OFW saints and eco-saints

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

TODAY, ALL Saints Day or Todos los Santos, it behooves us to remember the saintly women and men who have done much good for our country, communities, families and, directly or indirectly, our individual selves. They may not be canonized saints but they are saints nonetheless to those for whom they offered the substance of their lives.

 Who, to you, is a saint, living or dead?

 Today begins the trek to the resting places for the departed. In celebrating, Filipinos do not distinguish much between All Saints Day and All Souls Day. The 2-to-4-day holiday package is for the beloved—saintly or not—who have crossed over to the afterlife. 

 Speaking of saints, Catholic Philippines now has two—San Lorenzo Ruiz who was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1987, and San Pedro Calungsod who was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI 12 days ago on Oct. 21. The two were martyred in foreign lands in the 17th century during Spanish colonial times. San Lorenzo, a lay married man, was brutally killed along with several Dominican priests in Japan, and San Pedro, a teenage catechist, was killed along with a Jesuit priest in the Marianas or Guam.
Both Filipino missionaries were killed by inhabitants of their host countries. These martyred Filipinos represented an alien faith that intruded into the culture of their host countries. Well, one sending country’s saints could be another’s villains. A sending country’s martyr-missionaries could be the colonized or threatened country’s culture polluters.

When Pope John Paul II’s canonization of martyred missionaries during the Boxer Rebellion in China became a problematic issue (the Chinese authorities were not happy), I consulted a theologian and this is what she told me: The individual martyrs, may have lived saintly lives, served selflessly and oppressed no one, but they could not help being identified with the oppressive colonizers, the conquering power that threatened an ancient civilization.

And I couldn’t help thinking then: What if the Vatican canonized Magellan or some zealous Spanish friars who, as we were taught in school, brought the sword and the cross in the name of Spain and God and made Christians of almost all of us? What would that make of our Lapu-lapu and his bare-breasted braves who fought and killed some of the invaders? Villains? Would we protest? I, a Christian and Catholic, would.

About San Lorenzo, I remember hearing comments to this effect: “Now we have a saint, but he’s made in Japan.” This is not to belittle Lorenzo’s martyrdom, but is some sort of a misgiving. Japan invaded the Philippines during World War II and later in the 20th century began importing sexy Filipino female nightclub dancers who became known as “japayuki.” And so we kept sending dancers in droves to boost the sad state of our economy. These women lived difficult lives in the Land of the Rising Sun and many had offspring known as “Japinos,” a whole generation of them. 

With Pedro’s canonization, it is not lost on many Filipinos that this second Filipino saint, like the first one, also died abroad. And we blithely remark that both Lorenzo and Pedro were overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), which is how we call our modern-day migrant workers in foreign lands. And with that remark, it is as if we just awakened to that fact that, of course, oo nga, as it was in the beginning is now, and (hopefully not) forever will be.

 But this fact should also give us pause because, indeed, it is in foreign lands that Filipino resilience and faith are tested. Our OFWs may not be missionaries by purpose, but how many times have church leaders referred to them as evangelizers, adding to their burden as dollar earners and accidental modern-day heroes for the motherland? They are the latter-day Lorenzos and Petras, little unsung saints for their families back home. They may not be Bible-thumpers and preachers, but many have shown, through the quality of their service, a kind of saintliness especially during trials.

With urban Filipinos becoming copycats of Western-style Halloween celebrations featuring the macabre (the antithesis of the Christian hope for a glorious afterlife), the cursed zombies that have transmogrified into “zombasura” or inconsiderate litterbugs are what the EcoWAste Coalition is warning against. While we are in this All Saints-All Souls mood, we are constantly reminded by ecology groups to please keep the hallowed grounds free of garbage. But as in many religious festivities, garbage control, like crowd control, is a difficult task. Those who join huge religious events leave behind mounds of garbage, a sign of thoughtlessness that runs counter to their spiritual undertakings. They are defilers of God’s creation.

Two saints to emulate because of their ecological bent are the popular St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and not-so-known St. Hildegarde of Bingen.

 Last month Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the latter a Doctor of the Church, becoming one of only four women saints of the Catholic Church to be given the title. Hildegarde lived in the Rhineland Valley in the 12th century. The abbess of a large and prosperous Benedictine abbey, she was a prominent preacher, doctor, scientist, artist, mystic, healer, poet, musician and composer. She wrote nine books on theology, medicine, science and physiology. She was a communicator of wisdom and knowledge. She even rebuked a pope and an emperor. Today she would be considered an eco-feminist.

 Hildegarde coined the word “viriditas” or greening power. She was first to view the universe as a cosmic egg and offered a scintillating insight into the cosmos and its symphonic beauty. Know more about her.

The horror of toxic mine spills

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

In the 1980s, long before the deadly Marcopper mine spill shocked us witless, I went to Marinduque to document for a church-based organization the havoc that Marcopper had been wreaking on the sea and the lives of fishing communities living near Calancan Bay. 

Environmental activism was not very much in vogue then but the social action arm of the Catholic Church was the voice in the wilderness that called attention to the wanton destruction of the environment in that part of Luzon.
 Marinduque Bishop Rafael Lim, then chair of the Luzon Secretariat of Social Action, stood tall against the massive destruction in his diocese. But the country was under martial rule and unlike now, there was not much national outrage over local issues then. 

I saw for myself Marcopper’s giant kilometric pipes jutting out far into the sea and pumping, pumping, pumping out toxic mine byproducts as if the world would end tomorrow anyway. Day or night, one could see a deadly sheen on the surface of the water and imagine fish na nangingisay (in the throes of death). One could see beaches turned into mud-covered landscapes that cracked under the noonday sun. One could see rashes on the bodies of fishermen. One could see the imminent death of creation.

 I wrote a long feature on Marinduque’s woes in a church social action anniversary publication, with on-the-spot line sketches by an artist who had come with me, and stark black-and white photos that I took, one of them of a huge pipe dumping poison into the sea. (I have a photo of myself standing on top of a huge pipe.) I could not hide my dismay. I wrote then: “But the church leaders are not disheartened. In Barangay Botilao in Sta. Cruz, villagers one day met to discuss the issue of pollution. In a way it was too late since Marcopper Mining has already done so much harm. President Marcos has upheld Marcopper’s petition to continue dumping its waste into Calancan Bay.” Today this would have caused a global outrage. 

 “Fishermen are hitting Marcopper’s 16-kilometer waste disposal pipeline that juts out five kilometers from the shore to the sea. They ask that a lighthouse be built on the causeway to warn sailboats at night of the pipeline. Boats traverse this area as they go farther to Quezon where waters are still clean and unpolluted.” All the fishermen could manage to plead for then was a lighthouse so they could fish somewhere else.

 “The pipeline has caused floods due to the constriction of water in the bay where islets are too close to each other. People say that a basin had been planned for the area but Marcopper opted for the cheaper pipeline. The tailings pit in Mt. Taipan has not been fully utilized when Marcopper discovered more copper ore underneath.”

 In 1986, the National Pollution Control commission under the Cory Aquino administration at last banned mine wastes from being dumped into the bay. But in the 1990s, a huge unprecedented environmental disaster happened. Marcopper’s tailings containment pond broke and continuously unleashed tons and tons of toxic matter that poisoned everything in its way. Again, as if there was no tomorrow. The spillage caused national and international furor. In an article I wrote for the Inquirer, I could only begin with a cliché: “It was a disaster waiting to happen.” As far as I know the Canadian mining company has not fully compensated the severely affected populace.

 Fast forward to 2012. Environmentalists’ attention is now trained on the toxic spillage from the Philex mines in the Cordillera. But little, it seems, has been heard of the government’s offer of solutions. (And if I may parenthetically add here, a collateral damage of the mine spill is the filing of a libel suit by a government official against a Facebook user and antimining advocate whose postings generated “likes.” This, despite a Supreme Court temporary restraining order on the implementation of the controversial cybercrime law.)


Outside of the Cordillera, again, it is the Church’s social action arm that is leading the call for solutions. Last month a fact-finding team (FFT) went to investigate the reported tailings leakage from Philex’s Padcal mine in Benguet. Leading the team were the National Secretariat of Social Action (Nassa) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and the Climate Change Congress of the Philippines (CCCP). With them were representatives of several civil society groups. 

Something in the FFT’s statement hit home: “Although Philex, the country’s largest mining corporation, is already facing penalty charges amounting to P1 billion for violating the Clean Water Act and its own environmental compliance certificate and losing P30 million per day from its suspension, the direct impact of the mining tailings on its immediate surroundings has not been given significant media attention.

”But here’s for fright night: “Dr. Esteban C. Godilano, CCCP resident scientist, said that the Philex Mines tailings spillage is massive. The MGM estimate was 20.6 million metric tons, which is 1,300 percent higher than the Marcopper accident in Boac, Marinduque, of 1.6 million metric tons. Ten years after the accident the Boac River is still dead. Recent studies showed that coastal sediments near the river outflow contains high amount of copper, manganese, lead and zinc.” 

 The FFT also belied Philex claims that the tailings are “biodegradable.” The indigenous communities’ loss of fishing and mining grounds as well as loss of income and safe source of food and water should leave Philex and local officials sleepless. There is so much more than what could be written here. You can download the full FFT report from the Nassa website http://nassa.org.ph.

Women wield plows, cast nets

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

"Grow your own, be sure, be safe, grow organic, go organic.”
“Make the shift. Go brown.”
“Food security is nutritional security.” 

These were some of the popular catchwords on World Food Day on Oct. 16 that brought together many Filipino women farmers, fishers and their supporters in a market venue.
Today is the last day of the 4th Women’s Market at the Quezon City Hall Plaza. Go celebrate, buy and support the women’s efforts to combat hunger and wrong food choices. Support their call for government to put up social enterprises that focus on women food producers in rural areas. 

Sponsored by the Pambansang Koalisyon ng mga Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK), women farmers and fishers from various regions of Luzon have come together this week to call for support and awareness of women’s role in global, national and local food security.
Women feed the world in ways that are not always recognized. They rock the cradle, yes, but they also cast nets into the sea and wield the plow. Like the fecund women that they are, the earth they move yield flower and fruit, the sea they scour yield fish aplenty. If only they can get more support. 

It is so energizing to be with these women of substance and energy, to be infected by their joy, to feel their trembling hopes, to hold their hands—rough, gnarled and therefore beautiful—that cause life to spring forth from earth and water. 

“It is high time the government strengthened its programs for women farmers by finding a market for their products and increasing their incomes,” PKKK president Mary delos Santos said. 


According to PKKK, over half of the world’s food is produced by women, and yet less than 30 percent of small women farmers have access to extension services and only 9 percent have access to government capital support. “The Women’s Market aims to promote an alternative market for local products of rural women and their communities,” Delos Santos said. 

This marketing scheme adopts the concept of “tabo” (a Visayan term for meeting or gathering, which refers to the regular market day), a gathering where producers interact with consumers. It is a practice that, alas, may be replaced by high-end commercial centers. Said Delos Santos: “Ito din ay isang paraan upang magbalik-tanaw tayo sa mga produkto mula sa kanayunan. Batid natin na napalitan na ang mga nakagisnan nating pagkain tulad ng suman, ginataan o ibat-ibang uri ng kakanin at gulay ng mga dayuhang pagkain tulad ng mga pagkain mula sa fast food.” (This is one way of taking a fresh look at products from the rural areas. We know that the food of our early years such as suman, ginataan and all kinds of native rice desserts, as well as vegetables, have been replaced by offerings fast-food chains.)

PKKK and other advocates of food security and sustainable livelihoods are offering locally grown and processed food products (organic rice, brown rice, vegetables, fruits, desserts, dried fish, herbal medicines) and non-food items such as indigenous handicraft and advocacy items. Cooking and product demos are included in the activities.

On opening day, the Women’s Market highlighted the Brown Rice Campaign of Oxfam, an international humanitarian organization. Oxfam has been campaigning for more Filipinos to eat brown rice in order to promote healthier and positive food choices and to support sustainable agriculture for smaller rural food producers. Brown rice advocates, such as celebrities Bayang Barrios and Roxanne Barcelo, graced the event. Two years ago Oxfam sponsored a food event that featured women’s food products and celebrity chefs.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has chosen “Agricultural cooperatives—the key to feeding the world” as the theme of this year’s World Food Day. FAO director general Jose Graziano da Silva said the theme was chosen “to highlight the many, concrete ways in which agricultural cooperatives and producer organizations help to provide food security, generate employment, and lift people out of poverty. For the FAO and its partners, agricultural cooperatives are natural allies in the fight against hunger and extreme poverty. Their importance has also been acknowledged through the United Nations’ declaration of 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives.”

Evidence shows that strong cooperatives and producer organizations are able to overcome and mitigate the negative effects of food and other crises, Da Silva said. Strong producer organizations have helped to fill a void. They have been able to overcome market and policy constraints by providing their members access to a range of assets and services. For instance, he added, they can reduce costs to farmers by allowing them to purchase in groups and benefit from better retail prices of agricultural inputs. They also make it possible for members to voice their concerns and interests—and have a say in decisions and policymaking.

The FAO supports member governments in helping cooperatives and producer organizations to thrive, by developing adequate policies, legal frameworks, economic incentives, and forums for dialogue on policymaking, Da Silva said. It generates evidence, knowledge and good practice that supports the emergence of more self-reliant, inclusive, gender-equitable, and market-oriented producer organizations and cooperatives. It’s now the call of our Department of Agriculture. 

Here at home, the women food cooperatives need all the help they can get. Go to the Women’s Market today, buy up the women’s produce, so that they will go home with empty baskets and broad smiles on their faces. 

'Hour Before Dawn'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Marites Danguilan Vitug is Philippine journalism’s most prolific book writer today. Her oeuvres aren’t easy to write and aren’t easy on the heart, mind and conscience. She excavates, names and damns, not for her personal delight, but in order to bring to the surface long hidden ills of society and in the government, for these to be exposed to the light that kills harmful microorganisms. 

Vitug’s latest opus is “Hour Before Dawn: The Fall and Uncertain Rise of the Philippine Supreme Court” (Cleverheads Publishing, 2012). It is a natural sequel to her “Shadow of Doubt: Probing the Supreme Court.” And more importantly, it comes in the wake of the first quasijudicial drama involving a long-revered government institution—the impeachment trial of a chief justice that played out live nationwide via broadcast media.

The book’s back cover blurb says it best: “‘Hour Before Dawn’ takes the reader to what might have been the darkest hour of the Philippine Supreme Court, when its integrity was compromised by the actions of its Chief Justice, who was subsequently impeached, and by a series of highly irregular reversals of its own rulings.

 “It reveals a Court seemingly subject to political pressure, disbursing funds for questionable purposes, and abetting plagiarism by one of its own members, and yet placing itself beyond criticism even by the country’s top lawyers and academics. It chronicles the most open and contentious clash between the executive department and the Court.”

 But Vitug weaves in redeeming facets and redemptive acts that give hope that the damaged institution could rise again, albeit “uncertain”-ly.

For “the book is also a record of how a staunchly independent minority within the Court stood up for what was right, giving hope for the rebirth and reorientation of one of the country’s most vital institutions.”


Vitug begins by writing about her own “run-in” with the Supreme Court. For writing about a member of the high court in an unflattering manner, Vitug was slapped with libel suits that ran in court for two years and then were surprisingly dropped by an apologetic justice-complainant. 

Vitug describes “Hour Before Dawn” as a work of narrative nonfiction. It takes off from the controversial “midnight” appointment of Renato C. Corona as chief justice, proceeds through rocky ground, to the edge of the cliff and into the precipice. She tackles the lowest points—“the unprecedented flip-flops, a plagiarized decision that caught the attention of the international legal community, ethical breaches by the leader of the highest court in the land, judicial overreach in stopping Congress on its impeachment tracks—and the most open and contentious clash between the executive and the judiciary.”

Indeed, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. The book is not about to scramble the egg; it picks up the broken pieces and beams a sharp “journalist’s searchlight” on them, on this flawed, if not broken, institution, and keeps it in the public eye. “With the hope,” Vitug writes, “that the Justices and the rest of the judiciary take accountability seriously. Already, the impeachment of Chief Justice Corona, the first in the country, has taught public officials lasting lessons in accountability.”

The book is divided into 20 chapters under six parts: The Rush to Become Chief Justice, The Partners, In Plagiarism’s Dark Shadow, The Great Reversals, The Clash and Impeached, Convicted.

Vitug devotes many pages to the rise of the Corona couple, Renato and Cristina, during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s presidency—he in the judiciary and she in the John Hay Management Corp., a government agency. Vitug also narrates the backroom goings-on related to “midnight” appointments, especially Corona’s.

In Chapter 5 (The Wind Beneath Her Wings), Vitug begins with: “Cristina’s winning streak, spanning more than a decade, coincided with her husband’s rise to power. Her string of crucial legal victories versus her uncles and aunts to her controlling their family corporation, wresting from the elders ownership of Basa Guidote Enterprises Inc, (BGEI), a company that had seen its glory days.”

A hard-nosed journalist, Vitug sniffs into hidden closets and under tables. She seeks out persons with first-hand knowledge and the goods. And so “Hour Before Dawn” is an entertaining read because Vitug tells the stories the way they should be—with human voices, human faces, settings, ambiance, juicy quotes and all. Plus, of course, the hard stuff—evidence, facts and figures, historical backgrounds, analyses and perspective. The book also displays scholarly sheen and flourish. It provides a wealth of references that shows the backbreaking spadework the author had done. Plus a Q and A with President Aquino. (For copies, contact cleverheadsmedia@gmail.com or 3468683.)

The multiawarded Vitug is one of the Philippines’ most accomplished and respected investigative journalists. Her five books are proof of her talent and commitment. She has written for international publications, Newsweek among them. A Nieman Fellow and Asian Public Intellectual, Vitug  was editor of Newsbreak and is now editor at large of news online Rappler and president of the Journalism for Nation Building Foundation.

I’ve known Vitug for decades, since her Business Day days. We are part of a barkada of women writers—martial law survivors all—who take their calling very seriously and who meet to do extraordinary things. Like rehearsing for a singing gig at an artsy beer house that got filled to the rafters because many wanted to see us make fools of ourselves. We landed in several papers. 

I have the evidence, Marites. I have kept the clippings and the sound track. 

In God we trust (and also in stocks)

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURES/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Vintage Bo Sanchez discourse: 

“Why is Facebook so big today? 

“Because deep in our hearts, our most basic need, found in our DNA, written in our genetic code, is the need to belong to a community, a friendship, a network, a club, a family. 

“Forgive me for being flat-out corny, downright mushy, but whether you know it or not, whether you admit it or not, you have a desperate need for LOVE. 

“You were born with it. 

“Everybody has it. 

“Male or female, you need love.” 

So why do people follow him on Facebook, in public events and in various media through his blogs, books and other publications? Why do thousands here and abroad listen to his preaching and follow his advice on how to pray, how to love God and neighbor, make things work and live happy, progressive and successful lives? 

The answer is simple: Sanchez says things simply and makes them look and sound easy. And most of all, he shows us why something-like making money, for example-could be good and godly. 

For “If God is with us, who can be against us?” 

Eugenio Isabelo Tomas Reyes Sanchez, a.k.a. Bo Sanchez “the preacher in blue jeans,” is not the fire-and-brimstone kind of preacher who shakes the ramparts to mesmerize followers. Unlike many breast-thumping Bible-quoters, he does not try to impress his audience by rattling off Biblical verses and scriptural passages from memory.  For him, one or two verses could be enough to fill a Feast. 

Bo’s own personal life could explain how the guy can speak to everyone like he finds God in their most mundane everyday concerns. 

Born on July 11, 1966 in Caloocan City to Eugenio and Pilar Sanchez, Bo is the youngest and only boy in a brood of six. He recalls with great humor how he was “the most ungifted kid in the whole wide world.” He was poor in math, among other things. But at a young age he opened himself to grace.

In his easy-to-read “My Conspiracy Theory: A Brief Autobiography at the Middle of my Life” Bo begins: “I wrote my first book at age 20. I led the first prayer meeting of the Light of Jesus Family at age 14. I began preaching at age 13. I had my conversion at age 12. I was toilet trained at age 1, but that has nothing to do with this book.”

It is amazing how Bo has been able to sum up his life story into a booklet of 97 pages. “Chapter 1: My Childhood: Being the Most Ungifted Kid in the Whole Wide World” is as hilarious as it is heart-tugging. “Chapter 2: My Conversion—How God Became More Real Than the President” is just as interesting.

But the whole point of his autobiography is his warning “that there is a conspiracy of grace at work in this universe and heaven is scheming to bless your life.”


Now 46, Bo has been married to Marowe for 14 years and has two sons, Benedict and Francis.  He is the author of 25 books, many of them best-sellers-that are inexpensive, easy to read and understand inspirational and how-to books. The preacher, Catholic lay evangelist and entrepreneur was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) in 2006.

“We now have 110 small Light of Jesus (LOJ) communities all over the world,” he delights in saying. “We want to have more Feasts all over.”

The Feasts are regular weekend gatherings that begin with a Mass, followed by inspired preaching and other sharing activities. Bo visits each LOJ group every chance he gets. LOJ Feasts are held in such diverse places as the US, Canada, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Australia and Hong Kong.

The founder of a spiritual movement and several charity institutions is careful to separate his spiritual life from the material, and is scrupulous about donations.

“I have been told to get an allowance like our other preachers but I declined,” he says. Contributions go directly to LOJ activities and projects such as the Feasts and their venues, two orphanages, a home for pregnant women in crisis, and Anawim, a home for the poor elderly, some of them abandoned. In Metro Manila, the Sunday Feasts are held at the Philippine International Convention Center.

Sunday Inquirer Magazine visited and featured Anawim, a sprawling haven of rest located in Rodriguez (Montalban), Rizal, some years back. Generous donors have made Anawim flourish to a point that the LOJ is planning to put up spiritual retreat facilities there, Bo reveals.

But Bo has no qualms about being in media.  “Media for the Soul” is LOJ’s foray into broadcast media, with Kerygma TV on IBC 13 and TV Maria, the Archdiocese of Manila’s cable channel.  There is also Gabay sa Bibliya sa Radyo on Veritas 846, Nakita Ko, Mustard TV and Inside the Fish Bowl, also on TV Maria.

LOJ’s Shepherd’s Voice Publications publishes K-FAM-Kerygma, a Catholic inspirational magazine, Fish (“the zany side of loving God”), All Stars and Mustard (“sowing seeds of fun and faith”)—all very youth oriented.

On the personal side, Bo has his home schooling project (with 200 enrollees), his books and other business investments. He also lectures on how to make money in the stock market. His book “My Maid Invests in the Stock Market and Why You Should Too” is the number 3 best-seller in National Bookstore’s Top 10, and can now be downloaded for free as an e-book (trulyrichclub.com).

He sees no contradiction between his good deeds and his business savvy.  “Do you think the stock market is for billionaires only? A lot of people think that way,” he says.

“I teach people how to be wealthy over time,” he adds, referring to his “How to Make Millions Through the Stock Market” seminar (see sidebar) that, he says, is not a get-rich quick scheme. Many people lose money in stocks, “but if you follow the specific investing method that I will teach you, you’ll be able to create your millions for your future.”

Misery and poverty, he says, should not be our lot. It should not be a choice between being poor and being corrupt. For Bo, there is such a thing as “holy money” just as there is “holy sex.” All for the glory of God.

So how did he come to this?

When he turned 30, Bo decided to plot his life’s direction.  He was an experienced preacher by then and joining the priesthood was an option. “I finished Philosophy at the Ateneo,” he says, adding that it was some kind of preparation in case this vocation was for him.

But, he adds. “It became clear that I should remain a lay (person). Priests focus on the spiritual. As a lay person I could show people how to be good Catholics in the world.”

Summing up his goal, he says, “I want to speak to the un-churched.”

Having decided that, Bo found himself falling in love with Marowe who was with the LOJ staff. Marriage and family, he realized, were indeed for him.

Looking at this happily fulfilled husband and father, one can easily forget that he had experienced sexual abuse as a child. It is something that he has mentioned a few times in his preaching to convince people that there is hope for healing, and that a person should not wallow in victimhood but instead strive to be happy.

But Bo does not rely mainly on personal experiences for his preaching. “I do research, I read books. I write down everything that I intend to say and this may take several hours. Then when I am out there preaching, I do not carry notes.” 

His life story is proof that “Grace happens every day,” he says. “Open yourself to extreme, excessive, extravagant grace.” 

If that’s not enough inspiration for you, you can get more of God’s “unique, inspiring, powerful, personalized message everyday” by signing up at www.GodWhispersClub.com. •


Four Rules for Getting Rich 

Brother Bo Sanchez never tires of quoting Proverbs 21:20 in the Bible: “Precious treasure remains in the house of the wise, but the fool consumes it.” 

Definitely no fools are Bo’s maids—Gina, Weng and Maricel—who have invested in the stock market and have since watched their investments grow. Hearing them rave about their earnings, Bo’s skeptical driver bought stocks as well and is now convinced that his boss’ “The Truly Rich Club” is for real.

The four helpers’ good fortune is an affirmation of Bo’s belief that everyone ought to be rich-not only spiritually, but also materially. And the Catholic preacher in blue jeans unabashedly tells one and all that there is a right way of doing it. For money is not evil; it could, in fact, bring much good.

Bo’s book “My Maid Invests in the Stock Market” is a runaway best-seller. Just as numerous as the readers of his books are the active participants in his regular weekend spiritual Feasts here and abroad.

Many of those who heeded Bo’s Bible-based spiritual exhortations are now as gung-ho about achieving material wealth, while those who were initially attracted to his talks on material prosperity have begun working on their spiritual lives as well.

But Bo does not only preach or write about material wealth; he actually shows people how to do it through well-attended seminars, where financial experts walk wide-eyed beginners through the step by step process of making millions.

Bo’s “How to Make Millions Through the Stock Market” seminar two weeks ago at the Philippine International Convention Center drew about a thousand participants.  Coaching them on the so-called easy investment plan (EIP) were experts from, and the head of, online stockbroker Col Financial.  A disclaimer from Bo: He is a believer of Col Financial, but does not work for it.

Not a get-rich scheme, the seminar was about investing “the right way to create your millions for the future.”   To do this would require discipline and resolve as wealth happens “over time,” the participants learned.

This is not about the frenzied buying and selling of stocks, nor gambling-style trading and hard-to-decipher figures and graphs, Bo said. It’s not about trading to make a fast buck but long-term investing; there is a world of a difference, he added.

Mid-lifers and senior citizens who listened to the talk are now asking: “Why didn’t anyone tell us about this when we were in our twenties or thirties?” Parents who put in and lost their money in educational plans that went pffft could very well ask the same question. But it’s not too late, if the financial coaches are to be believed.

The gospel of EIP is about investing in publicly-owned or Philippine Stock Exchange-listed companies, thus participating in their growth and earnings. The investor makes money through price appreciation and dividends. Investing this way is a hedge against inflation.

At the seminar, one learned new terms and stock market jargon like peso cost averaging and strategic average method, current price, buy below price and target price. Presented were four rules in making money through EIP in the stock market, or ways to accumulate, upon retirement, P10 million (or much more) that one cannot earn through one’s savings in the bank.

Here are the four rules to getting rich through the EIP:

1. Invest small amounts (P1,000 and up) at regular times (say, weekly , monthly, or quarterly) without fail for 20 years or more.
2. Invest even when there is a crisis.
3. Invest only in giants.
4. Invest in a number of giants.

Other tips to remember: Never sell for 20 years, just keep on buying. You can sell at a certain point, but buy below price.

Perhaps one of the best things about this EIP investing scheme-for both the young once and the young ones-is that they can do it online. But one needs to be computer literate to navigate the online platform. (Visit www.colfinancial.com.) One can also do it on one’s feet, minus the computer. Bo’s www.trulyrichclub.com provides regular stock updates, suggestions and, of course, inspirational messages.

As the preacher has stressed again and again, the goal isn’t to become multimillionaires. “As I teach (people) to build their financial wealth, I also teach them to build their spiritual wealth. They need to grow in their character to handle big money, or it will destroy them. I remind them that the purpose of wealth is to love others. Use your wealth to serve God,” Bo said. CPD

Bo Sanchez is inviting the public to the Kerygma Conference 2012, the biggest Catholic inspirational conference in the country. Now on its fifth year, the conference offers two whole days of inspiration with 14 streams to choose from on Nov. 24 and 25. This will be held at the SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City. For tickets and inquiries, call 725-9999 or visit www.kerygmaconference.com

 

Religious of the Good Shepehrd: weaving compassion

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

One of the wondrous times in my life was spent in a special place with very special people, in an atmosphere of simplicity and prayer. I remember how we came together somewhere, I remember taking in the mountain air and the soft scent of the pine that wafted into my soul.

The flowers were in full bloom, the hills were green and throbbing with life. The stars were out the night we gathered to sing hymns, and the sun rose gently from behind the hills the next morning. The quiet and the peace overwhelmed me in ways I could not explain. I was filled with awe and wonderment.

 But beyond feelings, I experienced community—and communion. This is indeed a special moment, I thought then, as I pondered the simplicity, as I gazed at the persons I was journeying with, persons I have come to love and cherish until today. 

 But that was long ago and far away, and that experience will not be repeated in the exact same way ever again. So. I wrote some of those lines years ago in this column space to describe an experience. Some curious readers wondered what it was all about and what place on earth I had been to. 

There are experiences one can never fully explain. But okay, that was when I was in spiritual formation as a novice of the Religious of the Good Shepherd (RGS). We were on a hillside retreat cum celebration then. As I look back now, all I can say is that as sure as the transfiguration that is dazzling to behold is the agony in the garden to follow. 

Today, the RGS is marking its 100th year of active and prayerful presence in the Philippines. The centennial theme is “Weaving compassion, embracing challenges, forging hope.” Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle will lead today’s Eucharistic feast at the Good Shepherd compound in Quezon City. 

I will be there. There where I once belonged, where I once prayed and chanted melodies ancient and new. At the break of dawn. At eventide, at eventide…

 Founded in Angers, France, in 1835 by Saint Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, the RGS or Good Shepherd Sisters (Soeurs de Notre-Dame de Charité du Bon Pasteur d’Angers) first stepped on Philippine soil on Oct. 4, 1912. The first to arrive by slow boat from Burma (Myanmar) were Irish RGS sent in response to the call of Lipa’s Bishop Giuseppe Petrelli. 


The turn of the 19th century saw a stream of arrivals of Catholic groups from Europe and North America. Note that after almost 400 years of Spanish rule came US occupation, with Protestantism gaining ground in Catholic Philippines. Among the arrivals were the Missionary Benedictine Sisters (OSB) from Germany (1906). The RGS, the Holy Spirit Sisters from Germany, and the French-founded Franciscan Missionaries of Mary followed in 1912.

They ran schools and ministries in many parts of the country. Post-Vatican II aggiornamento saw them getting more immersed in grassroots ministries for justice and peace. And it was during the dark days of martial rule (1972-1986) that many of these religious women showed their mettle, some openly leading the fight against tyranny or working underground. I have written stories about their work and heroism. 

Shouldn’t a book about their amazing zeal and ordeals be in the making? In my own forthcoming book “Human Face: A Journalist’s Encounters and Awakenings” (Inquirer Books), I included stories on their trailblazing journeys into unmapped terrain.

 For many years the RGS sisters in the Philippines were under France and, later, the United States, where many Filipino sisters had their religious formation. The Philippine province, which for some time included Hong Kong, Korea and Guam, was formed in 1960. 

 The first Filipino provincial superior was Sr. Mary Christine Tan RGS. As chair of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of Women in the Philippines after the imposition of martial rule in 1972, she led women religious in denouncing the excesses of the Marcos dictatorship. Her name and those of four RGS sisters, as well as several church women and men, are among the 250 plus names of martyrs and heroes engraved on the Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Monument for Heroes) Wall of Remembrance. 

The RGS congregation is one of the world’s biggest. Today, more than 4,000 sisters serve in 73 countries in five continents. Close to 200 Filipino sisters are immersed in 27 foundations and varied ministries in the Philippines; 33 are in foreign missions. The present head of the Philippine province is Sr. Cecilia Torres RGS.

 Founded after the French Revolution to aid morally endangered women and girls, the RGS worked mainly in institutions in the beginning. Now the sisters’ outreach of compassion weaves tightly into the fabric of bigger society. They follow in the spirit of Jesus the Good Shepherd in seeking out the neglected, oppressed and marginalized “in whom the image of God is most obscure”—prostituted and battered women, unwed mothers in crisis, slum dwellers, landless farmers, indigenous groups, overseas workers and their families, street children and those “excluded by the forces of globalization.” 

The RGS has both apostolic and contemplative sisters, the latter complementing the former through prayer. The congregation became affiliated with the United Nations as a nongovernment organization in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council in 1996.

 Added to the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience is the RGS’s fourth vow of zeal—“to labor with zeal for the salvation of persons.” As the spunky founder exhorted her sisters in the aftermath of the French Revolution: “Go after the lost sheep without any rest other than the cross, no consolation other than work, no thirst other than for justice. Our zeal should embrace the whole world.”