MANILA, Philippines—The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines will issue guidelines to Catholic voters on how they should choose their candidates in the May 2010 elections.

The guidelines will underscore the Catholic Church's position on “family and life issues,” which is how Church officials refer to the debate over the proposed Reproductive Health and Population Development Act or the so-called reproductive health bill in Congress.

LEGAZPI CITY—Illegal logging remains one of the major concerns of police in Tiwi, Albay province, and this year alone, they arrested 25 illegal loggers, a police official said on Thursday.

Supt. Rommel dela Rama, Tiwi police chief, said in a phone interview that although there was no large-scale illegal logging in the town, it still remains one of their major concerns because “it would have a big effect on the environment.”

MANILA (UCAN) -- The Philippine bishops' bioethics office says it supports efforts to develop new rice strains to solve a rice shortage in Asia as long as these do not harm the environment.

Dominican Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi of Caceres told UCA News the Church will back the introduction of new rice strains if these will help feed over 1 billion malnourished Asians and Africans.

He said the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines was initially against genetically modified organisms (GMO) when the technology was "not yet so well defined."

MANILA, Philippines -- Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles has formed a new commission to revisit the series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary at the Carmel monastery in Lipa, Batangas, in 1948.

The commission was created in a decree that Arguelles issued on Nov. 12, the same day the archbishop issued another decree, formally lifting the 1951 Church ban against the public veneration of the image of the Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace, in Lipa.

Culture and Underdevelopment

More than twenty years ago an Atlantic Monthly article was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in the United States. It became the subject of controversy and attention here by its very title – “A DAMAGED CULTURE: A NEW PHILIPPINES?”

LAS VEGAS: There is a lot at stake for Manny Pacquiao when he enters the ring against World Boxing Organization welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico Saturday night (Sunday morning, November 15 in Manila)—and the iconic Filipino fighter knows it.
More than the record paycheck that could go as much as $20 million, the 30-year-old boxing superstar is on the “cusp of boxing history”—a record seventh world title in as many weight categories.

Release a coincidence? Like a gift to Hillary

MANILA, Philippines — Irish missionary Fr. Michael Sinnott Thursday cleared the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) of involvement in his abduction, saying a “lost command” and the “original lumad” (indigenous people) of Mindanao were responsible.