Goldman prize for anti-mining priest

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo HE AND Mangyan leaders put their lives on the line and went on a hunger strike in 2009 to protest mining operations in Mindoro. I saw this for myself and wrote about their do-or-die move. Their sacrifices paid off. Filipino Catholic priest Fr. Edwin “Edu” Gariguez, 49, was one of the six recipients of the 2012 Goldman Environmental Prize awarded last April 16 in San Francisco. These...

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Boracay Ati home at last

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Around this time last year, I spoke with Delsa Supitran Justo, Ati leader from Boracay. Her people, she told me, were being barred from occupying their ancestral land in the so-called island paradise (not anymore, if you ask me) that was their ancestors’ home since the dawn of time. I wrote a piece titled “Boracay Ati barred from ancestral domain.” She said in the language I could understand: “Panginmatyan namon ini kay amon ini.” (We will lay down our lives for this land because it is ours.) Questions...

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Titanic: "A night to remember"

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo When we were kids and there were good movies showing in the city, our parents would take us to watch these movies with them and they would explain to us what these were all about, after or even during the showing. We got a good dose of historical movies—World War II, gladiator and Bible movies mostly. One of the movies that still sticks in my mind is “A Night to Remember,” which was about the...

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'When the fall is imminent'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Last week’s by-elections saw Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi winning a seat by a landslide and her party winning 43 of the 44 parliament seats up for grabs in her country. It’s still a long way for her but she could run for president in 2015. The piece below was written in October 2007 after my interview with Catholic Burmese nuns who were studying here at that time. It was...

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