Odds and Ends 11/19/10

Lawmakers defend Noy's 'lightweight' Cabinet appointees

MANILA, Philippines - Administration lawmakers rushed yesterday to the defense of President Aquino’s “lightweight” Cabinet officials, whose confirmation in the Commission on Appointments (CA) remains uncertain. The House members were reacting to threats from Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, a member of the CA, to “massacre” at least six Cabinet officials of the Aquino administration for their supposed arrogance and incompetence. She had called the unnamed officials “smug, self-satisfied, non-elected appointees” and “lightweights.” The President dismissed Santiago’s threat, saying “she’s entitled to her own opinion.”

Actually, I would tend to agree with Senator Santiago's position to remove the 'lightweights' in President Aquino’s appointed Cabinet officials, PROVIDED we also remove the 'super-lightweights' in the Senate and Lower House.
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Joker renews call on Holy See to correct number of Pinoy cardinals

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Joker Arroyo reiterated yesterday his call on Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams, and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to reply to the Senate’s call to increase the number of Filipino cardinals in the country.

In a privilege speech last Wednesday, Arroyo expressed the need for the Senate to reiterate anew its “sense” before Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic hierarchy over the “grossly disproportionate” number of Filipino cardinals to the huge Catholic population of the Philippines. Arroyo noted that the Senate adopted a resolution on the matter on Nov. 7, 2007 but the Senate has not gotten any response from the Holy See until now.

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE !!! SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE !!! SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE !!! SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE !!!

Aahhh. That feels so gooood to turn the tables around, once in a while. I guess the Holy See should respond by issuing a doctrinal note that demands that the Philippine legislative chambers get populated by authentic, practising Catholics, not of the cafeteria kind. After all, the Philippines is the second country in the world with the biggest number of Catholics but is ironically lacking in PRACTISING Catholic Senators and Congressmen.
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'Phl could get poorer due to ballooning population'

MANILA, Philippines - A US-based population and health expert yesterday warned that the Philippines could be as impoverished as Somalia because of its ballooning population. Dr. Malcolm Potts, professor at the Bixby Center for Population, Health and Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley, said the growing population is the most important issue in the country.

He said the Philippines’ population could hit 160 million in the next 40 years if the government would not implement an effective reproductive health policy. “Unless a reproductive health bill goes through, unless you are able to offer the poorest economic quintile living on P5 a day the choices that they deserve, then people will be poorer, you will be importing food, you will (be) more like Somalia than like Thailand,” Potts said in a forum organized by the Asia Society Philippine Foundation, Inc...

Ho-hum...ad nauseam, ad nauseam...

Now repeat after me:

PNoy: Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.
Pro RH-Bill: Kung walang mahirap, walang mahirap!
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