Catabas, Karl Raymund K.

October 13, 2017

Social Doctrine of the Church Rev. Fr. Jerry Cera

SHORT ANSWERS (SEE, JUDGE and ACT)

1. Child labor
Child labor is a great injustice in our society because it does not only abuse
the rights of the children, but it also corrupts the future of the nation. As
what Dr. Jose Rizal said, “youth is the hope of the fatherland” and if the youth
are oppressed and abused through harsh labor, what kind of society that we
are expecting in the future. We can identify the means and the ways that
these children were abused and we can boycott the products or services that
these company offers. Moreover, we can support the organizations that
protects the rights and the dignity of these children. Lastly, and more
importantly, we must be able to promote good and affordable education for
these children, because they belong to the classroom not factories or other
working setting.

2. MARAWI Crisis (ISIS and Abu Sayyaf)

It is a crisis cries for justice and peace for both sides. One is looking for
justice for their faith and peace for their own personal needs, another is
looking for justice for their loved ones that is a victim of the war against the
opposition, and peace in their lives so that they would be able to live their
lives normally again. What is lacking in this crisis is the respect for both side
and patience. Respect the belief of the other party, respect in a sense that
Christian and Muslim would be able to live in harmony in Mindanao without
the fear of being bombed or kidnapped by the terrorist group. Patience is a
pre-requisite to respect because only by being patient to one another that we
can be able to respect others.

3. Martial Law
In the history of our country, there has been two declaration of martial law,
one during the regime of Marcos and the second is during the present era of
Duterte. Different generation, different scope, but it all boils down to one
thing. Oppression of the rights and the dignity of the human person. It is
when freedom is lost, due process is not honored, and the oppressing
government continues to expand his scope, while the lives of the ordinary
Filipino suffers. When the oppressive government take control of the rights
and dignity of the people, even if there is no formal declaration of martial
law, it is a martial law. That is why it is important for the government to
work hand-in-hand with the church so that the church can serve as the
conscience of the society. The separation of the state and the church is not for
the state, but rather for the church so that the government may not infiltrate
the dignity and the rights of the human person. It is when the government
distance herself from the church that the martial is getting ready to strike.
4. Pornography
In all aspect, pornography is corruption. It corrupts both the person in the
pornography as well as the one who subscribe to it. It is a huge sin against
the dignity of the human person. God created all of us in His own image and
likeness. Pornography is using that creation of God for self-satisfaction, to
pleasure ourselves. It is not only a sin against our fellow human being, but
also a sin against God. By acknowledging the image and likeness in all of us,
pornography cannot exist in society. But what has been happening in the
society now is we are separating ourselves from religion, and religion is
where we can know God more, and pornography is one effect of this trend.

5. Prostitution
When I was in high school, I had a friend who is very impassioned in
legalizing prostitution in our country for the reason that legalizing it will
protect the prostitutes, their health, their lives, and their dignity. But what is
the root of prostitution? It is poverty. Most of the prostitutes come from the
poor families who needs to have a source of income for them to have a food
on their table. The issue here is not the health and the lives of the individual
prostitute, but the current state of the society that there are poor families
who have no option but to sell their bodies, their only possession, to the
oppressive society. It is a crime against the dignity of the person, it is a crime
against the poor, it is a crime against God. If we solve poverty, there is no
need to sell our bodies. If there is no greed, there is no one who would
succumb to allow their bodies to be touched by someone whom they did not
know to them to have food for their table, and education for their future.

6. Proliferation of gambling (casinos, jueteng, tong its etc.)

Gambling is a sin against the poor. It creates a wider space between the rich
and the poor by giving an avenue for the rich to be engrossed in their greed.
The money will go the rich and nothing is solved. The rich, would become
richer. The rich can readily spend millions of pesos just for him to be
entertained, while to poor work day in and day out and it is still not enough
to give a three square meal for his family. It is the insensitivity to the poor.
Moreover, it also gives an avenue for the poor to be poorer. It offers an “easy
way out” for their financial problem. But gambling is a gamble. There is no
assurance for a gambler to gain, and most often than not, the gambler ends
up losing more what he has at the beginning, giving him more problem in the
end.

7. OFW (How does it affect families?)

The main reason for the Filipinos to go overseas is because they want to have
a greener pasture because their needs cannot be satisfied by our country.
Most reason why they go overseas is for the education of their children, for
them to have food and savings. The reason is good and noble, but the effect of
it is bad. The phenomenon of OFW disrupts the basic community which is the
family. It hinders the family to be normal. We may meet the financial
 necessities of our family but it robs us of the paternal or material need of our
children. The child may excel academically at the expense of losing his
relation to his father or mother. When a father or a mother is substituted by a
balik bayan boxes, there is a problem that stirs in the life of the child.

8. Poverty in the Philippines

Poverty, I think, is one of the crown of all the problems in our country. From
poverty comes many problems. It is the trunk of many branches of problems
that the Filipino faces. If there’s a trunk, there’s a root. And the root, I believe,
is the corruption in the government. Poverty is the manifestation of the
corruption in the country. Our country is very rich in natural resources, we
have seas, land, wind, and all forms of resources that we can use. How come
there is poverty in the Philippines? The corruption and the greed of the
people is the cause. When we acquire only what is necessary for us, and there
is a proper distribution in the resources, there can be no poverty in a very
rich country like the Philippines.

9. Education situation in the Philippines

The dawn of K-12 ignited many issues regarding the education situation in
the country. Many says that K-12 is an attempt to equip the Filipino an
international standard in education. It may be the case with regard to the
system. But there is more problem than that. There is the problem of the
quality of the education, the textbooks and the competent teachers who has
the mastery of the subject that they are teaching. There is also the problem of
the affordability of the education. Ateneo and La Salle and many competent
universities in the country are too expensive for an ordinary Filipino. Even
the University of the Philippines, where the students are called Iskolar ng
Bayan, even pay large amount for their education. Education in our country
has become a privilege rather than a right.

10. Globalization
The idea of globalization is noble. It is a vision there the nations would work
hand-in-hand to be able to give better products and services for the people.
But in reality it is something that is bad because there is an oppression of the
developed countries to the developing countries. The developed countries
would exhaust the resources, natural and human, of the developing countries
at a price that is insignificant to what they will produce in the future. It is an
oppression against the poor.

11. Racism (Indigenous people of the Philippines: Aeta, tausog, mangyan

etc)
Racism against the indigenous people is a sign that we are a nation that is
ungrateful, and a nation who does not learn from the past. Calling someone
ita, mangyan, and other indigenous groups in our country is something that
is derogatory is our present language. They are our ancestor, and moreover
 they are also God’s creation. By degrading their dignity is degrading the
dignity of God.

12. Black Sand Mining

Mining is a huge crime against nature as well as of the people from the
mining site. It not only depletes the natural resource of the mining site, but it
also puts into peril the lives of those who lives around the mining site as well
as the miners. Granted that there are some mining companies who gives
assistance to the families in which the site is located, but the profit they gain
from mining the land of the families does not par with assistance they give to
them. More importantly, the injustice to the creation God for personal gain.
Once the natural resources have been depletes, it has a lasting effect to the
generations to come.

13. War on drugs

Ever since the beginning of the administration of Duterte, war on drugs has
been an issue in the country. It aims for a drug-free country, but the
implementation is oppressive. It kills the drug pushers and addicts without
due process. What is more disturbing is that the victims of the war on drugs
are the poor. Most of them are killed because ‘nanlaban’. When a government
official was accused to be connected to the biggest drug group in the world,
they were crying for due process, they were demanding evidences, and they
are invoking their rights to remain silent. War on drugs in obviously a war
against the poor, a war of the rich, government leaders and their family and
friends, against the people who are sweating out their blood to provide for
their family.

14. Garbage problems

Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints. It is a common saying
among the travelers especially among those who are going up the mountain.
This must be the motto of our generation today. It always leaves me at awe
when I imagine a place where people would stay. After a day, there would
always be a trash to be left behind. Our generation is a generation of
throwing out things. We are so pre-occupied by our fast-paced lives that after
consuming something our only option is to throw things. We are a people
who reached the moon and discovered many other different plants, but we
cannot invest on something that is renewable, something that is more
permanent, and not something that is disposable. Everything we have now is
disposable. Disposable plates, cameras, clothes, etc. We do not consider that
at the end of the day, the one who will dispose ultimately is the nature if we
do not end the disposable mentality.

15. Capital punishment

When hope is gone, capital punishment is the effect. A person who commits a
crime does not have hope to change, therefore he must die. It is absurd to
think that life of an individual is in the hands of other people. God is the sole
 giver of life therefore it is logical to say that he alone has the right to take it
away. Moreover, capital punishment is against the poor, for they cannot
afford good attorneys for them to be defended in the court, where as the rich
who commits a much greater crime than the poor can buy his way out of
being judged guilty, thus a way out of the capital punishment.

16. Cooperation and mutual assistance among nations

What is wrong in this is the so-called strings attached to the assistance of the
greater nations to the nations who are in need. At its face value, it seems that
the greater nation has a noble intention to help a nation who is in need, but in
the end, there is an underlying agenda to gain for themselves still. At the end
of the assistance, it is usually the nation who is in need give more in a sense
to the nation who ‘helped’.

17. World War II

War itself is evil. There are no victors in war. What made World War II more
evil is the holocaust. It aims to wipe an entire nation. They think that their
race is more superior than the Jews. It is a form a racism. They did not see
that God created all human beings in His image and likeness, and thus, it is
implied that all have equal dignity and rights no matter what race, color,
class, or religion a person or nation might be.

18. Democracy
February 25, 1986, is the mark of the democracy in our country. That day
restored the democracy in our country from the many years of being under
the rule of the iron fist. Today, we look back on February 25, 1986 with
thanksgiving for that gift. But it stirs a question in me, is democracy good? I
think my answer is yes, inasmuch as it promotes the welfare and upholds the
rights and dignity of the human person. As long as the people knows the
correct definition of freedom, and they would not to abuse it. Because of the
freedom has been abused, it is not already democracy, but it would become
mobocracy.

19. Capitalism
The gap between the rich and the poor are getting wider and wider day by
day because of capitalism. It generates needs for the people. It revolutionizes
the world, it creates demands, in which only the rich can cope. While the
poor is thriving to meet their basic needs, the rich is engaged in creating
more so that they can gain more. It is a form of oppression to the poor
because it hinders the poor to join in the society, to be competitive and to
contribute something to the society. It just elevates the stand of the rich, and
it buries the dignity and the rights of the poor.

20. ENDO
It is ending the contract of the workers for working after six months so that
they would not receive any benefits from the company. It is a crime against
the dignity of the work, as well as the dignity and the rights of the workers.
Endo is not just illegal, but it is in justice to the workers who deserves to
receive benefits from the company, like the thirteenth month pay, health
benefits, sick leave, and so on. Endo looks at people as a means and not the
end. It is not only religion that condemn this behavior but also secular
philosophies like the philosophy of Kant. There must be an awareness that
we are brothers and sisters. There must be an awareness that work is not for
the gain of the company, but also a cooperation to the work of God in this
world.