Christmas news story: Aquino among the Mangyans

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo SOMETHING GROUNDBREAKING and historic happened on December 15. But there was no mention of it in the national media. No news stories, no photos, no TV coverage. But so what. For the community of Hanunuo, Gubatnon and Ratagnon (Hagura) Mangyans of Occidental Mindoro it was a day they will never forget. President Benigno Aquino III flew to Magsaysay town to make the day very special. The Mangyans...

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'The Masses are Messiah'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo LAUNCHED LAST week was Karl M. Gaspar’s latest book, “The Masses are Messiah: Contemplating the Filipino Soul.” I was asked to write a blurb for the book’s back cover. After looking at the title I was discombobulated. But I thought I’d try. How does one distill into five sentences the essence of a book that was several years in the making and took the author over mountains and valleys, across...

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Where advent means waiting with joy

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURE/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo THEY come from different walks of life and circumstances—each with a special life story to tell. Somewhere, sometime, at a certain point in their lives, they had reached what looked like the end of the road. For most of them, there was no one and nothing left except a last painful stretch of a life that had yet to be spent. To whom will they go while they wait? The residents of Anawim, Home of...

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Blood under the bridge

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo THE SUPREME Court’s verdict is out, and it is final. Webb et al., accused and convicted for the crimes of rape and murder now known as the Vizconde massacre, have been acquitted and are walking free after spending 15 years in prison. One of the things that bothered me about this case (and I have not heard it being stressed enough) is that the suspects, who became the accused in this case, were identified in 1995 or thereabouts, some four years after the crime happened in 1991. Four years is...

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'The only way is up'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo CONGRATULATIONS TO the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (AIDFI) and the villages in Negros Occidental where the ram pump was introduced and changed the lives of so many people in need of clean and continuous water supply.AIDFI won first prize in this year’s BBC World Challenge, a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have...

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Taal: A Marian heritage site like no other

Philippine Daily Inquirer/FEATURES/Lifestyle/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoNO OTHER town in Batangas is like Taal. Walking down its streets is like walking down through history. Declared a heritage town by the National Historical Commission, Taal offers many come-ons.There is the basilica of Saint Martin of Tours, known to be the biggest in Southeast Asia; the Spanish-era structures and homes of great Filipinos; the lake and its active volcano; the exquisite...

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10 things that make PH ugly: readers react

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoI GOT interesting e-mail from readers, both Filipinos and non-Filipinos from here and abroad, all of them male, who reacted to last week’s column piece, “10 things that make PH ugly.” One thing I’ve known all along: when you make a list, you are likely going to be swamped with items to add to it. I GOT interesting e-mail from readers, both Filipinos and non-Filipinos from here and abroad, all of them male, who reacted to last week’s column piece, “10 things that make PH ugly.” One thing I’ve...

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13 names added on heroes wall

Philippine Daily Inquirer/FEATURES/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Human rights lawyers, a pastor, teachers and organizers of students, the youth, peasants and communities?13 men in all, two of them, brothers?will be honored on Tuesday and their names engraved on the Wall of Remembrance at the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani (Monument of Heroes) in Quezon City. The way they lived and died varied?some were arbitrarily killed or disappeared, while others died of natural causes. This year?s honorees bring to 193 the names etched on the black granite Wall of Remembrance...

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10 things that make PH ugly

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The little paper that roared

Editor's note: For 25 days, we will be telling stories about the Inquirer to mark the paper's 25th anniversary on Dec. 9, 2010. Some are littel stories but impacting oon how we cover unfolding events; some are mark-the-day stories that became talk-of-the-town types, others are turning point stories that have changed the landscape of history, still others, big or small, seize the heart and never let go. But whatever, the Inquirer will tell you the story. First of the 25-day series Philippine Daily Inquirer/FEATURES/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo MANILA,...

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Save Sakineh from death by stoning

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoSENTENCED TO death by stoning is Iranian woman Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani who was accused of committing adultery and other crimes. What a barbaric, messy way to kill a person. I watched a convicted rapist die by lethal injection more than 10 years ago (after the death penalty was revived and enforced for several years) and I still remember the details. Although everything at the death chamber...

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Her true colors

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURES/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo FROM red to Red. But before coming full circle, she had her share of long and winding roads that sometimes led to straight and narrow paths as well as dark tunnels and well-lit alleys. Then at some point, she just knew it was time to make a sharp turn and bid goodbye to a world she had known so well and embrace a life that would be the fitting culmination, if not continuation, of her commitment...

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A few meters of loving space

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURES/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo WHEN I asked her how couples can be intimate in such a congested setting, the slum woman gave out a throaty laugh. “Ah, wala nang pa-tumbling-tumbling pa. Deretso na kaagad para makaraos.” She sounded almost casual. “You know,” she added, “you are the second person to ask me that. The first one was a Belgian woman who came to visit us and see how we lived.” I was then doing the mini-biography (her odyssey, actually) of this spunky but consumptive slum woman. We were chatting in the “privacy”...

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Miracle, live on 'Dr. Love RAdio Show'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo JANICE (NOT her real name) was holding a bottle of pills and ready to gulp them down and call it quits. But first she was going to end the lives of her four young children before ending her own.That was the scenario in her mind when she called dzMM Teleradyo on Tuesday night. When Janice called out for help, the “Dr. Love Radio Show” (10 p.m. to 12 midnight, Monday to Friday) of Brother Jun...

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Weaving meaning into loss

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURES/By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo JOY and hope. These a mother continues to weave into the fabric of her life even after a loss that tore into her heart. She wears them like the bright shawls of silk that she fashions from nature's looms.Rather than dwell in the abyss of grief and sorrow, Jean Margaret ?Jeannie? Lim Goulbourn decided to put meaning into her daughter?s life and death and, by so doing, help those who find themselves...

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Very low fertility in Asia: A Study

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo WHILE THERE is an urgent need and reason to manage the Philippines’ galloping population increase in relation to the country’s economic ability/inability to provide quality life for the teeming millions who live in penury, there is also reason to pause a while and look at what is happening to our wealthy Asian neighbors. The current issues on reproductive health and population control have triggered acrimonious debates between the pro- and the anti-RH bill, between the Church hierarchy and...

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Very low fertility in Asia: A Study

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoWHILE THERE is an urgent need and reason to manage the Philippines’ galloping population increase in relation to the country’s economic ability/inability to provide quality life for the teeming millions who live in penury, there is also reason to pause a while and look at what is happening to our wealthy Asian neighbors. The current issues on reproductive health and population control have triggered acrimonious debates between the pro- and the anti-RH bill, between the Church hierarchy and the...

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