Monday, November 9, 2009

DSWD provides emergency jobs to typhoon victims

TYPHOON VICTIMS GET EMERGENCY EMPLOYMENT FROM DSWD: The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) also helps in the “rehabilitation and recovery” of victims of typhoons and other natural calamities by providing them with emergency employment, Secretary Esperanza Cabral told BATAS RADIO in an interview Monday.

The agency is not limited to assisting the victims with relief goods and other donated stuff, Cabral said, but, as in the case of the people hard-hit by Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng and Ramil, the DSWD is also providing emergency employment for them, enabling them to earn (or obtain food supplies) while clearing their homes and their neighborhood with debris.

And then, the DSWD, in coordination with the Habitat Community, has also allocated some Php10 million to be used in purchasing construction materials which are later on distributed for free to the victims so they could repair, renovate and improve on their residential structures damaged by the typhoons.

Cabral told BATAS RADIO that these services have been made possible by a law which says that about 25 percent of the government’s annual calamity fund (Php287 million for 2009) must be turned over to the DSWD for its use yearly.

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PUNO AND EBDANE MUST EXPLAIN THEMSELVES IN THE ROAD FUND MESS: I certainly hope former Road Board executive director Rodolfo “Dodi” Puno can explain himself in the Php60.5 billion fund mess exposed by Sen. Mirriam Defensor Santiago at the Senate halls Monday.

Otherwise, he faces the very real possibility of going to jail while the plunder case against him is being tried, for plunder, as we all know, is a non-bailable offense, and, if found guilty, he could also be in jail for the rest of his life as plunder is punishable with life imprisonment.

I also hope former Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. can also provide an explanation as to his supposed participation in the alleged fund mess. Otherwise, the issue will drag him down and imperil his presidential ambitions.

In fine, the allegations against them are simply mind-blowing---Php60.5 billion in taxes paid by motorists and vehicle owners unaccounted for, and not used for road and sewerage improvement but, if we are to believe Santiago and her sources, were instead spent for yachts, expensive cars, luxury condominiums and chasing married actresses and beauty queens.

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GOV’T MEN PRONE TO COMMIT GRAFT BECAUSE THERE IS NO GOD IN THEIR HEARTS: Without passing judgment on this issue at this stage, I just wish to remind all our officials in government, whether elected or merely appointed, that they will never go wrong if only they have God in their hearts and in their minds.

The trouble is that many of these officials no longer have the true fear and love of God in them, and whatever professions of faith they may have done or shown in the past (or are doing or showing now) appear to be merely for show, and are not sincere.

Thus, they claim to be believers in God and yet they do not even go to church anymore, and even when they go to church, they do not pay attention to what is happening. They claim to be following God’s commands and decrees, and yet they do not even know a single one of these commands and decrees. They claim to be men of God and yet they steal, plunder and commit graft and corruption.

Why is this happening? The reason is that almost all of these officials grew up without even having read or listened to the Word of God, and so God has not been with them. Since God has not been with them, it is easy for them to abuse and do evil.

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LUMINOUS MYSTERIES START WITH BAPTISM OF JESUS: After the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary of the Roman Catholic Christians, the Mysteries of Light, or the so-called Luminous Mysteries, come next, to narrate another aspect of the life of Jesus Christ starting from His baptism to the Institution of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper.

Significantly, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all contain an account of the baptism of Jesus Christ. In Matthew, we find the story in its Chapter 3, verses 13 to 17. In Mark, we find it in its Chapter 1, verses 9 to 13, while in Luke, the event is narrated in its Chapter 3, verses 21 to 22.

In John, the story is found in its Chapter 1, verses 29 to 34, although this account is not as specific about baptism as was written in Matthew, Mark and Luke.

Be that as it may, the baptism of Jesus, performed by His cousin, John the Baptist at the Jordan River, continues to be a confirmation of Jesus’ divinity, and of His status as the Son of God.

In all the Gospels, the story is told that after He was baptized, the heavens parted and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove and lightning, with a voice from heaven saying “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Surely, in all history, there is no other person or being in this world whom God called as His Son, whom He loves and with whom He is well pleased except Jesus.

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BATAS RADIO: Please listen to BATAS INTERNET RADIO, an Internet radio station under www.batasmauricio.com and www.eradioportal.com. Log on to either of these two sites, click BATAS RADIO and you can stay tuned for 20 hours a day, from 4 in the morning to 12 midnight, Mondays to Fridays, enjoying the latest news, credible commentaries, free legal and problem counseling from the point of view of the Bible.

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