What religious freedom in the Philippines?

Dear Jose Katigbak,
STAR, Washington Bureau

Funny story you wrote!

What religious freedom in the Philippines?

"Generally respected" is a neutral description but was blown up in your title to "praises" as to impress to the readers that the Philippines indeed is enjoying religious freedom. How could the US government be praising another government that prefers to practice selective perception?

It is not just to the Muslims that the Philippine government is failing to score in terms of religious freedom. The Movies and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) alone under the Office of the President and headed by Ma. Consoliza Laguardia is patently biased and along human rights and religious freedom has dismal, dispiriting scores. Laguardia has been partial to the Ang Dating Daan ever since, while favoring the interests of another group. Please read -

Church Politicking may Push RP as Country of Particular Concern

Soriano, the Great Communicator, Will Not Budge

Mangled Tapes set to make Muslims hit Christian Preacher

I hope you’ll get to know why these things are happening.

When the guys prefer to scratch each other’s back, then they begin to tear someone to pieces so that they can continue with their shenanigans.

This is what we call a system – an evil system – and there is no religious freedom in it.

Fury as academics claim 9/11 was 'inside job'

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An inside job would not be logical. But the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and whatever agencies involved - going all for the glory, never wanting to share data, secretly wanting to grab the limelight alone when one day they catch the big one - is logical.

A mere “inside job” speculation like this does not help any. It only confirms the West’s inability to distinguish moderate Islamists from the extremists and in so doing advance the cause of the latter. Ever heard of the new Muslim consciousness?

While much effort are being spent to understand the ideology of these people and make for sensible approaches toward solutions, careless talk and actions from the academe meanwhile gnaw faster to decimate such efforts without any idea how such talk can work to backfire. And how! In the end, bin Laden’s dreams, in the noise of all these theorizing, may see fulfillment as their hero’s statistics of American catch is toted up.

Harry Potter, signature of the king of darkness

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Amen to that. Satan is the prince of the air, riding roughshod over communication lines - albeit subtly. If one is not careful over what he views and what he reads, then he or she may be influenced by these forms of broadcasts. Ever heard of subliminal messages? There are a lot on TV these days.

Let's say you are fond of viewing drama where people's language are corrupt and the characters are beautiful but the behavior is more base than that of an animal. Without your knowing it, eventually, you would be receiving the language and the behavior as normal and acceptable even, that you begin to internalize them as part of your system.

Now, I understand why my elders proscribed the viewing of such films. The mind is better kept pristine from the ways of this world. Really, one doesn't have to taste poison to know it's poison.

An Island Is Born

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I have been watching an island this size from a distance and the effect is poetic. The island changes shape. It's not the same throughout. Some days it looks like the letter O, sometimes a C, sometimes an L, sometimes an S. And sometimes you don't see it at all, but this is very rare. It all depends upon the play of tide on it. The island is very white at times too, and sometimes very pink. This is the effect of corals on it. I wrote a poem about this island, in fact.

I hope this one doesn't disappear.

Half-baked news foisted on us again

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Home > Brian Ross Special Index > The Blotter

Once again, there is news with so many quotation marks for blind items and many loopholes. Who are "informed sources close to the mediations" that Hoda Osman used as sources?

Osman wrote >>>>>The U.S. secretly negotiated with the group through leaders of "the Palestinian popular resistance committees." Who are these leaders and these committees? What were this group's "real demands?"

Most of all, what are the identities of those two Fox News journalists in Gaza, supposedly kidnapped on August 14 that are the subjects of this news? With all these ambiguities in this account, this so-called “news” is half-baked!

So, when will traditional reporting of this kind change?