Abolish the Pork Barrel

I came to learn of the movement To Abolish the Pork Barrel from a very credible person today, Sunday, December 7, 2014. The person I am referring to is a parish priest in the Diocese of Novaliches (Most Rev. Antonio R. Tobias, DD is the current bishop).

The parish priest is so convincing, I am inspired to write this post to help in spreading the word about the movement.

The movement is proposing to institute a law entitled "An Act Abolishing the Pork Barrel System" through a People's Initiative as provided by the Constitution and R.A.6735. This overrides the law-making function of Congress.

Reading books

"I believe that we should read only those books that sting us. If a book we are reading does not rouse us with a blow to the head, then why read it? What we need are books that affect us like some really grievous misfortune, like the death of one whom we loved more than ourselves, as if we were banished to distant forests, away from everybody, like a suicide; a book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us." - Franz Kafka

Contraception shatters human dignity

I had my personal copy of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (CSDC) a long time ago. Just recently, I chanced-upon glancing on it in my bookshelf. An idea flashed in my mind!

Is not this the portion of Catholic Doctrine that the Church proposes as principles for reflection, criteria for judgment, and norms and guidelines for action (CCCC, 509) in order for people to proclaim the Gospel that brings salvation and genuine freedom also to temporal realities. (cf. CSDC, 2)?

Student Mentoring in the Philippines

I participated in the 1st National Conference on Student Mentoring entitled Shaping Young Minds and Hearts: Towards Integrative Coaching, Counseling and Mentoring. I can't help but write a few lines to give some feedback on the event.

Successful!

I must say it was successful in the same way, but in an analogical way, that the first major invasion of Allied forces against Germany in 1944 known as the D-Day was successful. The conference succeeded in establishing a beach-head in the hearts and minds of a significant number of teachers and administrators on the importance and need of a student mentoring program. Like the D-Day, it is important to follow-through with this success and push further towards popularizing student mentoring in the Philippine education sector.

Blessed John Paul II on Religious Freedom

Source:
Address of His Holiness John Paul II at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, Sunday, 8 October 1995

I was in the prayer rally

I was in the prayer rally! And it was tiring but a liberating experience!

I went to EDSA Shrine on August 4, 2012 to join Roman Catholics and pro-life advocates to pray for the dismissal of House Bill (HB) 4244 also known as "The Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011" and express publicly such a stand.

A few days after President Benigno Aquino III's State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on July 23 and the subsequent House leaders' vow to vote on the bill on August 7, the catholic bishops called and campaigned for a prayer rally to be held in various major cities and set the date to August 4.

I listened to the Wongs

Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong, authors of The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher, came to Manila. I had the chance to listen to them on July 28, 2012. I was lucky to get a free-ticket from Dualtech to attend the couple's presentation.

We arrived at the venue early enough to get well-placed seats. I was surprised there were so many coming in: I was told about two thousand came for the morning session alone.