Editorial Malaya June 21, 2010 ‘Our officials should keep their piety private. In exchange, the people would let their hypocrisy pass unnoticed.’ THE Catholic hierarchs earlier said they would not accept the invitation of the education department to review the sex education subjects that will be pilot-tested this year. Now, the word is some representatives of the Church would be meeting with educators after all, but this would only be to reiterate its position that sex education is not the business of the schools and should be left exclusively to parents. If that’s the Church’s stand, the education department might as well declare that its officials are prepared to humor the Church representatives but are determined to implement the order come what may. Gloria Arroyo herself issued the order for education officials to dialog with Church representatives. She is exiting on June 30, to be succeeded by Noynoy Aquino who has a more enlightened appreciation of the need to address reprodu...

Catholic Church hinders growth of public intellectuals in RP --expert By Purple S. Romero, abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak Posted at 05/28/2010 5:26 PM | Updated as of 05/28/2010 5:34 PM MANILA, Philippines--Influential sectors or "veto groups" have stymied public intellectuals in Southeast Asia, an authority on nationalism said on Friday in the forum of Nippon Foundation Fellowships for Asian Public Intellectuals held at the Ateneo de Manila University. Benedict Anderson, professor emeritus of International Studies in Cornell University, pointed out that public intellectuals are concerned not just with meddling governments, they are also “up against veto groups,” or influential sectors which immediately block policies or ideas that either go against their belief, or question their power. Public intellectuals are experts in various fields who help shape public discourse and introduce reforms. They are those who frequently appear in the media to comment on newsworthy issues. In ...