RM awardee Krisana Kraisintu: Cheap drugs for poorest

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Feautre/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoMANILA, Philippines—Thai pharmacist Krisana Kraisintu vividly remembers coming to the Philippines many years ago and visiting a large Filipino-owned drug manufacturing facility. Someone generously shared with her the formula for a tuberculosis medicine that she took back to her home country and worked on so that the sick poor could avail of it. It was a display of Filipino generosity Kraisintu...

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RM award for China's water guardians

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Feature by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoMANILA, Philippines—Two Chinese activists who have literally immersed themselves in turbulent waters are among this year’s six Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation awardees. Working separately and through different means, Ma Jun and Yu Xiaogang have devoted their lives to reversing the threat to China’s water systems, for many the source of life and livelihood. Ma, 41, a former journalist, is being...

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OFWs’ quest for healing

Father Robert Reyes, the so-called “running priest” who is now working with a human rights group in Hong Kong has come out with a collection of his reflections on his late younger brother Vincent who died of lung cancer in 2004 at the age of 47. A case has been filed against a giant tobacco company which must answer for the illness and death that cigarettes have caused and which Reyes is pursuing on behalf of his brother. But that is another story. The book, “Vincent, Dying and Living” contains personal reflections, recollections as Robert accompanied...

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Hidden cameras and Cory’s huge suitcase

If you were one of those who visited Ninoy Aquino during the eight years (1972 to 1980) that he was in military prison, chances are a photograph of yourself was among the hundreds that the military studied and kept in their dossiers for whatever purpose they might have served. And chances are your photo is now in the archives of Ninoy’s widow, former President Corazon Aquino, who passed away on Aug. 1 and had a massive send-off that could rival Ninoy’s. Hadn’t Cory sent you a copy when she was alive? During her presidency that started after the...

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Bad bananas and collateral damage

I do not understand why there are people who vigorously defend aerial spraying of banana plantations even though it adversely affects communities that live and farm in the vicinity of these plantations. I do not understand why they do not realize that what is poisonous and deadly for pests and fungi in bananas is also poisonous and deadly for human beings, farm animals and plants. I do not understand why they do not want to use safer methods which are just as effective and are being used in places where aerial spraying is banned. The banana growers...

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Aerial spraying: People run for cover when crop dusters fly

Philippine Daily Inquirer/FeaturesMANILA, Philippines — “Dili kami peste (We are not pests.)” This is the cry of communities near banana plantations in Mindanao who have to suffer the adverse effects of regular toxic aerial spraying meant to kill pests in bananas. School children on their way to school, farmers cultivating their small farms, people drinking coffee al fresco and families doing their daily chores are among those who suffer indirect...

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Sainthood for Cory

Blessed Corazon. Santa Cory. Saint Cory Aquino of the Philippines. Filipinos will have to get used to the sound of it. The renewed groundswell of adulation and fervor directed toward former President Corazon C. Aquino who died on Aug. 1 could point to a new direction: Rome. Already, many people, Church leaders among them, are putting religious significance in the manner, time and timeliness of her death. It will not be farfetched if many Filipinos begin to consider Cory a candidate for canonization, or at least for beatification by the Roman...

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