The Montalvan morality
On Oct. 11, 2010, Antonio J. Montalvan II, whose column appears in this paper, denounced performer Carlos Celdran’s recent and controversial theatrics at the Manila Cathedral. Celdran interrupted a Holy Mass to throw down his gauntlet before the friars, an act that should rightly offend anyone of any religion, whoever the deity, whatever the prayer.
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Church of Magdalena
They found her in bed, one Thursday in December. The security cameras had her walking into the lobby at nine. Red dress, red nails, glossy red lips. Heels that shot silver against the marble floor.
The bellboy found her two hours later sprawled on lavender silk sheets, soaked in her trademark red. Her name was Magdalena.
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When the devil eats doughnuts
It is morally evil, says the archbishop. It enslaves. It deprives. It rarely pays back.
In 1883, the sweepstakes were called loterias. The Spanish government conducted it. The exiled Jose Rizal made money out of it, taking home more than six grand in the Dapitan draw of 1892 right under the noses of Spanish friars.
“Gambling is a game of chance,” says retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz in his book “Gambling in the Republic.” “It is a game of money for money, irrespective of the amount. The commodity considered is money. The payment given is money. The good received is money.”
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The drowning season
They found her the next morning. The sun shone bright. The clouds were gone. The little girl floated high above the heads of the men who found her, a Christmas angel on a September tree, legs tangled in bamboo branches and bright streamers of trash, red shirt muddied, arms spread open, the dead eyes closed on the small pretty face.
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The Joker
“Seldom,” says his biography, “do we have a Filipino leader who has so much ardor and commitment both as a human rights lawyer and freedom fighter.”
They called him a dragon. They said he was fearless. They said he was “a man beholden to no one except his country.” He is said to have handled more human rights cases than any other lawyer in the years between the declaration of martial law and the revolution in Edsa. He opposed the ratification of the Marcos-dictated 1973 Constitution. He condemned the power of military tribunals to try civilians. He stood for journalists, activists and statesmen, defending Ninoy Aquino and Jovito Salonga, Eugenio Lopez Jr. and Jose Ma. Sison. He was incarcerated in stockades, gassed at rallies, injured, hospitalized and threatened with death. In 2001 he became the hero of a new generation, when he thundered that we cannot have a nation run by a thief.
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The hostaged president
At midnight on Aug. 23, 2010, three hours after a 12-hour hostage crisis ended with the brutal deaths of eight foreign nationals, President Benigno Aquino III finally appeared before national television.
He condoled with the families of the dead, and the people of Hong Kong. Although he admitted the police needed to improve their skills, he justified the long drawn-out crisis by saying the hostage-taker did not seem to be belligerent. He said that the Quirino Grandstand was a difficult place for even the police to cover.
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The man who killed Alexis Tioseco
The arrested man had the face of a killer. Shifting eyes, tangled hair, cheeks so thin the bones sliced sharp against skin. At the time of his incarceration, he was the father of nine, with one more on the way.
His name is Danilo D. Jomoc Sr., born 47 years ago to a farmer and his wife in Inopacan, Leyte. His education includes several years in Macagoco Elementary School, and not much else. In 1989, he applied for an opening in Agila Gas, a fuel trucking business owned by a man named Leonardo Tioseco.
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