May 2-4, 2005, kickbacks
from the purchase of drugs—also known
as standard operating procedures (SOPs),
rebates, internal arrangements and ‘love
gifts’—given to mayors, governors and
other local officials range from 10 to 70
percent of the contract price.
“Decentralization was expected to
reduce corruption, especially in drug pro-
curement. Yet for the most part, such prac-
tices as overpricing, rigged biddings, short
and ghost deliveries, and the purchase of
substandard drugs remain pervasive,”
Olarte and Chua reported.
Devolution, says Juan A. Perez III, a
former DOH official, seems to have re-
sulted only in “democratizing corruption.”
Similarly, Ligaya Acosta shares the
same view. “The devolution of public
health services has generally worsened
the health condition in the country. While
it could have been an excellent opportu-
nity for the local government executives to
improve health, as they see the actual
conditions in their locality, this has been
found wanting due to different priorities
by LGUs, local officials and politicians
who are rather bent on using local funds to
Volume 40 • Number 4 19
 C O V E R
© Denz Dayao / IMPACT
construct roads, waiting sheds and bas-
ketball courts than on health, and also due
to the entry of politics into the picture.”
Acosta even ventures to recount an
instance where medicines are purchased
not as needed by the local health unit but
according to the amount of “SOP” or kick-
back given by the supplier. “I am not
saying all local government units are cor-
rupt, but there are those who purchase
medicines not according to the needs of
the locality based on data, but based on
how much ‘SOP’ is given by the drug
company. Thus, a lot of drugs just expire
because they are not really the ones needed
by patients. I recall one instance when the
Municipal Health Officer of one locality
came to us at the Regional Health Office for
help, because she was being forced to sign
documents for the purchase of drugs,
which she knew deep in her heart were not
needed in her locality.”
Symptoms of Social, Moral Ills
Inarguably hence, on the whole, the
current national state of ill-health lamen-
tably unveil or bemoan more problems, if
“illnesses,” than one that continue to
plague the plight of public health in the
Philippines: inaccessibility and
unaffordability of quality, equitable and
sustainable health care services due to
geographical and socio-economic ineq-
20 IMPACT • April 2006
S T O R Y
uities; burgeoning demand for public
health services which have remained in-
adequate; brain drain of health profes-
sionals; unabated prevalence of the same
top leading causes of morbidity which are
otherwise deemed preventable; poor
health care financing; inappropriate
health care delivery system, where there
is excessive reliance on use of high-end
hospital services rather than primary care,
including an ineffective mechanism for
providing public health programs; exces-
sively high price of medicines; inadequate
enforcement of regulatory mechanisms;
insufficient effort expended on preven-
tion and control of new diseases; demor-
alization among public health workers;
misplaced of wrong prioritizing of health
programs and services that favor popula-
tion control and other donor-driven pro-
grams than other essential health ser-
vices; and the health department’s devo-
lutions woes and ills as health politics,
corruption skewed LGU’s priorities, short
and ghost deliveries of medicines, rigged
biddings, purchase of substandard drugs,
kickbacks and overpricing of medicines,
etc. etc.
As it were, this litany of public health’s
debilitating ills and woes would have since
long rendered the health sector, if not the
entire country itself, seriously bed-ridden
and easily slip down to a comatose state,
if not outrightly pass out to its demise.
But, curiously so—and on the face of
it—may it be reckoned that perhaps these
crippling ills and problems hounding pub-
lic health are, far from being endemic to the
country’s health sector, veritable symp-
toms of bigger or greater social ills that
abound in Philippine society?
Likely so, observers believe, as such
indicators of an ailing public health condi-
tion cannot eschew its social underpin-
nings from the wider human society, both
locally and internationally. For instance,
the glaring disparity in terms of accessibil-
ity between public and private health sys-
tems, where a shrinking number of people
can afford high-end personal health care
services as compared to the burgeoning
number of impoverished populace opting
for public health care facilities and ser-
vices, is clearly symptomatic of the bigger
socio-economic inequities—due to,
among others, social injustice—in a coun-
try already stuck in a wrenching economic
muck. Or, the health department’s devo-
lution woes of corruption and patronage
politics that have inflicted health care in
many local governments may just be in-
dicative of a bigger culture of waste, cor-
ruption and patronage that immanently
pervade both in low and high places of
Philippine society. Or still, the battering
incursion of transnational funding agen-
cies dictating the country’s health pro-
grams and agenda is but cadged from
transnational forces’ and nations’ profli-
gate whims or greed for global hegemonic
control or dominion.
In sum, wherefore, the many debilitat-
ing ills plaguing the public health system,
reflecting as it were the greater societal ills,
may just as well be symptomatic of the
country’s ailing moral health. And, verily,
that requires saying, over and over again.
Meanwhile, the maverick Ligaya
Acosta proudly claims she has never even
attempted any bit to rue about her leaving
the Department of Health after 28 years. “I
should have done it earlier and save more
souls. I cry everyday of my life now, not
because I worry of my family’s provisions,
but in amazement of what the Lord has
done and is doing in my life. When I gave
up my job at DOH, I thought I would be
missing my constant travels, but God gave
me more by expanding my territory. My
work now may not be as financially re-
warding, but the joy and peace that I and
my family feel can never be quantified.
Besides, I now know my permanent ad-
dress—HEAVEN, and thus I should con-
centrate my efforts towards reaching that
final destination.” I
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Abp. Oscar V. Cruz, JCD, DD
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easing rules on state-sponsored use of licensed drugs from the Clerical State
during emergencies, and giving more legal protection 12. Provincial Council, Diocesan
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The idea of profiting unduly from the misery of 13. CBCP Guidelines on Sexual
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Filipino businessmen. Access to medicines has always Published by the
been under the mercy of market economics dominated
by foreign interest, never in the interest of the Filipino.” Theological
He said the government should move towards de-
veloping a drug industry that is self reliant and not Centrum
dependent on the vagaries of the control of transnational
oligopolies.
By all looks of it, the soaring cost of medicine in the
Philippines is indeed alarming. It borders on the unjust
and the immoral. But more alarming is the fact that the
Philippine government is not a bit alarmed at this—if
only probably because it is more preoccupied cleansing
the streets of Manila with political rallies and covering
up the stink brought about by endemic corruption, not
to mention the payoffs that covers the higher cost of
silence. I

Volume 40 • Number 4 21
 I M P A C T M A G A Z I N E

Building Peace / from p. 9

Every human person is endowed
with intelligence and free will, and cre-
ated in the image of God. From this basic
human dignity flow our rights and corre-
sponding duties to enable us to attain
our natural and supernatural ends. These
human rights and duties are therefore
universal, inviolable and inalienable.
3) How then do we build peace in
our land? Pope Benedict XVI recalls the
four pillars of peace outlined by his
predecessor, Pope John XXIII, in his
landmark encyclical, “Peace on Earth”
(Pacem in Terris). These pillars are: truth,
justice, freedom and love—principles
and human values that are rooted in “the
universal moral law written on human
hearts.” This innate voice of conscience
impels us to work for the integral devel-
opment of the person and to promote the
human rights of every person in society.
It impels us also to work for the
common good which is the “the sum of
social conditions that enable persons to
achieve their full human potential.” Pub-
lic officials, in particular, are expected to
work for the common good, not their
private good. Indeed, the common good
is the reason that political authority ex-
ists in the first place (Compendium of
the Social Doctrine of the Church, no.
168).
4) As Christians, we proclaim the
“Gospel of Peace.” We attest that “Jesus
is the truth which gives us peace.” Jesus
was averse to every form of falsehood; he
was completely transparent in his deal-
ings with others; and he opened the paths
for forgiveness and reconciliation.
Through his life of compassion and caring
for the poor and the despised, we too are
asked to serve everyone, but especially
the least of our brethren.
5) Peace is ultimately a gift of God.
Yet it is also a task and a responsibility for
all of us. “When we hear the Gospel,” Pope
Benedict reminds us, “we learn to build
peace on the truth of a daily life inspired by
the commandment of love.” Through the
example of the Holy Family in Nazareth
may we begin to build this peace first in our
homes and communities and in our prov-
ince. And may it be a peace that reaches
out to all persons and to all warring groups
in our land.
III. As we strive then to live out a
spirituality of public service, we can make
Solomon’s prayer for Wisdom our own
(Wisdom 9:1-6, 9-11):
God of my fathers, Lord of mercy,
you who have made all things by
your word and in your wisdom have
established man to rule the creatures
produced by you, to govern the world
in holiness and justice, and to ren-
der judgment in integrity of heart:
Give me Wisdom, the attendant
at your throne, and reject me not
from among your children; for I
am your servant, the son of your
handmaid, a man weak and short-
lived and lacking in comprehen-
sion of judgment and of laws.
Indeed, though one be perfect
among the sons of men, if Wisdom,
who comes from you, be not with
him, he shall be held in no es-
teem.
Now with you is Wisdom, who
knows your works and was
present when you made the world;
who understands what is pleas-
ing in your eyes and what is con-
formable with your commands.
Send her forth from your holy
heavens and from your glorious
throne dispatch her that she may
be with me and work with me, that
I may know what is your plea-
sure.
For she knows and understands
all things, and will guide me dis-
creetly in my affairs and safeguard
me by her glory. Amen. I
(This is a Homily delivered by Most Rev. Antonio
J. Ledesma, SJ, DD, at the Opening Program of
5t h Araw ng Zamboanga Sibugay, Capitol Hills, 17
February 2006.)

Sowing Seeds / from p. 8 Why People / from p. 14

poor of permanent shelter, health benefits, liberating education,
dignified employment and above all sufficient food. To cure this
social cancer we need a new breed of leaders in our country.
We must be able to gather a critical mass of like – minded and
good willed nationalists, with a passion and obsession for good
governance and prophetic leadership. This critical mass will be
the training ground of other nationalists who will lead our country
with the values of honesty and justice, truth and integrity,
credibility and accountability, transparency and stewardship.
These are the values—criteria that citizens must use to raise up
a new breed of statespersons.
I fully this approach, I commend it to every sector and
institution of our country. Follow it and make sure core values
permeate all programs, targets and initiatives proposed and
subsequently taken, monitored, and scored! It is the link between
core values and decisions as well as actions we have been taking
that has been missing for too long in our country. For as long as
that link remains missing, we end up with more than a few leaders
who act more like a band of thieves rather than as a band of
responsible statespersons deeply committed to the common
good of all. I
(Most Rev. Angel N. Lagdameo, DD., Archishop of Jaro and President of the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, delivered this Talk at the Institute
for Solidarity in Asia on February 28, 2006)
sistent to the Christian faith means, therefore, to take the side of
those who oppose any and all abuses of the environment be-
cause to deface creation desecrates God’s sanctuary; above all,
it degrades the human exploiters themselves.
5. People Over Investment, Service Over Profit. A useful
set of criteria that could be adopted when mulling over how to
exploit our natural resources is the following: Does it pursue
correct priorities? Do people take precedence over invest-
ment? Does service take precedence over profit? Is the environ-
ment adequately and effectively safeguarded? In the long his-
tory of logging and mining exploitations in the Philippines the
answers to those questions are mainly, and woefully, in the
negative. For the moneyed exploiters and their cohorts, the
Filipinos’ inalienable identity that entitles them priority, that is,
as human beings, images of God (Gen 1:26-27), children of God
(Jn 1:12; 1 Jn 3:1-2), heirs with Christ as well (Rom 8:17), endowed
with an eternal destiny (Gaudium et Spes, n. 22) is easily lost in
the pursuit of profit and economic gain. And, despite the lip-
service both government and capitalists often pay it, such
inalienable identity and God’s glorious self-manifestation in the
Philippine eco-system, in the face of our dead or polluted rivers,
seas, air, non-existent forests and toxic-laden mining sites, might
as well be blowing in the wind. But for all Filipinos these are
everything they cannot afford to lose. I

22 IMPACT • April 2006

 E N T E R T A I N M E N T

Title:FEARLESS
Running Time: 105 min.
Lead Cast: Jet Li, Yuan Heping, Jon T. Benn, CATHOLIC INITIATIVE
Collin Chou, Anthony de Longis, Masato Harada,
Nathan Jones, Shido Nakamuro, Hee Ching Paw
FOR E NLIGHTENED
Director: Ronny Yu
Producers: William Kong
MOVIE APPRECIATION
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Location: China 1900s
Technical Assessment: # # # character of the era and the mood of the
Moral Assessment: @ @ @ scenes. The storyline is not original and the
CINEMA Rating: For viewers age 14 and above script a little clich? but the performances of
the actors are less cardboard-like compared

A
s a young boy, Huo (Jet Li) has long
been fascinated with martial arts but
his father, a skilled fighter himself,
refused to allow his son to follow his foot-
steps. More determined to learn, he steals
his father's manual and teaches himself how
to fight. As an adult, Huo is a loving son and
a doting father to his little girl. He also
masters the techniques of martial arts and is
able to build himself a reputation as one of
the most powerful fighters. But soon his
pride catches up with his fame and leads him
to arrogance and ill temper. When his
young apprentice is beat up by a master
named Chin, he is filled with vengeful spite
and fury. In their duel, he kills Chin without
remorse. When he returns home, he realizes
the cost of his revenge?the lives of the two
people he loves most. He hibernates for a
long time as he reflects on his loss and his
transgressions. When he returns to the
arena, he brings with him a renewed man
with the right reasons for fighting.
The fight scenes are beautifully choreo-
graphed and seamlessly put together like a
graceful dance on stage. Camerawork is
quite impressive with such fluid movements
that heighten every drama and action on the
scenes. Although the choice of music is not
so outstanding, it still achieves the desired
effect of sustaining suspense, heightening
the action and intensifying the drama un-
folding. Production design brings out the
to other Asian martial arts films. Over-all, the
film is entertaining and well-presented.
Violence begets violence. This has been
a perennial issue, most especially with men
because they tend to measure their manhood
in terms of their physical prowess and how
they can defeat their opponents. While fight-
ing skills?martial arts, boxing, wrestling, and
the like?are exciting, impressive and even
noble (to the extent of the discipline and
artistry they entail) it is wrong to equate these
capabilities with selfish power or use them to
dominate. Special skills or talents are given for
a purpose: the betterment of society and the
glory of God. When one starts to use his God-
given talent solely for himself, then problems
arise because one starts to become self-cen-
tered, selfish, proud, arrogant and greedy.
The Oriental martial arts primarily foster disci-
pline, restraint and oneness with self and
nature. When one learns the skills, it is
imperative that he embrace the way of life it
espouses, that is to use that competence not
to promote violence and brutality but re-
straint, discipline and reason?values which
really make a male a man.

ANSWER TO LAST ISSUE: NONVIOLENCE IS A POWERFUL AND JUST WEAPON... WHICH CUTS WITHOUT WOUNDING AND ENNOBLES THE MAN
WHO WIELDS IT. IT IS A SWORD THAT HEALS. - MARTIN LUTHER KING

Volume 40 • Number 4 23
 F R O M
Socio-Political
Realities
There are a hundred and one serious socio-
political realities now obtaining in the coun-
try that beg for attention and resolution.
These ranges from the search for truth on
the legitimacy of the present Malacañang
occupant to the acceptability of gover-
nance that comes therefrom. There are
valid issues about the abuse of public
funds together with the raising of taxes to
fill up their losses. There is also the ques-
tion of more and more people having less
and less to eat, some engaging in criminal-
ity or simply leaving the country.
Then comes the exasperation of many
with the way the present administration
treats people who want to tell the truth they
know, who have grievances they want
heard, who go to the streets in protest only
to be met with violent dispersals. Mean-
while, the same administration thinks and
invents a good number of offensive moves
© Images /CORBIS.COM
I
n its desire to justify the issuance of
Presidential Decree 1017, the Adminis
tration appears to have been looking for
the proverbial Tom, Dick and Harry to brand
them as destabilizers, coup plotters and other
fall guys. And among those said it want to
confer such a distinction upon is my little
24 IMPACT • April 2006
T H E B
© Images /CORBIS.COM
that toy with human dignity and human
rights.
These socio-political realities and oth-
ers too many to mention have not only their
ethical implications in the sphere of phi-
losophy but also their moral relevance in
the realm of theology. This means that there
are two ways of looking at them and evalu-
ating the same. They can be examined by
strength of reason or in the light of faith.
Poor Intelligence
self. That is why I was informed that in the
order of battle of the government, my poor
name is clearly listed.
Honest, I do not know what I have done
to merit the distinction.
Among other things, this would mean
that I am one of those who want the present
administration driven out of Malacañang by
any conceivable means—with the use of
guns, gold, plus guts. I must be then counted
as someone having secret meetings, draw-
ing secret plans and making secret moves to
oust the Malacañang occupant and entou-
rage.
This is something for the movies.
Such is one of the reported findings of
the members of the intelligence community
assigned by the President. The wonder of
wonders is the claim that the basis of this
supposedly intelligent finding is my leader-
ship in the “Silent Majority Prayer Move-
ment”—which is an informal gathering of
people open to all groups and individuals
L O G s
Faith in the supernatural order and
reason in the natural sphere are two guiding
principles that can show what is right or
wrong in such socio-political realities.
Considering what is social as well as what
is political directly or eventually affect hu-
man persons, it is the height of errancy to
even think that socio-political realities are
beyond the reach of ethical principles and/
or moral norms.
To be more concrete, when a politician
lies, cheats and/or steals, this goes against
the mandate of ethics as well as against the
imperative of morals about telling the truth.
Being honest, respecting what belongs to
others, just because one is a politician, this
is definitely not exempted from what ethics
and/or what morals say to all sane, thinking
and accountable people.
One can and may respond to such
serious disturbing socio-political realities
with a call to patience, sacrifice, humility
and other pious supernatural appeals.
Another can and may speak on the same
adverse factors by forwarding the relent-
less quest for truth and justice, the realistic
correction of flagrant misdeeds, the due
punishment of proven culprits. Both ap-
proaches are right.
www.ovc.blogspot.com
desirous of praying for the nation in turmoil
and disarray.
If this is the kind of intelligence the
country has, heaven help us!
Present during the first and so far the
only gathering of the movement were no less
than fourteen bishops, archbishops and a
cardinal. If the intelligence community would
only be fair, it should include all of them in the
roll of honor. Why discriminate them and
treat me with preferential attention?
The most serious agenda as thrice al-
ready enjoined by the CBCP is the search for
truth in the 2004 National Elections. The
more relevant issue to resolve is where have
big public funds gone. The very intriguing
question begging for an answer is why the
gag order made on public officials who know
the truth about suspect dealings of the gov-
ernment.
Everything else appears to be but a
diversionary tactic.
www.ovc.blogspot.com
 E D I T
Damaged Democracy
D
emocracy, as commonly understood, is
government by the people, of the people
and for the people. That is to say: One,
the country is governed by those whom the people
chose to rule them. Two, government belongs to
the people themselves that put it in place. Three,
governance is intended for the good of people.
When a country is governed by individuals not
really chosen or elected by the people, when those
who govern look at people as belonging to them,
and when governance is a disservice to the people,
this is no less than a triple basic contradiction of
democracy.
It is precisely under such circumstances ad-
verse to democratic principles that make people
as immediate victims. Government undermines
their human dignity, violates their human rights,
and curtails their pursuant human freedoms. All
these errant actuations come as a matter of fact
when a government has become for itself—having
its self-preservation wherefore as its primordial
concern and finality.
In the Philippine situation, the nature and final-
O R I A L
ity of CPR (Calibrated Preemptive Response),
plus the substance and form of Executive Order
464, plus the significance and implications of proc-
lamation 1017—it is incongruous if not ridiculous
to even think that these government acts affirm
and promote democracy. All such enactments
and everything else executory, in effect, bring
about nothing less than a damaged democracy.
The threat that Presidential Proclamation 1017
can be readily reinvoked, the undergoing surveil-
lance made against certain suspect civilians, me-
dia practioners, political and military figures, the
building of jails ready to place them—all these are
but concrete manifestations of a damaged democ-
racy.
No wonder that there is fear in the air, resent-
ment in the hearts and dissent in the streets. The
air would be fresh once again, hearts would be
light once more, and the streets would again be
clear and clean when the government will ulti-
mately learn that it is by the people, of the people
and for the people. Otherwise, it remains a
government under siege.
Volume 40 • Number 4 25
 S T
W
e have been informed that a seg
ment of our Philippine Army had
planned a “coup” on the occa-
sion of rallies commemorating EDSA
People Power I, a sign of withdrawing its
support to President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo. As a result thereof the President
has declared “a state of emergency”—
among others prohibiting holding of ral-
lies, and resulting in the arrest of some
civilians. As the governance of President
Arroyo continues to be haunted by ques-
tions of legitimacy and corruption, our life
as a people is unavoidably affected.
In the meantime, as we discern the
“signs of the times” we call upon all in civil
society to exercise prudence, sobriety,
patience and vigilance. Let us meet this
event with calmness. We reject violence
from whichever group that may come ei-
ther in pursuance of its purpose or to take
advantage of the crisis-situation. Remem-
ber “Tayo’y kapwa Pilipino, mahal ng
Dios!”
To all parties concerned, we as Shep-
herds appeal to you to be open to reason
and respect truth and the Rule of Law and
to avoid creating the atmosphere of bellig-
erency—because innocent people are
likely to become involuntary victims of
selfish interest. The situation is a chal-
lenge to magnanimously prove that your
CALL TO
PATRIOTISM
A Pastoral
A Pastoral Exhortation
Exhortation
26 IMPACT
IMPACT • April 2006
A T E M E N T S
patriotism and concern for the poor and
the suffering are of higher value than per-
sonal survival.
May the key players in this military
and political unrest all listen to one an-
other in a dialogue and come to agreement
for the good of our country. May there be
honesty, peace, freedom and justice in the
pursuance of the democratic order. May
the decision-makers and problem-solvers
have the integrity and wisdom to put the
total welfare of the suffering republic above
party interest and ambition to power, and
to soonest end our military and political
crisis without bloodshed.
We invite all people of good will,
especially the Church organizations and
the contemplatives to have a chain of Holy
Hours, where feasible, before the Blessed
Sacrament to pray for our country.
We invoke the Most Sacred Heart of
© Denz Dayao / IMPACT
Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate
Heart of Mary that they may help us in these
trying times. Lord, deliver our country from
further corruption and greater crisis.
For the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of
the Philippines:
+ANGEL N. LAGDAMEO
Archbishop of Jaro
CBCP President
 S T A T E M E N T S
© Francis Yanga / myislandsphilippines.com

To our Muslim
Brothers and
Sisters,
Assalamu alaikum . Peace be with you. 2) Instead of viewing religion as a perspectives that we join you in a common

I
n the recent cartoons controversy that
has affected Muslim communities in
Europe and other parts of the world,
including the Philippines, we would like to
express our sentiments of solidarity with
your sense of indignation and outrage.
While we do not condone any acts of
violence against persons or properties, we
reiterate some of the common principles
that both Muslim and Christian religious
leaders have been espousing in our inter-
religious dialogue—whether through daily
living or periodic exchanges in our bish-
ops–ulama forum and other engagements.
1) We value the spirit of dialogue,
tolerance and respect for each other’s re-
ligious traditions in bridging cultural dif-
ferences that have divided our communi-
ties in the past and at present. Religious
freedom and the rights of minority commu-
nities to their own culture are key values to
be promoted.
source of conflict, we have all asserted
that Christianity and Islam are religions of
peace, and that we have to build on our
religious traditions to forge a culture of
peace.
3) We recognize that extremist
groups on either side can easily destroy
the peace. Hence, we have jointly issued
statements condemning acts of violence,
particularly against innocent third parties.
Insulting words and caricatures may also
be considered forms of violence.
4) We have noted that people in
mass media have often exaggerated con-
flict stories between Christians and Mus-
lims in Mindanao and other parts of the
country—giving rise to a culture of vio-
lence and war. Media should strive, in-
stead, to present the truth in a balanced
way and practice the tenets of peace jour-
nalism.
It is in the light of these common
effort to promote mutual understanding
and respect for our religious traditions and
beliefs.
Sincerely,
Abp. Fernando R. Capalla, D.D.
Archdiocese of Davao
Vice-Chairman, ECID
Bp. Antonio J. Ledesma, S.J.
Prelature of Ipil
Chairman, CBCP Episcopal Commission
on Interreligious Dialogue
Bp. Martin S. Jumoad, D.D.
Prelature of Isabela, Basilan
Member, ECID
Bp. Edwin A. de la Peña, M.S.P., D.D.
Apostolic Vicariate of St. Mary’s of Marawi
Member, ECID
21 February 2006

Volume 40 • Number 4 27
 F R O M
A
wealthy man and his
son loved to collect rare
works of art. They had
Take my Son
everything in their collection,
from Picasso to Raphael. They
would often sit together and
admire the great works of art.
When the Vietnam con-
flict broke out, the son went to
war. He was very courageous
and died in battle while rescu-
ing another soldier. The father
was notified and grieved
deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just
before Christmas, there was a
knock at the door. A young
man stood at the door with a
large package in his hands.
He said, “Sir, you don’t
know me, but I am the soldier
for whom your
son gave his life. He saved
many lives that day, and he
was carrying me to safety when
a bullet struck him in the heart
and he died instantly. He often
talked about you, and your love
for art.”
The young man held out
this package. “I know this isn’t
much. I’m not really a great
artist, but I think your son would
have wanted you to have this.”
The father opened the
package. It was a portrait of his
son, painted by the young man.
He stared in awe at the way the
soldier had captured the per-
sonality of his son in the paint-
ing. The father was so drawn to
the eyes that his own eyes
welled up with tears. He
thanked the young man and
offered to pay him for the pic-
ture, “Oh, no sir, I could never
repay what your son did for me.
It’s a gift.”
The father hung the por-
trait over his mantle. Every time
visitors came to his home he
took them to see the portrait of
his son before he showed them
any of the other great works he
had collected.
The man died a few months
later. There was to be a great
auction of his paintings. Many influential
people gathered, excited over seeing the
great paintings and having an opportu-
nity to purchase one for their collection.
On the platform sat the painting of the
28
28 IMPACT •• April
IMPACT April 2006
2006
T H E I
son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel.
“We will start the bidding with this picture
of the son. Who will bid for this picture?”
There was silence.
Then a voice in the back of the room
N B O X
shouted, “We want to see the
famous paintings. Skip this one.”
But the auctioneer persisted.
“Will somebody bid for this
painting. Who will start the bid-
ding? $100 … $200?” Another
voice angrily, “We didn’t come
to see this painting. We came to
see the Van Goghs, the
Rembrandts. Get on with the real
bids!”
But still the auctioneer con-
tinued. “The son! The son!
Who’ll take the son?”
Finally, a voice came from
the very back of the room. It was
the longtime gardener of the man
and his son. “I’ll give $10 for the
painting.” Being a poor man, it
was all he could afford.
”We have $10, who will bid
$20?”
”Give it to him for $10. Let’s
see the masters.” “$10 is the bid,
won’t someone bid $20?
The crowd was becoming
angry. They didn’t want the pic-
ture of the son. They wanted the
more worthy investments for
their collections.
The auctioneer pounded the
gavel. “Going once, twice, SOLD
for $10!” A man sitting on the
second row shouted, “Now let’s
get on with the collection!”
The auctioneer laid down
his gavel. “I’m sorry, the auction
is over.”
“What about the paint-
ings?” “I am sorry. When I was
called to conduct this auction, I
was told of a secret stipulation in
the will. I was not allowed to
reveal that stipulation until this
time. Only the painting of the son
would be auctioned. Whoever
bought that painting would in-
herit the entire estate, including
the paintings. The man who took
the son gets everything!”
God gave His son 2,000
years ago to die on the cross.
Much like the auctioneer, His
message today is: “The son, the
son, who’ll take the son?”
Because, you see, whoever
takes the Son gets everything.
“For God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son, so that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life.” (Jn 3:16)
rowena.dalanon@cbcpworld.net
 V A
I
mpact, succinctly dubbed—
its current drophead so
says—as the “Asian Maga-
zine for Human Transforma-
tion,” turns 40 this year. And
so thus with its revered
founder, Most Rev, Julio Xavier
Labayen, OCD, bishop emeritus
of the Prelature of Infanta in the
eastern province of Quezon, who
likewise this year is marking
the 40 th anniversary of his epis-
copal ordination.
At its inception 40 years ago,
Bishop Labayen, then as the first
national director of the National
Secretariat for Social Action of the
Catholic Bishops Conference of
the Philippines, and his editor, Fr.
Cornelius Breed, a Dutch mission-
ary, unfalteringly christened the
magazine, IMPACT, adopting the
same moniker of a newsletter pub-
lished by the participating clergy
of the Priests Institute of Social
Action (PISA) held in Hong Kong
in August of 1965. IMPACT’s
maiden issue thus reeled on April
1966, some few weeks only after
the birth of NASSA.
“IMPACT,” recounts now the
79-year old Labayen, “was founded
to serve as the voice of the social
action program in every realm of
our society. We wanted to moti-
vate and inspire those in leading
positions in Asia to focus on ways
and means of attaining human, so-
cial and economic transformation
and development.”
With such primal formula,
IMPACT immediately captured
the wide attention of the entire
Asian community, brandishing the
euphoria of the social teachings of
the Church that came trendy with
the new perspectives of the Sec-
ond Vatican Council in the six-
ties. Shortly thereafter, IMPACT
was, then already a celebrity, bask-
ing in success. It was the flag
bearer of the National Congress for
Rural Development which was or-
ganized by the Philippine Catho-
lic Hierarchy in 1967. It became
the official organ of the National
Social Action and Economic De-
velopment Year, proclaimed by
then President Marcos the follow-
ing year.
On cursory blush, irrefutably
it can be said, IMPACT’s pan-
N I L L A B
IMPACT and
Founder Turn 40
By: Ace Baltazar & Cicero Lagarde
oramic saga—its sterling success
and undaunted character—reso-
nates or closely hews with that of
its founder, Bishop Labayen. For
fulsome forty years, both—
Labayen and IMPACT—have
lived up to the same merit as a
“voice in the wilderness,” trekking
the precarious route of confront-
ing the unjust powers that be.
Sometime last year, Inquirer
columnist Ma. Ceres Doyo wrote
about Bishop Labayen’s unflinch-
ing prominence: “Bishop Julio
Xvier Labayen, a member of the
Order of the Discalced Carmelites,
is viewed by many as ‘controver-
sial,’ having figured in clashes
with the Marcos dictatorship. In a
sea of conservatives in the Philip-
pines Church hierarchy, the bishop
is considered a voice in the wil-
derness.”
Y T
That indeed, on hindsight,
Labayen did cross paths with the
Marcos dictatorship is certainly
unquestionable. In fact, history
has it that Bishop Labayen was
among, if not its principal figure,
the famed “Magnificent 7” who
tilted at the windmills of Presi-
dent Marcos’ martial rule.
As a consummate activist, in
its real sense, Bishop Labayen
claims, in his book “Revolution
and the Church of the Poor,” that
his rich experience in the field of
social action has undeniably been
interwoven “with the dark strands
of trials, crisis, harassment, per-
secution and marginalization, and
also with the bright strands of pas-
toral breakthroughs, deep insights,
qualitative turning points, reas-
suring faith-experiences of the
living God of history.”
Volume
Volume 40
40 •• Number
E S
In the late sixties, bishop
Labayen, then as national director
of NASSA, and upon the request
of the Society for Development
and Peace (SODEPAX), a joint
body of the Pontifical Commis-
sion on Justice and Peace and the
World Council of Churches,
launched the movement called
Asian Cultural Forum on Devel-
opment (ACFOD). Since his epis-
copal ordination as bishop of
Infanta in 1966, Labayen has un-
failingly served the cause of the
poor of Infanta and various sec-
tors in the field of social action.
On June 12 of last year, the
106th anniversary of Philippine In-
dependence, and in a venue that
couldn’t have been more appropri-
ate—the Bantayog ng mga Bayani
(Monument of Heroes) in Quezon
City where the names of those who
served and died for freedom are
etched—Bishop Labayen was con-
ferred the Gawad Kagitingan na-
tional award.
Despite his retirement as
bishop of Infanta in August 2003,
there ain’t any stopping yet for
Bishop Labayen in his struggle for
the promotion of a spirituality that
is rooted and lived in the human-
ity of each person, particularly the
poorest of the poor who, accord-
ing to him, are the “wretched of
the earth, the teeming masses gods
and governments truly take to be
sheep.”
Currently, amid the wrench-
ing national issues and problems
swirling around the country, the
indefatigable radical in Labayen
makes him even more visible—or
‘omnipresent’, so to speak—in al-
most every circle or forum that
bring to fore the country’s debili-
tating ills.
As with Bishop Labayen,
there’s no coming to an end too
for IMPACT. Both, Bishop
Labayen and IMPACT, having sur-
vived the test of time and likewise
having withstood even the most
stringent political regimes and
societal upheavals in the Philip-
pines as well as those in other parts
of the world, continue to live, un-
daunted as ever, as a “voice in the
wilderness.” Both, no denying, are
veritable living legends. Both
refuse to die. I
Number 44 29
29
 N E
BURMA
Burma records first bird
flu case
Bird flu is continuing
its march across Asia with
Burma confirming its first
cases of the H5N1 virus in
chickens. Health officials
said the virus was detected
after 112 chickens died in
the central Mandalay re-
gion earlier this month, but
there was no evidence yet
of human infection. Offi-
cials destroyed a flock of
780 birds for laboratory
tests.
Repatriation program
CHINA for Afghan refugees ex-
China announces car- tended
toon ban The repatriation pro-
To protect its own ani-
mation industries, China
has announced a ban on
“so-called cartoons that
mainly feature real people
and only occasionally have
computer-generated ele-
ments.” State Administra-
tion of Radio, Film and
Television said in a state-
ment that the ban is in-
tended “to promote the
development and prosper-
ity of the cartoon industry
in China.” China already
limits foreign cartoon to
40%t. It might ban all for-
eign cartoons from TV
once the quantity and qual-
ity of domestic produc-
tions is ample.
INDONESIA
Nameless Islands of In-
donesia
An interesting note on
everyone’s favorite conti-
nent-sized archipelago:
Indonesia still has around
30 IMPACT • April 2006
W S B R
10,000 unnamed islands.
“One of the reason why
these outer islands have
not yet been named is the
lack of the government’s
attention, including its
small budget allocation,”
Home Affairs Ministry`
Secretary General Progo
Nurjaman said. He said
the allocation in the 2006
State Budget for surveys
and data gathering activi-
ties was a minimal Rp3.2
billion in the face of its
17,504 islands.
IRAN
gram for Afghan refugees
from Iran, which has al-
ready seen the return of
around 1.4 million people
since its inception in 2002,
has been extended for an-
other year for the nearly 1
million more Afghans still
remaining in the war-torn
country’s western neigh-
bor, United Nations said
recently. Officials of Iran,
Afghanistan and the UN
reached agreement on the
extension until March
2007 at a meeting in
Mashad in northeastern
Iran.
ISRAEL
Israel says turkeys may
have died of deadly flu
Around 11,000 turkeys
have died in what Israeli
officials suspect the
country’s first outbreak of
the H5N1 virus. After ini-
tial tests, Health Minister
Yaakov Edri reported that
I E F S
there was a high chance
that it was avian infection
but insisted more tests are
still to be done. Officials
have yet to decide whether
to destroy tens of thou-
sands of other birds.
KOREA
Korean youth unified
Against US
With relentless propa-
ganda in N. Korea, and S.
Korea caving in on every
single issue, it seems that
Korean youth unified
against the US. In a sur-
vey, nearly half of S. Ko-
rean youths who will be
voting next elections say
Seoul should side with N.
Korea if the US attacks
the communist nation.
40.7% of the 1,000 youth
surveyed said Seoul should
remain neutral in the event
of hostilities between
Washington and
Pyongyang, according to
the poll by The Korea
Times and Hankook Ilbo
dailies. Only 11.6 percent
said the South should back
its longtime U.S. ally.
PAKISTAN
Kite flyers nabbed in
Pakistan
In Lahore City, more
than 1,000 people have
been detained for violat-
ing Pakistan’s kite ban.
However, majority of
those held were released
after brief appearances
before magistrates. The
local government declared
the ban ahead of a kite’s
festival to foil deaths and
injuries every year caused
by metal and glass coated
string that players use to
cut the string of rivals in
aerial duels.
PHILIPPINES
New archbishop ap-
pointed
His Holiness, Pope
Benedict XVI, accepted
the resignation of Most
Rev. Pedro Dean, from
the pastoral governance
of Archbishop of Palo
in Leyte. At the same
time, the Pope appointed
Most Rev. Jose S.
Palma, bishop of
Calbayog, as the new
archbishop of Palo. Also
appointed was Rev.
Msgr. Rodolfo F.
Beltran, of Tuguegarao
in Northern Philippines,
as the Apostolic Vicar
of Bontoc-Lagawe in the
Mountain Province.
VIETNAM
Overcrowding in Viet-
nam seminaries
The number of semi-
narians are increasing,
yet living and teaching
space are lacking. The
Vietnam Catholic
church, according to
Archbishop Thann-Pho
Ho Chi Minh, needs new
facilities to accommo-
date the rising number
of candidates to the
priesthood. Two reasons
for the congestion is that
the archdiocese receives
candidates from six
southern dioceses, and
that the government has
stipulated that they al-
low all applicants to be
admitted. About 6 mil-
lion of Vietnam’s 83 mil-
lion inhabitants are
Catholic.
Volume 40 • Number 4 31