It has been five decades since the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law on Sept. 21, 1972. In this 50th year since the iron fist of repression was imposed, his son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., will soon be the country’s head of state. Sara Duterte, daughter of outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte, will serve as vice president.
Those who voted for them are rejoicing over the impending return of the so-called golden age, a mythical period of national prosperity, peace and order boastfully dubbed the “Bagong Lipunan” or “New Society.”
When I asked some of them why they were voting for Marcos and Duterte, they could not give clear answers. We can only hope against hope that they can answer this question honestly without being haunted by a not-so-erroneous conscience.
The apathetic others call on their fellow Filipinos to move on. Whatever the meaning of this call, they do not clearly comprehend it, sorry to say.
They can only heave a sigh of regret for their failure to combat the glaring impunity seen in the absence of punishment of human rights violators who roam free and enjoy positions of power.

Hong Kong’s national security police released Cardinal Joseph Zen Zekiun, retired archbishop of Hong Kong, May 11 after detaining him for allegedly colluding with foreign forces.
The cardinal, 90, has been a very public supporter of pro-democracy and independence protests that have roiled the city for much of the past decade and came to a head in 2019 with unprecedented street marches and six months of spasmodic street battles with authorities. He was detained along with along with former opposition lawmaker Margaret Ng Ngoiyee and singer Denise Ho Wansze.
The independent Hong Kong Free Press tweeted a photo of a masked Cardinal Zen and said: “Cardinal Joseph Zen was released on bail from Chai Wan Police Station at around 11 p.m. on Wednesday. He did not speak. He then entered a private car parked outside the police station. The 90-year-old was accompanied by five people when he left the police station.”
The cardinal, Ng and Ho were among five trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which was set up to offer financial assistance to those involved in anti-government protests in 2019 and which came under scrutiny of authorities over the past year.
A fourth trustee, former adjunct associate professor Hui Po Keung, was arrested by national security police May 10 as he was about to catch a flight to Germany, a source said. The South China Morning Post reported May 11 that Hui had been put on the list of people who would be stopped by law enforcers if they tried to leave the city via the airport or other control points.

Nearly 70 million Filipinos headed to polling centres on May 9)to elect the next president of the Philippines, hoping their pick will turn around a country battered by the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years.
The fight for the presidency was centred between Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the late Filipino dictator, and Vice President Maria Leonor ”Leni” Robredo, a human rights lawyer and economist. On May 11 Marcos Jr claimed victory, after partial unofficial counts covering 98 percent of the votes showed he had obtained 31 million votes, double that of Robredo. Sara Duterte-Carpio, President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter and Marcos Jr’s vice presidential running mate, has also been reported to have won over three times more voters than that of her closest opponent.
In the past, the Marcos family added to the general hardship of Filipinos by plundering billions of dollars from state coffers Dis-illusioned by unfulfilled promises from the Duterte administration to lower costs of living, end labour contractualisation and clean up corruption, they believe Marcos Jr could deliver change. Marcos’ campaign, focused on unifying the country and bringing it back to the global stage must have resonated.

Cletus (name changed) is just 24 but now undergoes treatment for heroin addiction at a rehabilitation centre in northern Sri Lanka.
The region, once the centre of the armed conflict between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tigers, now faces a new crisis – Substance Use Disorder, says Sister Theophane Cross, head of the Holy Family congregation’s Jaffna province.
The congregation in 2020 started its mission among sub-stance abuse victims when it celebrated its 200th anniversary of foundation.
The civil war ended in 2009, but the island nation is on another war – against drugs — “which is much more challenging and enslaving,” Sister Cross told.
The nuns, who are yet to open a de-addiction centre, refer their patients to the ‘Change Rehabilitation Centre’ managed by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate priests in Jaffna.
Sister Cross says she is deeply pained that most abuse victims are depressed young people with no jobs. “A lot of them are addicted to drugs and alcohol,” she bemoans.
Cletus was brought to the Oblate father’s centre in September 2021 by his wife, sister and mother on the advice of some Holy Family nuns who had visited them.

Warning that the Russian Orthodox patriarch should not “turn himself into Putin’s altar boy,” Pope Francis also said he would like to go to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin in an attempt to end the conflict in Ukraine.
The Pope reiterated that he would not be going to Kyiv “for now,” but “I first must go to Moscow, I must first meet Putin,” he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, published May 3. Vatican News also published most of the interview.
Pope Francis said he sent a message through Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, “20 days after the war” started, to be delivered to Putin telling him, “I was ready to go to Moscow.”
“We still have not had a response, and we are still being persistent, even though I am afraid Putin may not be able to and may not want to have this meeting right now,” the Pope said. “I am doing what I can. If Putin were to open the door. …”
“But so much brutality, how do you not try to stop it? We saw the same thing with Rwanda,” he said, referring to the genocide against members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group in 1994, when at least 500,000 people were killed in about 100 days.

At least 10 priests of the unofficial or “underground” Catholic community in the city of Baoding in the province of Hebei disappeared in the hands of the police since January this year.
At least four of those who went missing disappeared on the 29th and 30th of April, said a report on AsiaNews.
The underground Catholic community in Baoding is one of the oldest and most numerous in China even as its bishop, Giacomo Su Zhimin, has been in the hands of the police for at least 25 years, having already spent more than 40 years in forced labor in the 1970s.
Another Catholic priest in the city, Liu Honggeng, is in prison for seven years already. The unofficial community of Baoding split after its vicar, Francis An Shuxin, decided to join the “official Church” after spending decades in prison.

Buddhist leaders in Cambodia have honoured French Bishop Olivier Michel Marie Schmitthaeusler for his years of support and donations to local Buddhists and a popular pagoda.
Bishop Schmitthaeusler, the apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh, received the accolade “a great friend of Buddhists” at an event at Ang Monrei pagoda in Tram Kak district of Takeo province in southern Cambodia on April 30, reported Catholic Cambodia, the communications wing of the local Catholic Church. Seng Somony, secretary and spokesman of the Ministry of Cults and Religions, presided over the ceremony and handed a certificate of honor to Bishop Schmitthaeusler issued by the Mahanikaya Council of Cambodia, the country’s supreme Buddhist council.

If the son of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos wins the May 9 presidential election, he will not be the only Marcos currently in power — and will almost certainly not be the last.
Elite families have long ruled the poverty-ravaged nation, holding on to positions of power for generations by dishing out favours, buying votes or resorting to violence.
Analysts say the system has become more pervasive in the decades since a popular uprising deposed Marcos and forced the family into exile. New dynasties have entrenched themselves in politics, smothering electoral competition, stunting economic development and worsening inequality.
“Power begets power — the more they stay in power, the more they accumulate power, the more powerful they get,” said Julio Teehankee, a professor at De La Salle University in Manila.
The archipelago has produced about 319 dynastic families, dating back to when the country was a US colony in the first half of the 20th century, Teehankee said.
“This is all dynastic. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I weren’t a Marcos”
Dozens have withered, but in 2019 members of at least 234 such families won positions in mid-term elections, he said.
They have flourished in a feudal and corrupt democracy where parties are weak, fragmented along clan lines and plagued by defections. Power, however, is not static. Families can win and lose it — and make a comeback. After the fallen dictator died in 1989, the Marcoses returned to their traditional stronghold of Ilocos Norte and began tapping local loyalties to get elected to a succession of higher positions.
Political families held 67% of seats in the House of Representatives, compared with 48 percent in 2004, and 53% of mayoral posts, up from 40%. Among the leading candidates for the 12 Senate seats being contested, at least three already have a relative in the chamber.

Pope Francis is set to visit Kazakhstan, a Central Asian state close to the epicentre of ethno-religious conflicts where bloody anti-government unrest early this year claimed 240 lives.
According to the office of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kazakhstan is set to host the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in September with Pope Francis as a star guest.
Bishops’ Conference of Kazakhstan president Bishop Jose Luis Mumbiela said the Church was “grateful” to the president of Kazakhstan for inviting Pope Francis 20 years after the visit of Pope St. John Paul II.
The papal visit will be a “breath of hope and strength,” said Father Guido Trezzani, director of Caritas Kazakhstan in the predominantly Muslim nation of 15 million.
While Muslims constitute 70 percent of the population, Christians, mostly Orthodox, number about 30%. However, Catholics are a tiny minority of hardly 2% of the population.
The papal visit to the country of some 300,000 Catholics is considered a major boost for the Kazakhstan Church. The country has a huge landmass of some 3 million square kilometers, making it the ninth-largest nation in the world.

Pope Francis has again plead-ed for peace and reconciliation in conflict-torn Myanmar where millions of people including Christians have been oppressed by the brutal military junta.
During his Easter plea for peace around the world, he cited the Southeast Asian nation where violence has persisted for more than a year after the military ousted the civilian government.
“I pray that God grants re-conciliation for Myanmar, where a dramatic scenario of hatred and violence persists,” he said. “We need the crucified and risen Lord so that we can believe in the victory of love, and hope for reconciliation.”
His attention to the people of Myanmar comes as the world is focused on the war in Ukraine.
Pope Francis has spoken several times about the crisis in Myanmar, which he regards with much affection after visiting the country in November 2017.
He has repeatedly called for military leaders to stop the violence, release all detained people and pursue dialogue to seek peace and reconciliation.
“Let our families be healed, let our nation be healed, let our world be healed. We greet the families that are coming out of many challenges”