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Two bits of good news lighten up the start of 2025

Two bits of good news lighten up the start of 2025

Surely, the increasing number of self-declared poor among our people is a cause for national concern. The government’s poverty-reduction program definitely needs serious evaluation, what with the contributory negative causes such as calamities, both natural and man-made, that come aplenty every year. This negative trend notwithstanding, two positive developments at the beginning of the new year provide us reasons to cheer up.

Balik-Tanaw | A reflection on Epiphany, and what it may mean for our times

Balik-Tanaw | A reflection on Epiphany, and what it may mean for our times

When the album Folklore was released on July 2020, it was just months after Covid 19 affected the entire world.  Taylor Swift isolated herself in those days, but aloneness proved to be fertile ground for a revelation.  One song stood out among those included in the album.  In this poetic, lyrical piece, Swift “empathizes with doctors and nurses, who served the affected despite their harrowing work, and mental trauma they have to experience while handling the loss of human lives.”  

Int’l rights body criticizes failed PH drug policy under Duterte, Marcos Jr

Int’l rights body criticizes failed PH drug policy under Duterte, Marcos Jr

Jerrie Abella, an AI campaigner, detailed the three critical stages where human rights violations occur: during arrests, within drug detention centers, and post-release. Abella described so-called "drug rehabilitation centers" as punitive detention facilities where individuals, including adolescents, are subjected to invasive drug tests and forced treatment. These centers, he said, do not offer rehabilitation but instead serve as sites of coercion.

When a national expressway destroyed rice fields in Nueva Ecija, farmers’ debts and floods deepened

When a national expressway destroyed rice fields in Nueva Ecija, farmers’ debts and floods deepened

As the Philippines loan burden rises from internationally-funded projects like the P11.8-billion (USD 200, 218, 740)  Central Luzon Link Expressway (CLLEX), local farmers are forced to constantly borrow money to sustain their livelihoods and families for day-to-day survival.

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