Before, we went to market using a straw bag

Allow me to greet my second daughter Katrina Charmaine Avila on the occasion of her birthday today. Like her maternal grandmother Encarnacion Segura who was one of Cebu’s first nurses, Katrina took up nursing at the Cebu Doctors University (CDU). But like many nursing students, lured by jobs abroad, she couldn’t find a suitable job, especially in the US. Hence, a couple of years ago, she studied culinary at the International School for Culinary and Hotel Management (ISCAHM) in Quezon City. Right after school, the Marco Polo Hotel took her in as one of their chefs. I have always maintained that our children are God’s gift to parents. Having a successful daughter is merely a bonus! God bless you Katrina and the work you do!

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If there’s a very good campaign that has a lasting effect on our environment it is the declaration by the Supermarket industry to have a day where they do not use plastic bags. In Shanghai, every single store that we went into does not give plastic bags, unless you want one. But they will charge you for it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small 7/11 outlet or Toys R Us, they would give you the item you bought and you can carry it by your hand or you pay for your plastic bag!

Look at any estero, creek or river anywhere, especially if you took the Super Ferry to Manila. As you enter the Port of Manila, a flotsam of plastic bags greet you, not to mention the foul stench! If the streets of Cebu City get flooded during heavy rains, chances are, it is due to the esteros and creeks that are heavily clogged with plastic bags.

While we are encouraged that the Supermarket industry is slowly shifting away from the use of plastic bags, it is not enough. What we need today is drastic action. If we stop the use of plastic bags, life won’t stop! When I was a little boy, in an era where the only grocery store-cum-supermarket in Cebu City was Cadigal’s in Ramos St. (most of us went to Carbon Market) I’d go with my mom bringing along our big buyut (straw bag) where we placed all that we bought and carried it home.

If we could do it in the 50s and 60s, I don’t see any reason why we cannot go back to those good old days. Best of all, it would renew an old cottage industry with people below the poverty line making straw bags. The sooner the Supermarket industry decides to totally stop using plastic bags, the better for our environment. Best of all, it could provide a livelihood program for our poor people.

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If there is anything that the Filipino people, especially 90% of us who are Catholic ought to know, it is that we are all the Body of Christ. With this in mind, even Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III who is supporting the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill is considered part of the body of Christ. So when the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) expressed their willingness to discuss policy with the President, it should be on the basis of educating the President and hopefully his team on the many things they don’t know about our Catholic faith. After all, there is a truism that few Catholics do not really know much about their faith.

I’m willing to bet that Pres. Noynoy doesn’t know much about the doctrines of the Catholic Church regarding the respect for human life at the moment of conception, nor has he even read the late Pope John Paul II’s article entitled “Theology of the Human Body”, which is an integrated vision of the human person, body, soul and spirit that the Pope explains very thoroughly. This book answers questions like what’s our real purpose in life or why did God create man as male and female. It even answers questions on homosexuality and what love really is or should be and above all, whether we really have the freedom of choice on many issues, like our family.

The issues of the RH bill aren’t new to many of us, especially the most offensive ones, where it infringes on the right of our Freedom of Speech. Even the media, despite us telling many of our fellow media workers, are not aware that if the RH Bill is passed and signed into law, any media personality that writes against this law would be sanctioned.

So do we need to cull our population? Take it from my good friend, Fr. Gregory D. Gaston, who wrote a treatise entitled, “Population Trends: Lessons for RP” that was published in a national daily last Jan.3, 2010 who clearly stated, “The United Nations Population Division (UNDP) figures indicate that it is not an exaggeration to say that as early as now, the Philippine Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is already dangerously low. Whereas in early 1970s the average Filipina had six children, today she has around three, and in another 20 years only two. Shortly after 2020, the Philippine TFR will sink below its specific replacement level of around 2.29 and it will be too late.” If only P.Noy looked into this figures then he will see clearly.