Pope John Paul II launched my writing career

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo (This piece came out on page 1 of the Inquirer in 1995 when Pope John Paul II visited the Philippines for the second time. Here is a shortened version to celebrate his beatification on May 1, 2011.) WELL, AS they say, everyone has a story to tell. I have mine. And I might as well tell it too. The first feature story I ever wrote in my life got me and the magazine editor in big trouble with the...

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A glimpse of Paradise Lost

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURES/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoFiled Under: People, Environmental Issues, Natural Resources (general) HE knew the wilderness and its many secrets. Each leaf, each stem, each trunk spoke to him in ways ordinary humans might not hear. He hearkened to them and gave them names. From under the huge canopy of green that was his second home, he would emerge, carrying with him evidence of rare and amazing life. He had glimpsed paradise....

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An Ofw's Via Crucis

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoFiled Under: Overseas Employment, Religion & Belief THIS HOLY Week, put aside the good old devotional prayers and walk the road to Calvary via the path of the overseas Filipino workers. Carry their burden, wear their crown of thorns, drink from their empty cups, feel the stripes on their backs and the fever on their brows. Broil in the desert sand, be tossed at sea, descend to the pit of...

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Cashing in on poverty

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoFiled Under: Poverty, Entertainment (general), Television, child abuse, Crime CAN WE really believe, as we are made to believe, that the live TV shows that draw in the poor and feature the poor for entertainment purposes in exchange for easy money were conceived with altruistic motives and not for huge profits? In the wake of the recent furor over the “Willing Willie” TV show that featured what looked like a discombobulated six-year-old boy gyrating like a macho dancer and other similar display...

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Toxic sea: NIMBY

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoFiled Under: Disasters (general), Advice, Nuclear accident, Safety of Citizens ALARMISTS AND doomsday soothsayers are abroad in the land in the aftermath of the disaster several weeks ago that devastated Japan, considered the most disaster-prepared country in the world. Many of us are wont to say: Think how we would all be had the triple whammy happened in our disaster-prone country where disaster...

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