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Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Daily martyrdom
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By Fr. Roy Cimagala*
I BELIEVE it is a Christian fact of life that if we have to be consistently Christian, then we have to be prepared to suffer martyrdom, one way or another. It may not be a dramatic and bloody martyrdom like the case of the Holy Innocents whose feast we celebrate on December 28, but certainly a certain kind of martyrdom will always be involved.
That’s because the Christian way of life cannot avoid being contradicted even by our own sinful flesh, not to mention, the many allurements of the world that can serve as some kind of honeytrap to us and, of course, the devil, that most subtle and deceptive enemy of God.
Christ already warned us amply about this condition in our life. “In this world you will have trouble,” he said. “But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33) And more directly, he said, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 16,24-26)
We need to see to it that we live this indication of Christ daily. It should be a normal thing for us to do if we want to be truly Christian. We need to die at least a little everyday so that the life of Christ can truly take root and grow in our life. We should never forget that to be Christian is to assume the very identity and life of Christ, and not just going through certain practices for us to appear like Christ.
We should not be afraid to suffer and die. If we believe in Christ and follow what he has taught and shown us, we will realize that there is nothing to be afraid of suffering and death, and all the other negative things that can mark our life.
He bore them himself and converted them into our way for our own salvation. Yes, even death which is the ultimate evil that can befall us, an evil that is humanly insoluble. With Christ’s death, the curse of death has been removed. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15,54-55)
So, we just have to be sport and cool about the whole reality of suffering and death. What we need to do is to follow Christ in his attitude toward them. For Christ, embracing suffering and ultimately death, is the expression of his greatest love for us. We have to enter into the dynamic of this divine logic and wisdom so we can lose that fear of suffering and death.
Thus, we have to understand this very well. Unless we love the cross, we can never say that we are loving enough. Of course, we have to qualify that assertion. It’s when we love the cross the way God wills it—the way Christ loves it—that we can really say that we are loving as we should, or loving with the fullness of love.
We have to realize more deeply that loving the cross the way Christ loved it is the ultimate of love. It is love that is completely deprived of selfishness. It is total self-giving, full of self-abnegation.
May the cross be an indispensable part of our day! It is our instrument for our daily martyrdom.
*Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
GOOD FORTUNE FRUITS
A vendor arranges round fruits at his stall in CP Garcia in Quezon City on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022. Round fruits are believed to bring good luck and prosperity for the coming year. PHOTO BY MIKE DE JUAN
WINNERS: Metro Manila Film Festival 2022 Gabi ng Parangal
by Robert Requintina
Here are the winners at the Metro Manila Film Festival 2022 Gabi ng Parangal held at the New Frontier Theater in Araneta City on Tuesday, Dec. 27. The pictures were taken by Manila Bulletin photographer Noel Pabalate:
Best Picture – Deleter
2nd Best Picture – Mamasapano: Now It Can Be Told
3rd Best Picture – Nanahimik Ang Gabi
Best Actress – Nadine Lustre, Deleter
Best Actor – Ian Veneracion, Nanahimik Ang Gabi
Best Director – Mikhail Red, Deleter
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Best Supporting Actor – Mon Confiado, Nanahimik Ang Gabi
Best Supporting Actress – Dimples Romana, My Father, Myself
Best Screenplay – Mamasapano
FPJ Memorial Award – Mamasapano
Gatpuno Antonio Villegas – Family Matters
Marichu VeraPerez Maceda Memorial Award – Vilma Santos
Stars of the Night – Nadine Lustre and Ian Veneracion
Gender Sensitivity Award – My Teacher
Best Cinematography – Deleter
Best Child Performer – Shawn Gabriel (My Father, Myself)
Best Production Design – Nanahimik Ang Gabi
Best Visual Effects – Deleter
Best Film Editing – Deleter
Best Musical Score – Nanahimik Ang Gabi
Best Sound – Deleter
Best Original Song – The theme from ‘Mamasapano’
By the numbers:
Deleter – 7
Nanahimik Ang Gabi – 5
Mamasapano – 4
My Father, Myself – 2
Family Matters – 1
My Teacher – 1
2022 hottest year in Italy since 1800
ROME, Italy — This year will go down as the hottest in Italy since records began in 1800, according to data from the Institute for Atmospheric Science at the country’s National Research Council (NRC).
“There were record highs all along the way, starting in the spring, all throughout the summer, and now in the winter,” Bernardo Gozzini, director of the NRC’s LaMMA meteorology consortium, told Xinhua.
The new record won’t be official until the end of the year, but LaMMA officials said it is statistically impossible for average temperatures to fall below those of 2018, previously the hottest year on record in Italy.
LaMMA first began reporting in July that this year was on track to be the hottest on record. In October, it said that temperatures in northern and central Italy were 3.2 degrees Celsius higher than normal.
Meanwhile, the organization reported temperatures of 5 to 7 degrees Celsius higher than average in late December across most of southern and central Europe, including Italy.
This year has been a difficult one in Italy, with a long summer drought reducing water levels by three-quarters in most of Italy’s main rivers, and slashing agricultural production by a third.
The scorching temperatures resulted in hundreds of deaths. In July, a lack of rainfall combined with unseasonably high temperatures caused a glacier in northern Italy’s Dolomites range to collapse.
According to the Italian Meteorological Society, or Nimbus, warm weather currents from North Africa have pushed temperatures in December to unseasonable highs.
Nimbus official Daniele Cat Berro told Xinhua these high temperatures would last at least until the end of the year in central and southern Italy.
At the global level, 2016 remains the hottest year on record, followed by 2020, 2019, and 2022, according to the NRC.
10 areas log below 20℃ air temperature on Dec. 27
by Ellalyn De Vera-Ruiz, MB
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said 10 stations recorded air temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius (℃) on Tuesday, Dec. 27.
Based on PAGASA’s monitoring, the stations that recorded the lowest air temperatures on Tuesday morning were:
Baguio City (12.5℃)
Basco, Batanes (15.4℃)
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte (17.2℃)
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan (17.8°C)
Tanay, Rizal (17.9℃)
Casiguran, Aurora (18.8°C)
Malaybalay, Bukidnon (19.0°C)
Sinait, Ilocos Sur (19.1°C)
Abucay, Bataan (19.5°C)
Calayan, Cagayan (19.7°C)
According to PAGASA, the northeast monsoon, locally called “amihan,” continues to bring cloudy and rainy weather over Cagayan Valley, Cordillera Administrative Region, Bicol region, Aurora, and Quezon.
Meanwhile, the rest of Luzon, including Metro Manila, will have partly cloudy to cloudy weather with light amihan rains.
PAGASA said the average minimum temperatures this month will range from 13 degrees Celsius (°C) to 22.3°C in northern Luzon; 17°C to 25.3°C in lowlands Luzon; 9.7°C to 13.1°C in mountainous Luzon; 18.3°C to 23.6°C in Metro Manila; 19.1°C to 25°C in lowlands Visayas; 19.5°C to 23.7°C in lowlands Mindanao; and 15°C to 16.7°C in mountainous Mindanao.
“Generally, surface air temperatures range from below average to above average throughout the country during the forecast period (December 2022-May 2023), with the coldest temperatures expected in January and February,” it said.
The lowest temperature recorded in Baguio City was 6.3℃ on Jan. 18, 1961, while it was registered twice in Metro Manila, on Feb. 4, 1987, and Dec. 30, 1988, at 15.1 degrees Celsius.
PAGASA is expecting cold surges between December 2022 and February 2023.
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
Gatchalian warns Pinoys about new GCash scam ahead of SIM registration
by Ellson Quismorio
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has cautioned Filipinos on a recently discovered GCash scam ahead of the start of SIM card registration on Dec. 27.
Gatchalian cited a fraudulent email apparently coming from GCash Promotions advising recipients that their transactions have been restricted and to reinstate the said feature, recipients have to pre-register by simply clicking a link, a process that could potentially compromise their online security. This has been confirmed by the GCash Team as a scam.
SIM stands for subscriber identity module. It is used on mobile devices such as phones and tablets.
“Ipinaglaban natin ang pagsasabatas ng SIM registration sa nakalipas na maraming taon dahil gusto nating protektahan ang mga gumagamit ng SIM laban sa panloloko ng cyber criminals (We fought for SIM registration enactment in past years because we want SIM users to be protected from cyber criminals),” Gatchalian said.
“Kailangan nating abisuhan ang ating mga kababayan na mag-ingat nang husto laban sa mga sari-saring pambibiktima ng mga kawatan (We need to warn our countrymen to be careful against these fraudsters’ various schemes),” he added.
GCash is a popular e-wallet maintained by one of the country’s major telecommunications companies.
Starting Dec. 27 this year, SIM users need to register their SIMs within 180 days or six months, or else have their SIM cards deactivated from their respective service providers.
A co-author of Republic Act (RA) 11934, or the SIM Registration Act, Gatchalian also urged SIM users to register their respective SIMs as soon as possible, emphasizing that doing so would enable authorities to track criminal-minded individuals who take advantage of unsuspecting customers.
Gatchalian also said the law includes provisions that would ensure the protection of customers’ personal information.
“Identity theft is precisely one of the online schemes that we want to prevent relative to the enactment of the SIM registration law. The process for the disclosure of personal information is a rigid one that necessitates a court order,” he emphasized.
Gatchalian said SIM users need to make sure that they register only through a secure platform or website provided by their respective service providers. The process of registration requires the following information including full name, date of birth, gender, address, and valid government ID or similar documents with a photo, while business users must provide their business name, business address, and the full name of an authorized signatory.
Six people killed, over 100K affected by Christmas rains, floods
Gaea Katreena Cabico - Philstar.com
This handout photo taken on December 25, 2022 and received on December 26 from the Philippine Coast Guard shows rescuers evacuating people from a flooded area in Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental. Two
Handout / Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) / AFP
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 12:27 p.m.) — Authorities said six people died and 19 were missing as parts of the country experienced heavy rains and floods during the Christmas weekend.
In a bulletin released Monday morning, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said two individuals in Camarines Sur and four in Misamis Occidental were reported dead.
Ten people in Bicol region, six in Eastern Visayas, and three in Northern Mindanao were missing. Three individuals were injured.
The shear line—or the point where the cold and warm winds converge—will continue to bring rain showers to Visayas, Caraga, Northern Mindanao, Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and Palawan that may trigger floods and landslides, state weather bureau PAGASA said.
The rains and floods caused by the shear line have affected 23,762 families or 100,691 individuals. Around 9,216 households or 46,672 people have been staying in evacuation centers.
The NDRRMC said the estimated damage to infrastructure has reached P5.28 million in Bicol region and Northern Mindanao. Forty-eight houses were also damaged in Mimaropa, Eastern Visayas, and Northern Mindanao.
The cost of agricultural damage in Bicol region was pegged at P52.7 million.
The agency said it has provided assistance worth P2.04 million to the affected residents, deployed search and rescue teams, and activated regional emergency operations centers.
Die Pandemie ist vorbei!
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Nach Drosten-Aussage: Buschmann fordert Ende aller Corona-Maßnahmen. Im „Tagesspiegel“ hatte Charité-Virologe und Regierungsberater Christian Drosten (50) die Corona-Pandemie für beendet erklärt. „Wir erleben in diesem Winter die erste endemische Welle mit SARS-CoV-2, nach meiner Einschätzung ist damit die Pandemie vorbei“, so Drosten. Bundesjustizminister Marco Buschmann (45, FDP) reagierte umgehend – und sprach sich für ein Ende aller Corona-Maßnahmen aus. Christian Drosten habe in der Pandemie zu den vorsichtigsten Wissenschaftlern gehört, schrieb Buschmann am Montag auf Twitter. „Nun lautet sein Befund: Die Pandemie ist vorbei. Wir sind im endemischen Zustand.“
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