LAST GOOD FRIDAY, complaining about having nothing to do, my daughter told me, “You meditate.” Meditate? That’s a good idea. And being a sinner why not meditate on sin? I did some reading and found it interesting.
Lately, Pope Benedict XVI warned, “We are losing the notion of sin,” as he bewailed the decreasing number of […]

THIS RICE CRISIS is serious. It’s really serious. The people can forgive officials stealing money in the ZTE-NBN deal or selling out our patrimony in the Spratly. Or other deals.
But when there’s no more rice in the pot, you cannot blame them if they stage a revolt. The roots of the French Revolution were the hungry […]

EASTER is Christendom’s greatest and most important feast. For Easter is Ressurection. It is re-birth. It is renewal. It gives a deeper meaning to Good Friday’s Crucifixion culminating in Easter Sunday’s Resurrection. It is awakening!
In the ritual of Nature, Easter comes in Spring time. And in Nature’s symbolism of life’s cycle, from the harshness of Winter, […]

I WENT TO A Catholic university and my memory of Holy Week was of Holy Retreats and the stentorian baritone of Irish Redemptorists booming, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?”
Now, they call Holy Retreats the Lenten Reflection. It is better.

IN THE NOT too distant past, Holy Week was characterized by Holy Retreats, a time of meditation on the Passion of Christ, how He died in the Cross for our salvation.
The public officials would go to Baguio or very recently to Tagaytay to listen to the words of faith from well-known Retreat Masters.
We did have […]

NEGROS OCCIDENTAL Governor Joseph G. Marañon will be laid to rest today in Sagay City. Not only the province but the whole country as well mourns his passing because Joseph Galicia Marañon has served his province and his people well that has left a lasting monument in their hearts.
One of the best tributes to Governor Marañon was […]

THE CONGRESSIONAL inquiry on the alleged irregularities in the contract between Ceneco and Kepco-Salcon is actually to find the truth. A question was asked and it should be answered, “Who brokered the deal?”
The way Ceneco continues to refuse to get the approval of the Coop members and not revealing contents of the contract is actually […]

THE CONGRESSIONAL hearing at the Capitol by the Committee on Energy chaired by Rep. Mikey Arroyo was successful yesterday after the oppositors dominated the discussion in the absence of Ceneco President Roberto Montelibano, officials of NEA, and those of Kepco-Salcon. Congressman Monico Puentevella lectured to those absent that they seemed to be not taking seriously […]

A CONGRESSIONAL inquiry will be held this afternoon at the Capitol on the questionable contract entered into between Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) and the Korean Electric Power Company (Kepco).
I will be attending it with the letter invitation from Rep. Mikey Arroyo, chairman of the committee on energy. The invitation was on my having been […]

I WANT TO pay tribute to a long time friend, Atty. Simplicio A. Palanca who celebrates his 85th birthday today. People who have benefited from his work in building a port here are joining me in the salute.
I have seen a few men in Negros Occidental who have the vision, the foresight, the tenacity, the single-mindedness, […]