Opinion

If we really want to truly love, we should be willing to suffer for others out of love for God and for all souls. We need to realize that the willingness to suffer is the ultimate proof that our love is genuine. Love should not just be a matter of goodwill, of benevolence, of doing some good to others. It has to go all the way to an eagerness to suffer for the others.This is what Christ has done for us and has commanded us to do. Being both God and man, Christ should be seen by us as the epitome of true love which is the very essence of God that is also meant for us since we are supposed to be God’s image and likeness.In showing us that love where the willingness to suffer is highlighted, St. Paul made this description of Christ: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is your...

What do you mean by safe? If your definition of the word safe is "harmless," no vaccine or drug is 100 percent safe. Almost all vaccines can cause pain, swelling, or redness at the site of injection. With this definition of safe, almost nothing is safe. Even everyday activities contain hidden dangers.For example, eating a piece of food or drinking anything liquid can block the throat and make you choke. Taking a bath or shower is not harmless. In fact in Japan, about 19,000 people die in their own bathrooms every year and over 5,000 people in the United States are killed when food lodges in their windpipe. Of the 5,051 people who died from choking in 2015, 2,848 were older than 74.Food is often responsible for choking incidents in the elderly. But none of us consider taki...

Last week, Bacolod had a good cause to celebrate. University of St. La Salle graduate, Patrick Joseph Mabugat took second place in the recent Physician Licensure Exam alongside another Negrense, Adrian Teves from Bayawan, Negros Oriental.Mabugat was also topnotcher in the 2014 licensure exam for medical technologist and his recent accomplishment was also lauded by Bacolod Mayor Bing Leonardia.But more than his academic achievements, Mabugat’s dedication to his profession is evident after he, along with co-interns at the Philippine General Hospital, decided to stay on as volunteers when the pandemic broke out knowing PGH was the first COVID-designated hospital in the country and was, in fact, quarantined five times before he took his exams as he was always on the road.A few...

Today we begin a new year in the Church calendar (cycle B). As with every liturgical year, we start with the season of Advent which prepares us for the celebration of Christmas.While we remember the first coming of Christ on Christmas day, the Church wants us also to look forward to his second coming. Hence, our preparation is not only for the celebration of his birth two thousand years ago but also in hopeful expectation for his return at the end of time when he will take us with him into his glory.You must have noticed that the Advent season is much like the Lenten season: the color of the priest’s vestments is violet, the Gloria is not sung on Sundays… This is because like Lent, the spirit of Advent is one of penance. Preparing for the coming of Jesus, whether the first or ...

We are meant to love everyone, even including our enemies. Christ said so. He even offered forgiveness to those who crucified him. And that’s simply because, irrespective of how we are individually and among each other, we are all brothers and sisters, children of God who loves us all the way, without counting the cost, as Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Fratelli tutti” (All brothers), reminds us strongly.That is why we have to do all so that we can show and live that love in reality, in actual time, and not just in good intentions and nice words, which we are notorious in. For this we have to be open and friendly with everyone, caring and eager to help in any way we can with everyone. For this, of course, we have to be willing to make sacrifices, because definitely, it will require of...

We cannot deny the very important and crucial role journalism plays in our life. It is supposed to bring us relevant pieces of news and information daily or in some regular fashion.Journalism exerts tremendous influence in forming and shaping public opinion which is always a very dynamic thing, marked by many different and even conflicting views. It definitely is a necessity in any given society, let alone, the whole world. That is why it has to be practiced with a lot of care and sensitivity.Given its fast-moving and delicate character, it behooves everyone engaged in it to really find the proper spirit that should animate his journalism. It should not just be at the mercy of first impressions, knee-jerk reactions, off-the-cuff comments, or shooting from the hips. It requires...

After months of waiting and a mega turnover with much press release, the new 32-bed COVID-19 isolation facility at Brgy. Alijis in Bacolod City remains that – a mere press release.The light in the minds of the powers that be in City Hall was apparently not powered enough to ensure that power is installed in order to operate the new isolation center.It was both hilarious and annoying to learn that three weeks post the turnover, the facility stands in the field unused because no one – neither officials nor anyone from the thousands of employees under the city government, ever thought that power is vital for the facility to function.What irks me is knowing that the facility, as announced, will serve as a recovery center for those who had been hospitalized but have recuperated eno...

We don’t know exactly when a COVID-19 vaccine will be ready for distribution, but a good guess would be mid-2021 – that’s not too far from today.There have been some very encouraging news from several vaccine candidates and there are a dozen other vaccines now in Phase 3 clinical trials, also known as efficacy trials – the last stage before a developer can apply for regulatory approval or license.This also means these vaccines have passed certain goalposts in terms of initial evaluations of safety and immune response (Phase 1 and Phase 2) that’s why they are now being evaluated in larger (Phase 3) trials.We now know that the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccine work.Unfortunately, the results were announced via press releases, leaving many sci...

Bacolod City Health Officer Dr. Carmela Gensoli is being investigated for violating RA 11332 or the “Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act” by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) upon the complaint of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV).This was a law passed in 2018, under the 17th Congress, way before the COVID-19 pandemic became known to the world. I guess the law was passed to safeguard the public under highly communicable diseases, not knowing that the law would come into play just a year and a half later when the coronavirus became known.According to news reports, the CHO allegedly failed to report some 90 COVID-positive patients who were also not subjected to contact tracing between th...

With the celebration of the Solemnity of Christ the King followed by that of the first Sunday of Advent, we are marking both the end of a liturgical year and the beginning of another one. Such celebrations should make us more aware of the significance of liturgy in our life and need to develop in each one of us what we may call our liturgical life.Liturgy as defined and described in our Catechism is the celebration of the Christian mystery that refers to the wonderful truth of our faith that Christ continues to accomplish his redemptive work with all throughout time.In it, we are made to be aware that Christ’s work of redemption which culminated in his passion, death, and resurrection, and made present in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, is not just a historical event, but...