Opinion-Editorial NEWS

Prime Minister  Yoshihide Suga of Japan has added a “Minister for Loneliness”  to his cabinet in the wake of a rise in suicides for the first time in 11 years. “The number of suicides is on a rising trend. I hope you will identify  problems and promote policy  measures comprehensively,” the prime minster told his appointee to the new position  —  Tetsushi  Sakamoto.

We have in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN ) a tradition of non-interference in the local affairs of our fellow ASEAN nations. Over the centuries, these nations have gone through different historical experiences. Their only common bond, it seems, is that they occupy these same geographical area on the planet.

In the coming months, there will be need to constantly balance  the concerns  of various interests as we proceed to dismantle restrictions with the gradually improving COVID-19 situation in the country.

United States President Joseph Biden and China President Xi Jinping spoke by phone for two hours last Thursday. It was the first time for the two leaders to speak with each other since Biden assumed the presidency on January 30. That it lasted two hours speaks of the many concerns and issues between their two countries.

The Christian period of penitence, Lent, begins this week with Ash Wednesday on February 17. These are the six weeks before Easter Sunday on Holy Week. Ash Wednesday is named from the rite of placing ashes on the foreheads of participants with the words “Repent and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

On top of the health problems posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has had to face other problems, many related to the national economy and to the basic needs of livelihood among the people.

Vaccines have become a matter of great concern among the Filipino people. Their concerns range from sufficiency of supply for the nation’s 110-million population to the safety of the vaccines already in the country.

Manila Water announced last week that it has begun its massive cleanup of the San Juan River under an agreement with the national government and the three local government units of San Juan, Mandaluyong, and Quezon City.

There was one depressing story about the Philippine economy early this week  – the country suffered its worst economic contraction on record in 2020 – by 9.5 percent – due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National  and  Economic  Development Authority (NEDA) and the Philippine Statistics  Authority  (PSA)  disclosed..

A Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons took effect last Friday. It was originally adopted by 122 countries in the United Nations General Assembly in 2017. It took effect Friday, 90 days after it was signed by the 50th state.

With many countries beginning mass vaccinations against the COVID-19 pandemic,  the World Health  Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, and many other organizations  that found themselves in the middle of it all have started to take stock of that  damage and the losses it has caused around the world.

Former Mandaluyong  City Mayor Benjamin “Benhur”  Abalos  assumd his new position   chairman  of the Metropolitan Manila Devlopment  Authority  (MMDA) last Tuesday, taking over from Danilo  Lim who died  last week from cardiac arrest a week after contracting COVID-19.

At a time when everyone in the country is suffering in one way or another from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impending increases in the rates of Filipino workers’ contributions to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and the Social Security System (SSS) should be deferred until a more appropriate time for everybody.

That story  about some cabinet men and members of the Presidential Security Group  (PSG) having themselves inoculated  against COVID-19,  using vaccines donated by China, has refused to die down, as  various officials have come up with unexpected details about the case.

The opinion survey organization Social Weather  Stations (SWS)  has been polling  the nation’s views on a variety of subjects for decades. The findings  are of particular interest to politicians during election  periods. But they  are important at anytime of the year as they reveal what the people think and feel on a variety of issues to help guide the country’s officials in the process of democratic governance.

It helps people to remember simple basic rules when they are expressed in simple, direct statements like “Mask. Hugas. Iwas.”

Any killing of a human being is to be deplored, even those we used to have under state auspices. When the killing is done by a police officer in a blatant display of superior power and the victims are a helpless mother and son embracing each other in their hopelessness, it challenges human belief that this could happen in our country with its Christian respect for human life and its legal tradition of justice.

In these last few days of the year, our officials will be closely watching the figures of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the country, to see the effects of the general easing of restrictions for the holiday season, particularly the gathering of people for the Simbang Gabi.