Court okays Napoles transfer to Laguna fort

ESTRADA WAS HERE This bungalow inside the Fort Sto. Domingo training camp for police special forces in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, awaits its latest occupant, Janet Lim-Napoles, after playing host to previous detainees like former President Joseph Estrada, former Moro National Liberation Front chair Nur Misuari and Sen. Gringo Honasan, Fort Sto. Domingo. Photo by CERES DOYO

Phiilppine Daily Inquirer/by Jaymee Gamil
Janet Lim-Napoles will be on the move again, this time to Laguna province. The Makati Regional Trial Court granted Friday the transfer of Napoles from the Makati City Jail to Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, saying the “high-profile detainee” needs a safer jail facility. Judge Elmo Alameda issued the four-page order granting the petition of Napoles with her lawyer, Lorna Kapunan, citing a “clear danger to her life.” Napoles was brought to the Makati jail Thursday night from the national police headquarters in Camp Crame where she was held in custody after she surrendered to President Benigno Aquino Wednesday night. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Friday justified the special security arrangements for Napoles, saying various groups or people were after the businesswoman and that security concerns with regard to her were “legitimate.” De Lima said it was not only powerful and wealthy personalities involved in the alleged P10-billion pork scam who want to “silence” Napoles. She said other groups that want to put the Aquino administration in a bad light might also be after her. The Makati City Jail admitted it couldn’t guarantee the safety of the high-profile suspect. A Makati court late Friday granted the petition from Napoles to be transferred to Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. But the Inquirer has learned that the wife of the head of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) is an incorporator of Ventures Investigative and Security Services Inc., the security agency of Napoles’ husband, Jimmy, the documents of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed. The SEC information sheets showed that Annalou P. Constantino is an incorporator of Ventures Investigative and Security Services Inc. Constantino is the wife of Chief Supt. Noel Gicano Constantino, PNPA director. The PNPA compound is located along Gen. Mariano Castañeda road in Silang town, Cavite province, not far from Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna province, where Napoles would be detained, as ordered by the Makati Regional Trial Court on Friday. As of press time Friday night, however, Napoles was still at the Makati jail. Makati Judge Elmo Alameda granted the motion to transfer Napoles from Makati City Jail, where she was taken late Thursday, to Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna province, which is a training camp for police special forces. Kapunan’s arguments To support her argument for Napoles’ transfer, lawyer Lorna Kapunan presented before the court the Makati jail warden, Chief Insp. Fermin Enriquez, who admitted that the facility “could not guarantee the safety, 24/7” of Napoles. Enriquez said the jail did not have enough personnel to secure such a “high-profile” suspect. The warden noted that during Napoles’ transfer to the Makati jail on Thursday night, the facility’s 65 organic personnel had to be augmented by more than 50 personnel from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) headquarters and the PNP. The ideal ratio of one jail guard to seven inmates could not be met, with 545 detainees at the jail, 104 at the female dormitory alone, Enriquez said. Alternative facilities Alameda agreed that based on Enriquez’s testimony, “without [the] additional personnel … which entails additional expenses for their maintenance,” the regular security personnel of the jail could not secure Napoles “given the number of visitors who are expected to visit her in the coming days,” including the media and high-ranking government officials. Asked to recommend an alternate detention center by Alameda, Enriquez suggested the BJMP-run district jail at Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, or the PNP detention facility in Camp Crame. Kapunan also called to the witness stand Senior Supt. Roberto Fajardo of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region who was the lead escort when Napoles was transferred from Camp Crame to Makati City Jail on Thursday night. Security risks Asked what security risks he thought Napoles was facing in jail, Fajardo said: “From what I know, since [Napoles] will be implicating a lot of higher officials, the threat is very real.” It was Fajardo who recommended Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna province, prompted by Kapunan who asked what he would suggest as an alternate detention facility. “I will recommend the former detention centers for [Moro National Liberation Front founder] Nur Misuari and [coup plotter] Sen. Gringo Honasan,” Fajardo said. Laguna camp secure He guaranteed the camp was very secure as it was also the site of a training school for the PNP Special Action Force. Deposed President Joseph Estrada (now mayor of Manila) was also briefly detained at Fort Sto. Domingo in 2001 while awaiting trial for plunder. Following Fajardo’s suggestion, Kapunan told the court to allow Napoles’ lawyers to “verbally modify” their request for transfer to add the Laguna facility to the jail options, which originally only listed Camp Bagong Diwa and Camp Crame. Enriquez also gave his recommendation for the Laguna facility. The prosecution, which initially expressed apprehension about travel time and security en route during hearings, eventually gave up protesting “as long as [Napoles] could be brought [to the Makati court] safely” for the hearings. The court sheriff has served copies of the court order for the transfer to PNP Director General Alan Purisima, Fajardo and Enriquez, and was, as of press time, on his way to serve the order to the Fort Sto. Domingo camp commander. Napoles and her brother, Reynald Lim, are facing serious illegal detention charges in Alameda’s sala, based on accusations made by Napoles’ cousin and former employee, Benhur Luy. Napoles is also alleged to be the mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam, of which Luy is the primary whistle-blower. Napoles went into hiding after Alameda ordered her arrested on Aug. 14. She surrendered to President Aquino on Wednesday night, was turned over to the PNP at Camp Crame in Quezon City, and detained in an office at Makati City Jail late Thursday. Death threats “Even if these (threats) have not been validated, I think we can give these allegations the benefit of the doubt. We can give these some preliminary merit because it is possible that other people would be [linked to the scam], they would think of something bad,” De Lima said in an interview. “Common sense and logic tell us that given her very status now as the hottest figure in the country. It’s not farfetched that various groups would become interested for their own selfish partisan agenda and we would have chaos,” she said. De Lima said she had instructed the National Bureau of Investigation to work with the police in verifying the security threats against Napoles. She noted that Napoles’ petition asking to be transferred from Makati City Jail claimed that “she’s in grave, imminent and real danger.” “She has been receiving death threats. There’s credible information indicating that there are people who want to silence her,” Napoles said, reading from Napoles’ petition. Explaining to the media the security risks that Napoles was facing inside the Makati jail, Kapunan said: “It’s really possible for anyone with any intention to silence Mrs. Napoles to just pose as family. The warden also said there had been riots two weeks ago, and public rallies outside. It’s not far it can also happen inside. “We also told the court: Why would you waste government resources just to watch over her when she can be transferred to a safer facility?” Kapunan told reporters after yesterday’s hearing. “We hope [Napoles] is not still detained [at Makati City Jail] by Saturday and Sunday. We are confident that judge is very reasonable and that he has the safety and security of Mrs. Napoles at heart,” Kapunan said. Two motions for inhibition filed against Alameda—separately filed by Napoles and Lim’s counsels—were also discussed during yesterday’s hearing, but have only been submitted for resolution by the court. With reports from Nancy C. Carvajal and Philip C. Tubeza, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Kristine Angeli Sabillo, INQUIRER.ne Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/478255/court-okays-napoles-transfer-to-laguna-fort#ixzz2dVZQlbdY Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

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Endless could haves, should haves, would haves

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

The stolen billions could have been spent for this … and that. Millions of poor people could have benefited … countless lives would have been improved, etc. Instead, the money went to the pockets of a few greedy individuals.

The should haves, could haves and would haves are endless.

And now we are not surprised that the waylaid P10 billion is just the tip of the iceberg. More pork barrel-“ghost NGOs” tie-ups are being uncovered.

The pork barrel scam has emboldened many to publicly air their grievances through statements, letters and songs. And rallies, too, such as the ones last Aug. 26. People condemn, question, protest, challenge and offer suggestions. The common refrain is: THIS MUST STOP. The guilty must be punished, severely punished.

Through e-mail come statements and letters that stress the countless benefits the billions of pesos could have produced if only these were not “creatively” stolen. But they also come with suggestions and questions on why this blockbuster scam went on for so long.

The EcoWaste Coalition is quite specific: The P10-billion squandered public funds could have funded:

1. One million whole-day training activities on ecological solid waste management involving 50 million people at P10,000/50-person activity covering meals, hand-outs, speakers’ honoraria and other basic incidental expenses.

2. One million to 2 million materials recovery facilities (MRFs) at P5,000-P10,000/facility for rural barangay; and 20,000 to 200,000 MRFs at P50,000-P500,000/facility for urban barangays; MRFs serve as depositories for segregated discards that can be reused, recycled or composted to minimize the volume of trash sent to residual waste landfill.

3. Twenty-two thousand two hundred twenty-two biodegradables shredder (7 hp, 1.5 tons/hour) costing P450,000/machine to cut up garden or farm waste and other organics into small pieces to speed up the composting process.

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Ground swell in August

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Something about August. Many of us who are August-born have not failed to notice that the many fateful and earthshaking events in this country’s historical timeline happened in this month. It is a month when we remember guns, bombs, blood, fire and water tearing through our nation’s life—the Plaza Miranda bombing, the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, etc. So life-changing were these August events that when we look back through the veil of mist we can’t help but be overcome by the memories.
 

Yesterday was Ninoy Aquino’s 30th death anniversary and I couldn’t help but remember where I was, what I was, and how I was at that time. I do remember being among the first few to go to his home on Times Street in Quezon City when there was yet no jostling throng and before Cory and the Aquino children arrived from the United States and his body was transferred to Santo Domingo Church where People Power would have its beginnings.
 

There he was, without a see-through glass over him. And there I was just staring down at him, at his bruised face and bloody shirt. I could have touched him. I had no inkling then that a ground swell of protest would soon be shaking the seat of power and roaring through the streets for three years until the evil regime crashed to the ground.

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Tagle: 'You can be better than this'

Phiippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Fighting back tears, Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle answered ABS-CBN reporter Nina Corpus’ question on the alleged channeling of a staggering P10 billion in lawmakers’ pork barrel funds to fake nongovernment organizations. What, she asked, would the cardinal want to say to those who engineered the scam?
 

While the cardinal was clearing a lump in his throat a hush fell on the room full of journalists invited to the press briefing on the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization (PCNE) in October.
 

It had been a lively press briefing and open forum until Corpus popped the last question.
 

I paraphrase here some of Tagle’s words that stuck to my mind. How he wished, he said, that those who were involved in the scam—an intricate web, he called it—would walk the city streets at night and behold the hungry poor while they spread out on the sidewalks pieces of cardboard that would serve as their bedding for the night.
 

Choking on his words, Tagle said that if only they (the plunderers) would touch the poor and look into their eyes… But no, he said sadly, slowly, emphatically, “the poor are absent in their minds.” What burst the dam inside me were his direct words to THEM: “You can be better than this.”
 

No fire and brimstone from him, only simple words that carried a big message, a plea almost.  I am again writing those words now. “You can be better than this.”  My heart quickens, my spirit harkens to the sound of it. Only now do my eyes moisten.

I remember the controversial movie “Priest” and the words unleashed by the angry bishop to one of his priests caught in flagrante delicto committing an indiscretion: “You are a boil on the Body of Christ, a disgusting boil about to erupt and spill out its pus.” I couldn’t help quoting that in my movie review.
 

But it is not always the fiery words that get to me or that I aim to catch. If I may digress, during the martial law years, I joined a fact-finding mission that investigated human rights violations in the hinterlands. We interviewed victims of military atrocities. We listened and wrote down their stories about how the soldiers raided their village and wrecked their homes. But there was this little woman who said nothing to the lawyers. She was squatting and a bit shaky when I spoke to her alone. Then in a soft and trembling voice she began: “All the chickens flew away.”
 

For me, that sentence was louder than the sound of machine guns.

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Legit but fake--an oxymoron?

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

I have not yet heard anyone utter “legit but fake” in one breath to describe the nongovernment organizations that allegedly siphoned off some P10 billion in lawmakers’ pork barrel funds and have none or little to show in terms of beneficiaries and accomplishments.

But I have heard the words “legitimate/accredited” from those allegedly involved and their defenders. And the words “fake/bogus/fly-by-night/dummy” used interchangeably by the accusers, investigators, whistle-blowers and shocked citizens of this republic.

So what do we have here, NGOs (foundations, people’s organizations, civil society groups) that are “legit but fake”? Sounds like an oxymoron, which is defined as “a rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined.”

Or maybe “legit but fake” is not an oxymoron, after all. Something can still be legit as far as registration and accreditation are concerned, as one accrediting official of the Department of Agriculture tearfully said while describing her official role in the blockbuster scam. Her and her family’s reputation has been tarnished, she rued, when all she did was to approve NGO applicants (for funding) whose papers were in order—that is, they have been duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In other words, how could she deny accreditation for applicants whose SEC papers were in order? What reasons had she to doubt? She even could have added that what happens after accreditation is something else or beyond her duties. Fair enough. But didn’t she see some red flags to forewarn her? Again, maybe it was not in her job description. Sigh.

Applicants for funding with selfish motives can hire the best lawyers to help them set up nonprofit organizations—NGOs, so-called—and put together required papers for SEC registration. Once the papers are in order, these lawyers’ efficient messengers can do the following up. And voila, new NGOs are born. No sweat.

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NGOs eager for NGO transparency (2)

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Last week I wrote about nongovernment organizations coming together to address alleged corruption in their sector. In attendance were 50 NGO/civil society representatives concerned about the recent exposés of lawmakers’ pork barrel funds being channeled into bogus NGOs. The exposés have badly smeared the NGO/CS sector.
 

The founders of bogus and fly-by-night NGOs who pocketed the people’s money should be lined up against the wall, but there are also legitimate NGOs that are problematic in the financial accountability and transparency department. The former are really the devil’s to start with, but the latter that are legit and were founded for noble reasons can also fall into a pit because they are run by human beings with frailties and inordinate wants, or because not enough preventive mechanisms have been put in place.

 

One reader wrote: “NGOs, for some time now, have been perceived as money machines. You don’t even have to put anything in. Just accredit an NGO and voila… They invented NGOs for their funds to have a semblance of legitimacy when disbursed. The [pork barrel] is the root of all these. Funds have to go somewhere and it does not matter where. One source of corruption among funding and implementing organizations is the specter of underspending. Funding agencies, you see, have a specific amount to [disburse] to qualified implementing organizations for a given year. For example, USAid has to distribute the money or else it will be reprimanded by the financial bigwigs of the US State Department.
 

“The implementing NGOs, in turn, have to spend the money within a limited time, say, one year, or else they will be blacklisted by the funder. But there is a delay in the NGOs’ recruitment of additional staff, [procurement of] vehicles, supplies, medicines… Delay here, delay there. In the end, the directors and managers will spend the money on something else and produce bogus receipts. The devil is called underspending and money is burned in the process.”

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NGOs eager for NGO transparency (1)

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Last year I wrote a column piece, “Corruption in NGOs” (Opinion, 9/12/12), after the Inquirer ran a banner story on the alleged mishandling of funds by a nongovernment organization working against the trafficking of women and girls. I mentioned that a couple of years before then, I wrote a cover story on that NGO for the Sunday Inquirer Magazine after it won an international award.

How would I have known then that not long after, trouble of the financial kind would erupt with no less than USAid seeking explanations for the use of the funds it had channeled through that NGO? If I am not mistaken, a case is now pending in court. So I withhold my final judgment.

Not a few, myself included, were shocked by the alleged mishandling of funds. But I did hear a few comments from NGO veterans that it was only a matter of time before such malpractice would be laid bare. Little did I know that the piece I wrote last year would disturb some NGO workers.

I was told only recently that a reaction letter to that piece had been written but was never sent because of certain considerations. Was it the right time? Was the tone of the letter right? What good would it serve?

With the controversy erupting recently over the alleged P10-billion scam involving fake NGOs as channels of the pork barrel funds of certain lawmakers, NGOs of good standing are again aghast that their sector is being tainted.

And so a well-attended roundtable discussion of about 50 NGO representatives was held last week. I was among the invited and, to my surprise, was even cited as among the inciters that led to the gathering.

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Consumers' concerns on GE foods

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

We are what we eat, so the saying goes, but we should also be able to know about the safety of what we eat, and make our choice.

Here recently to speak about the dangers to health and the environment of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically engineered (GE) foods was Jeffrey M. Smith, American author of the best-selling books “Seeds of Deception” and “Genetic Roulette.” Smith was going to China but he could not resist the Filipinos’ invitation, so he made a side trip that resulted in an enriching week for the No2GMO network composed of civil-society groups, academics and consumers. Smith also met with some lawmakers. He spoke at gatherings in Metro Manila, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and South Cotabato.

GMOs continue to be in the local and international news. Because of questions about their safety, there is now a clamor from consumers for truthful labeling of food items. (Once in a while I do see grocery items labeled “GMO-free,” and I read the fine print to see where they came from.)

While GMOs used to be the concern of food producers and environmentalists who worried about seed sources, the havoc on the environment and the possible extinction of old species, now consumers are also calling attention to the problem. Consumers, after all, are the ones at the receiving end of the food chain. They also have the power to demand to know what are being sold to them.

Among the groups that welcomed Smith were Consumer Rights for Safe Food (CRSF), National Consumer Affairs Council, and Sarilaya, a women’s group committed to gender and development. Smith told his audiences that 64 countries now require labeling of GE foods or ban these outright. He said that in the United States, the legislatures of Connecticut and Maine have passed labeling laws and more than two dozen other states have introduced similar legislation. Nine out of 10 Americans want GE foods labeled and 53 percent said they would avoid GMOs if these were thus labeled.

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Woman both malakas and maganda

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Philippine creation myth about the first man and woman, Malakas and Maganda, became the subject of jokes and was even satirized in the underground “mosquito press” because of how the Marcoses got themselves portrayed by sycophant artists as the reincarnation of “the strong” (Malakas) and “the beautiful” (Maganda). The excesses of the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda were softened through the portrayal of their likenesses in art that drew from myths and legends.



I remember seeing a huge mural that showed the naked Malakas and Maganda about to emerge from two halves of a split bamboo. I don’t remember now where I saw it—in Leyte or in Malacañang, where I was sent on a writing assignment, after the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship. Now I wonder where that mural and versions of it are. Were they destroyed by the angry protestors that stormed Malacañang, or spirited away to some art connoisseur’s collection?



But the “Malakas at Maganda” legend is an enduring one, its desecration notwithstanding, and the mythical couple have been more than rehabilitated and reinstated in their rightful place in Philippine myths and legends. I find our own man-woman creation story more egalitarian than the Bible’s, where Eve just happened to have come from Adam’s rib. (I will get a rain of hate mail from hard-core Bible-thumpers for saying that.) In the case of Malakas and Maganda, they emerged separate but not necessarily equal from a split bamboo.

But can one only be either malakas or maganda?  Oh, yes, a woman can be both, according to a group of women artists. Currently on view at St. Scholastica’s College Museum (at the corner of Leon Guinto and P. O
campo Streets in Manila) is the “Malakas and Maganda II” exhibit of paintings, sketches, sculptures, computer-generated images and photographs by Kasibulan women artists.  



The art pieces are representations of women of strength and beauty but not in the stereotypical sense. One can say that every art piece is the artist’s projection of her own beauty and strength, her interpretation of what she has experienced in others. Several creations seemed to speak directly to me or draw me to look closer—and also farther and deeper—into a realm beyond the visual and tactile, into an inner world whence spring beauty, strength and compassion, but where dwell also pain, fear, joy, fire and daring. I do not want to single out particular creations but I can sense that no matter the mood a piece conveys, the woman factor is very evident. 
 
The exhibit is not preachy. No anti-Barbie, antipatriarchy statements. As if it is saying, this is not about them, but about us, about what we know that is beautiful and strong.


"Rosenda's Flight" by Fel R. Plata

Kasibulan (Kababaihan sa Sining at Bagong Sibol na Kamalayan) is a sisterhood of women artists in the visual, literary, performance, and new media arts. It aims to provide members with opportunities for creativity, growth, and self-sufficiency, and is working for the development of distinct women’s expression.

The exhibit is for the benefit of St. Scholastica’s Hospital in Pambujan, Northern Samar. The Missionary Benedictine Sisters are raising P100 million for the long-term sustainable operation of the 25-bed hospital for the poor. I wrote about this three months ago (“A mission hospital for the poor,” 4/11/13) and I provided information on how donors could help. The chief fundraiser, Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB, texted me then to say that she had received a “tsunami” of inquiries from far and near, but I said, let’s see how these will translate into equipment and salaries. The building has been spoken for. 

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And the angels came: Fr. Villote, "erps" to the young and lost, 80

Philippine Daily Inquirer/FEATURES/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

And the angels came.

That was what Fr. Ruben Juco Villote used to say whenever people shared their blessings with the Center for Migrant Youth (CMY), which the diocesan priest founded 31 years ago for young men and boys with nowhere to go in the big city.

Friday, July 6, at 5 a.m., the angels came for him and took him home for good. Villote or “Erps,” as the well-loved priest was fondly called, died after cardiopulmonary arrest at CMY in Quezon City. He was 80. Villote had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years and had been in and out of hospital for treatment.

Villote wrote a column titled “The Word” for the Sunday Inquirer Magazine for many years until 2005. His pieces have been compiled into several volumes, among them “Empowered by His Wounds” and “A Clown Among Many.” Drawing inspiration from his pastoral work among ordinary folk, he wrote in a simple, readable style that everyone understood.

Among the parishes where Villote served were the University of the Philippines Parish of the Holy Sacrifice, where, as assistant pastor, he ministered to a generation of activist students, faculty and employees. He also served in parishes in Tipas in Taguig and Sta. Ana in Manila.

Like the Good Shepherd

After serving in parishes for many years, Villote, with the help of a small but committed group of lay persons, devoted his life to serving the youth through CMY. His wards called him Erps, short for erpat, Filipino slang for father or the Latin pater. Countless youths have sought temporary shelter, education and community life in CMY. Many came hurt and aimless, angry and alone, wounded and desperate. Many left healed and whole, ready to find their places in the world and enrich others’ lives along the way. One even gave up his life to save someone.

In CMY, Villote said, the young learn to trust and be trusted in return, and to give and receive affirmation and reverence. “To be the best they could ever be for the future,” he added. CMY is a special ministry established under the Archdiocese of Manila that included Quezon City during the time of the late Jaime Cardinal Sin. “It is our Mother, the Church, offering her presence to her wounded and defenseless children,” Villote told this writer then. “This is the specific place where I am being called to meet Christ in the poor and where I am invited to share His poverty and shame.”

He described his ministry as like that of the Good Shepherd, who leaves the 99 who are well to look for the one who is lost. It was always a special day when a former CMY resident came back to talk about his new life, he said. Many had gone on to become caring individuals, their success measured not in terms of financial returns but in the way they lived their lives, Villote said.

Masses springing to life

Bishop Honesto F. Ongtioco of the Cubao diocese, to which Villote belonged, said Villote “incarnated the Word of God in his life and in caring for others, especially the migrant youth. He touched many lives with his simplicity, humility and commitment.”

Masses at CMY had always been intimate and interactive—actually a mark of the parishes where Villote had worked. Villote’s homilies were simple but deep. He spoke softly and sparingly but carried a big message. Some years ago, however, his memory started to fail and he lost his ability to communicate.

In the 1970s, many people went all the way to Tipas, Taguig, to experience the liturgy with its glorious music and interact with the fisherfolk. The indigenous color was hard to miss. After Tipas, Villote was assigned to a small parish in Punta, Sta. Ana in Manila, where the parishioners were mostly factory workers. Again, the Masses sprang to life.

But it was really in the University of the Philippines Parish of the Holy Sacrifice that Villote first broke ground as a young assistant pastor. There, he experienced the exuberance and activism of the young, as well as the challenge of intellectual life.

CMY’s Sunday Masses—on Cordillera Street in Quezon City for 23 years and in Fairview for the past eight years—had that Villote touch that made them special. Vibrant Filipino music and sharing of personal reflections made the interactive liturgy alive but intimate. The Philippine flag was always displayed prominently. A small potluck repast capped the liturgy. During the Christmas season, he held special gatherings for street dwellers who often visited the center.

"Josefino"

Born on Dec. 19, 1932, Villote was raised in prewar Tondo, Manila. He studied in public schools and went later to the Jesuit-run San Jose Seminary for diocesan priests. He idolized his Jesuit mentors. He belonged to Class 1959 and was ordained that same year. “We carry the marks of Christ’s passion in our bodies,” the “Josefino” said of his class of four. “Proof of the paschal holocaust we have had to offer through many years as victim-priests on the altar of the Master.”

In 2005, due to his failing health, Villote decided to stop writing his Sunday Inquirer Magazine column. In an interview for a magazine Christmas cover story, he said: “We must gradually move away from the sweet and pious rituals of the First Coming of Christ. We must journey towards the more radical and painful work of renewing the world and restoring all things in Christ so that justice and righteousness may begin to prevail in the New Heaven and the New Earth as a sign of the Second Coming.”

Villote is survived by his brother Rolly, sister-in-law Bess, nephew Jonathan and relatives, as well as his extended family of loyal friends and the “young-once” he had helped.

His remains lie at Loyola Memorial Chapel on Commonwealth Avenue until noon Sunday, at the University of the Philippines Diliman Parish of the Holy Sacrifice until Tuesday morning and at Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cubao until Wednesday morning.#

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Church's second best kept secret

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

If the social teachings of the Catholic Church are sometimes considered its best kept secret, meaning that most Catholics do not know about them, or Church leaders have not made them known enough for members to live by them, what is its second best kept secret?
Not the scandals—sexual, financial or political—for these have occupied enough media space and air time. Not the hidden saintly lives worth emulating, for they come into the light sooner or later and gain following. Not the enormous wealth of the institution vis à vis the chosen poverty of those who wish to follow Jesus to the letter, for these sharp contrasts are obvious.

The Church’s “second best kept secret”—as those who wish to see it popularized and practiced impatiently call it—is the natural family planning (NFP) method. Second best kept secret because in spite of its supposed efficacy, not many know about it. Second best kept secret because those who should be advocating it (those fulminating against the recently passed Reproductive Health Law) are spending their energy badmouthing the RH advocates instead of buckling down to work to promote NFP. They are losing by default.

NFP is one of many means to plan family sizes or space births that the Catholic Church approves of, all the rest—contraceptives, abortion, vasectomy and tubal ligation—being anathema. Two weeks ago I attended the daylong “Orientation to Population and Development” which tackled “challenges to the Filipino family today.”

Among the event’s objectives was for participants to gain insight from the experiences in NFP of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro (CDO) and to engage Church people in a dialogue of faith on population and development issues. Also on the agenda was to explore areas of collaboration among Church and people’s groups in working for the wellbeing of Filipino families. The organizers were from the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (Urban Missionaries, Women and Gender Concerns, and Center for Migrant Concerns) in partnership with the Philippine Center for Population and Development (PCPD). The gathering was an exercise in listening.

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Malakas at Maganda II: Women's Group Exhibit of Power and Beauty

ANNOUNCEMENT/INVITATION

Kasibulan (Kababaihan sa Sining at Bagong Sibol na Kamalayan) will be launching its second “Malakas at Maganda” group exhibition series with the theme of woman being both strong and beautiful. The exhibit opens on July 6, Saturday, 4pm at the St. Scholastica’s Museum on Vito Cruz Street, Malate, Manila, with Guests of Honor Ceres Doyo, Tina Monzon-Palma, and Maan Hontiveros. The exhibit runs until August 3.

The exhibit project is for the benefit of St. Scholastica’s Hospital in Pambujan, Northern Samar. Sister Mary John Mananzan, OSB, has spearheaded the building of the 25-bed hospital, which will serve the poorest in this community in critical need.

The exhibit is the second leg of the Malakas at Maganda series that showcases the Kasibulan artists’ definitions of women’s power, which includes the power to lead, govern, inspire, encourage, and effect change. In one legend of the creation of humans, the man was named “Malakas” (Strong), and the Woman “Maganda” (Beautiful), which perpetrates the stereotype that only man is capable of being strong, and woman should only strive to be beautiful. To claim the term “Malakas at Maganda” to describe a woman is thus to claim virtues that she naturally possesses: she is strong, and she is beautiful.

“Malakas at Maganda II” features artists Vivian Nocum Limpin, Brenda V. Fajardo, June Dalisay, Anna Fer, Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Julie Lluch, Baidy Mendoza, Doris G. Rodriguez, Elaine Lopez-Clemente, Charito Bitanga, Aba Lluch Dalena, Susan Fetalvero Roces, Yasmin Almonte, Lea Lim, Eden T. Ocampo, Tinsley Garanchon, Amihan Jumalon, Arlene Villaver, Christine Sioco, Fel R. Plata, Lot Arboleda, Lenore RS Lim, Bernadette R. Reyes, Anne Carmela Rosario, Athena Magcase-Lopez, and Nicole Anne Asis.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a Kasibulan Arts Bazaar on July 6 from 10am until 7pm, and will feature book art pieces from Veronica Laurel, and other artist-made crafts from the other members. Kasibulan will also hold Artist Talks at St. Scholastica’s Museum, on July 12, Friday, 10am – 12nn, on the topic “The Babaylan in the Modern Age”, with main speaker National Historical Commissioner Fe Mangahas, Marjorie Evasco and Imelda Cajipe – Endaya. Artist Talk on July 26, Friday, 10am – 12nn, on the topic “Traditional Art in the Age of New Media”, with main speaker UP Department of Art Studies Professor Eileen Legaspi Ramirez, Vivian N, Limpin and Glenda Maye Abad, moderated by Bebang Siy.

Both talks are open to the public. Exhibit closing: Sketch session with guest artist Lynette Villariba.

Kasibulan is a sisterhood of women artists in the visual, literary, performance, and new media arts, with the mission of providing members with opportunities for creativity, growth, and self-sufficiency, and working for the development of distinct women's expression.

Contact Details: For more details, please call Veronica Laurel at (63 926) 124-3539 or Doris G. Rodriguez at (63 917) 583-4294.

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