By Emil Jurado
Manila Standard Today
Manila Standard Today
It’s blasphemy and sacrilege of the highest order. No excuses: not from the artist, not from the Cultural Center of the Philippines. I am talking about the images depicting Jesus Christ with kitschy symbols of pop culture, a moveable penis, and the Blessed Virgin Mary with a condom.
The artist claims that his work is aimed at being a commentary on icon worship.
I am surprised that the CCP allowed it in the first place. I am certain that most of those who made the decision are Catholics.
Worse, the University of Santo Tomas —the oldest Catholic university in the Philippines—is supporting the artist.
Santa Banana, retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishops Oscar Cruz, himself a Thomasian, is so outraged that he’s ready to renounce his Dominican roots.
The artist is obviously ignorant. We Catholics do not worship icons and images. We only venerate them because they represent what we believe in.
Has modern art gone so low?
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I have written many things about the reproductive health bill. My opinion is based on religious agrounds. I am a staunch Catholic. I believe that RH is no more than a promotion of contraceptives as a national policy—using public taxes!—under the guise of free choice.
But I think the best argument against RH is that of former Senator Francisco Tatad, who says RH is a violation of the Constitution. It’s as basic as this: the State cannot sponsor contraception because it has the duty to protect the life of the unborn. “It violates the principle of non-contradiction. The protector of conception cannot simultaneously be the preventer of conception. It can be one or the other, but not at the same time,” Tatad said.
There’s likewise Article 15, Section 3 of the Constitution which provides that “the State shall defend the right of spouses to found a family in accordance with their religious convictions and the demands of responsible parenthood.”
Thus, when anti-lifers advocate contraception in the name of free choice, it becomes an oxymoron.
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The issue of delicadeza has been raised against retired General Gaudencio Pangilinan for accepting his appointment as Bureau of Corrections chief to replace resigned chief Ernesto Diokno.
It turns out that Pangilinan is facing plunder charges arising from the expose of anomalies in the Armed Forces.
In the same breath, President Aquino, says Pangilinan’s appointment stands because he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
But why is not the President applying the same standards? His political enemies seem to be presumed guilty unless they can prove their innocence.
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I continue to be amazed at the Bureau of Customs. How in the world could 1,901 containers with highly dutiable goods disappear from its care, all within a space of just five months, from January to May of this year?
My gulay, there must be magicians and miracle workers at Customs. Up to now, nobody there, from Commissioner Angelito Alvarez down to the rank-and-file, seems to know what happened to those containers. These are said to have been transshipped from both the Port of Manila and the Manila International Container Port to the Port of Batangas.
Records show these were received. More so, when they were transshipped to the Port of Batangas, there were guards and Customs personnel accompanying them.
I’ve covered Customs for years in my younger days as business editor of the defunct Philippines Herald, and while there were a lot of shenanigans then as of now, nothing can beat this.
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Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile is right. Allegations of election fraud during the 2004 presidential elections and the 2007 senatorial polls should no longer be the business of the Senate. There are enough laws at the disposal of both the Department of Justice and the Comelec to investigate and pin down the culprits.
Since congressional investigations are supposed to be “in aid of legislation,” what is there to investigate?
Let the DoJ and Comelec do their jobs. Let them prosecute those that are responsible and see to it that poll shenanigans such as these don’t happen again. There is nothing more sacred in a democracy than the will of the people.
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I don’t know Domingo Lee from Adam but I share the concerns and even fears of others on why President Aquino named him Ambassador to Beijing.
Considering our fragile relationships with the People’s Republic of China, the President should have been more circumspect. He shouldn’t have appointed an amateur, or worse, somebody whose resume states that he was once an adviser of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office. The TECO passes off as the equivalent of a Taiwanese Embassy. He’s even member of the Koumintang Party of Taiwan that opposes the integration of Taiwan as a province of China,
Santa Banana, Aquino has named the worst possible ambassador to Beijing!
The decision reflects lack of circumspection on what foreign affairs should be.
My gulay, a member of that three-legged hydra called Communications Group said that Lee’s appointment may even enhance China-Taiwan relations. What he did not say is what it will do to Philippine-China relationship. How naive can people around the President get!
I don’t know how the Commission on Appointments will consider Lee’s appointment. For sure, he’ll be scrutinized and his appointment may even be rejected considering what’s at stake. Did the President even consider, or did he just consider that Lee was close to his late mother?
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The suicide on Tuesday of Development Bank of the Philippines lawyer Benjamin Pinpin, as explained in his suicide letter, was caused by severe depression. The DBP board, led by Chairman Jose Nuñez Jr., had reportedly coerced him to sign an affidavit implicating a former DBP official in the Philex loan affair.
In his note, Pinpin said that his having signed an affidavit implicating the DBP official was forced upon him by Nuñez. He supposedly could no longer bear the pressure of having executed a false affidavit. Pinpin revealed that he had been threatened by Nuñez of dishonorable termination, loss of benefits, and even imprisonment, if he did not sign the false affidavit.
It is appalling to know Nuñez would go to great lengths for the witchhunt against his predecessor.
Reminds me of somebody we know. The pressure must have been so severe as to cause the suicide of this young and promising lawyer.
The DBP loans made regarding Philex to companies owned by former Trade Minister Roberto V. Ongpin have long been proven to be completely above board, fully paid, and resulted in trading gains of over a billion pesos to DBP.
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A text message being circulated among DBP managers is quoted as follows:
“Atty. Benjie Pinpin of OLC is dead! He committed suicide because he succumbed to extreme depression brought about by the harassment, coercion, and pressure arising out of show cause letters issued by Chairman Nuñez. Aggravating this were threats of preventive suspension, loss of benefits, dismissal and imprisonment.
“It also appeared that he was forced to sign an affidavit on the promise that he would be spared on the case. And this, he regretted when he said that he made the greatest mistake of my life,” and that ‘desperation brought out the worst in me’ from his suicide note.”
“How many more Benjie Pinpins will we have in the bank because of the present state of things at DBP? how much more intimidation will Chairman Nuñez resort to?… If you are one in our grief, let us wear black dress and black armbands tomorrow until Friday—Concerned Managers and Employees.”
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Nora Aunor is home. But, is she still the superstar we knew?
I doubt it since time has caught up with her, and that fact that she had to stay in the US for sometime because of a misdemeanor on illegal drug possession is a dark cloud over her head.
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