'Sanayan lang'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Photo by Kristine Angeli Sabillo In English, “sanayan lang” roughly translates as “one gets used to it.” Or, to borrow a line from the musical “My Fair Lady,” one grows accustomed to a face, to someone, to something, but in a “loverly” way. There are things to which one should not simply get accustomed, so that one becomes numb and disabled from reacting. Among these are suffering, cruelty...

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The Wise Women

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo You have heard the “would have” story about the Three Wise Women at the birth of Jesus. Its origin is unknown. Some humorless know-it-alls question its biblical, theological, geographical and even astronomical (something about the guiding star) possibility. But here it is, anyway. “What would have happened if it had been Three Wise Women instead of Three Wise Men? They would have asked for...

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Forgiveness does not erase the crime

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo For the traditional pre-Christmas simbang gabi (dawn masses, actually), the first of which is scheduled at dawn tomorrow, there will be an anticipated Mass at 9 p.m. tonight (Thursday) in front of the People Power monument on Edsa. It is dubbed “Sambayanan, simbang gabi ng siklab bayan.” (Samba means worship, and sambayanan means people or society.) A people in worshipful, prayerful gathering....

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Martial law killed them in their youth

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned. —from “Dirge Without Music” by Edna St. Vincent Millay For lack of space, I could not write about each of the 19 new heroes/martyrs honored on Nov. 30 at the...

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Forgiveness for the unrepentant

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Art work by Edicio dela Torre It is one thing to have forgiveness in one’s heart for tormentors and abusers, even for the most hardened and unrepentant, and, in silence, lift one’s pain to the heavens—something victims can do for themselves to exorcise the pain. But it is quite another to bestow honors on the hardened and unrepentant, allow them to reopen wounds and mock the victims of...

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