OPINION: Manila ecumenical service an ‘empty gesture,’ activists say Political activists criticized the government’s “National Day of Prayer” for victims of disasters yesterday as an empty gesture in the face of thousands of displaced families who continue to wait for aid in the central Philippines. The youth group Anakbayan called President Benigno Aquino a “hypocrite” for holding an ecumenical prayer service amid reports of “insufficient and corruption-ridden” rehabilitation program of devastated areas. “Aquino should rename Monday’s event ‘National Day of Sleeping’ because that is what he has been doing for [typhoon] survivors,” said Vencer Crisostomo, national chairman of Anakbayan. Aquino yesterday led representatives of different faiths, government and civil society groups in an interfaith prayer service. Presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma Jr said the event is “an opportunity for people of different faiths to just be together in unity and solidarity with the Filipino people”. Among those who attended the prayer service, held on the grounds of the presidential palace in Manila, were Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Zenaida Pawid of the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples, Imam Ebra Moxsir of the Imam Council of the Philippines and representatives from the Iglesia ni Cristo church and the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches. Aquino earlier said that the disasters that hit the country last year “tell us that, despite all our efforts, we are indeed powerless without God.” Some 8,000 people have perished in the central Philippines from Super Typhoon Haiyan last November. A group called People Surge, an alliance of typhoon survivors in the Eastern Visayas region, said conditions in the region have not improved. SOURCE: UCA News the president thinks God will hear him, darn. all of those problems can be remedied by human effort, they are not beyond human control, so why ask divine intervention to solve problems that can be humanly done? they have the resources, both from the national and foreign, why not use them? nakakahiya ang gobyernong ito, ang kaya lang nilang gawin ay ang magdasal kahit na may kakayahan silang tumulong, tsk!
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 03:06:52 +0000
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