Piercing Pens

Being Michael the archangel’s playmate surely has its benefits. It places you in some sort of moral pedestal such that even your repressive actions are hailed as correct by prominent Church leaders.

While the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and–would you believe?–El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde denounced the dispersal of the October 14 prayer rally in Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin’s successor chose to side with the police who implemented Arroyo’s policy of violent dispersals.

INQ7 reported that Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales said the rallyists were wrong in violating the rally permit.

“There’s no such thing as absolute freedom. Every freedom is conditioned on the rights of another,” Rosales reportedly said.

Maybe the good archbishop is seriously taking the doctrine of separation of church and state, since it looks like he hasn’t read the Philippine Constitution, which favors the citizen’s right to peaceable assembly.

Or maybe Rosales thinks the doctrine of separation of church and state is nothing but bullshit, so he echoes with gusto Arroyo’s statements on the issue of peaceful assembly.

Arkibong Bayan has photos and video clips of the October 14 prayer rally and dispersal.

Join a prayer rally near the Glorious temple, and holy water from the playmate of St. Michael pour upon you.

Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Representatives Satur Ocampo and Risa Hontiveros, former Pangasinan vice governor Oscar Orbos, Senator Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal, Father Robert Reyes, and other political leaders and church people joined a prayer rally organized by a group led by patriotic bishops. They wanted to join others who were gathered near the Palace of Garci’s phone pal, and they all got wet.

Antoher thing that’s common between Philippine President Gloria “Hello Garci” Macapagal-Arroyo and US President George “Dubya” Bush is that God “speaks” to them.

“It is God who puts ideas in my heart,” Arroyo–who has described the presidency as a position “made in Heaven”–once said.

Meanwhile, Bush was quoted as telling a Texan evangelist: ‘I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can’t explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen… I know it won’t be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it.’

Aren’t Filipinos and Americans very lucky to have these blessed Presidents?

We’ve just joined Blog mad! (Just because the word “mad” is in the title of the post, it doesn’t mean it’s about a certain politician again.)

Google describes it as “a blog traffic site” which promises to provide weblogs with “a ton of traffic.”

You may want to try it, too.

INQ7’s Rowena Guanzon wrote:

We have heard all sorts of jokes, and true to the nature of Filipinos, Erap won votes with his Erap jokes. But the “revelation” of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago that she heard from a “chattering relative” of Senate President Franklin Drilon that Cory Aquino and Drilon are involved in a plot to hatch a coup d’état or to “physically remove” Gloria Arroyo by Oct. 15, is not funny. Cory Aquino plotting to murder someone? Ridiculous. Preposterous. Incredible. (E-mail me if you know of other fitting words).

My choice of adjective is “insane.”

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines
Press Statement
October 4, 2005

There seems to be no end to threats to press freedom in the Philipines after another journalist was attacked Tuesday morning outside his office in General Santos City.

Danilo Aguirre, a correspondent for the Mindanao Bulletin, is fighting for his life as of this writing at General Santos Doctors’ Hospital after he suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Whatever the motive of the attack, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) strongly condemns the shooting as we continue to condemn and call the attention of the government to the series of
threats and killings of journalists in the country.

The brazen attack on Aguirre is an attack on media. It is a reflection of the government’s failure to ensure security not only for journalists but for all Filipinos, especially those in the provinces who complain of human rights violations as our leaders busy themselves with politics in the capital.

The NUJP calls on the authorities to immediately investigate the attack on Aguirre and arrest the culprits. We reiterate our call for the government to immediately resolve the cases of killings of journalists.

Jose Torres Jr.
Chairman
Commission for the Protection of Journalists
National Union of Journalists of the Philippines