Catanduanes--An intensified rabies elimination campaign of the provincial government here has reeled off Tuesday (March 31) in the bid to attain a rabies-free Catanduanes by 2012. In time for the Rabies Awareness Month on March, Gov. Joseph Cua, along with Vice Gov. Alfred Aquino, provincial and national government officials, joined Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) Director Dr. Victor Atienza, DA Regional Executive Director Dr. Jose Dayao, and DOH regional director Dr. Nestor Santiago in the launching activities, including the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement for a joint undertaking in carrying out the provincial antirabies campaign.

NAGA CITY --Mayor Jesse M. Robredo, Armita B. Rufino of the Filipino Heritage Festival, Inc. (FHFI) and Ana Maria ‘Bambi’ Harper of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) will be the main presentors during the formal launch and press conference of the 2009 Filipino Heritage Festival on April 15, at Almacenas Reales in Fort Santiago, Manila.

NAGA CITY—The steel-cold prison bars of Naga City District Jail have not stopped inmates from keeping the faith. On Holy Monday, while the sky over Naga City was crisp after a drizzle, Eden de Lima, 59, along with other inmates, was thinking how to raise money from among themselves so they could buy rice, fish, vegetables, coffee, cheap bread, ginger (for salabat), and pansit for the meals of the 20 persons who will sing the Bicol version of “Pasyon.”

NAGA CITY--Reacting to a statement released over the weekend by Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero saying that the national debt doubled under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Albay Governor Joey Sarte Salceda said the opposition senator failed to account the economic growth experienced during the term of the President. “Using the same figures [used by Escudero], [it can be deduced that] the national debt radically improved from being 78 percent of the [country’s] gross domestic product (GDP) to 52 percent of GDP,” said Salceda, an economic adviser to the President and former cabinet secretary, told the Inquirer on Sunday.

The claim of Casureco II Spokesperson Ana Marie Jovily Dy, made during a radio interview that—ultimately—the management of the troubled electric cooperative is not under the authority of the Board of Directors, but that of the National Electrification Administration is ridiculous. The corollaries of that claim would be that the Board is a useless but costly appendage of the cooperative and that the Casureco II employees are really government employees.

In memory, I have gone once more through a week of silences. The Holy Week of my childhood was a series of rules, the days marked in taboos and the forbidden. Our grandmother commanded a silence rule, a no-loud laughter rule.. That rule began technically from Monday but became more despotic after the colorful Wednesday procession. That day was also the day when the town became a landscape of loud colors. Red and yellow prepared us for the black.

In 23 May 1949 the Parliamentary Council in Bonn ratified the German Basic Law and by doing so brought the Federal Republic of Germany into being. The German Federal Republic was built up on the ashes of the totalitarian dictatorship. Back then many doubted the Germans' capability to be democratic; 40 years later the Berlin Wall fell which paved the way to an All-German Democracy. Today it can be stated that Germany's democracy is among the most stable ones in the world. Yet the joy over this is spoilt by the increase of radicalism on the right as well as on the left, by undermining of data protection due to fighting terrorism, by figures that cause concerns like: Only 60% of the German population still trust in democracy as form of government. These facts educate us that democracy is a process we are never done with and which requires our all engagement.

THE HOLY WEEK IS OVER. Everybody is back to normal life and schedule with fond memories of vacation spent with family and friends as well as a certain feeling of nostalgia for moments of prayer and recollection during Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

What really happened on that First Good Friday? Who nailed Jesus to the cross? It was not Pilate because he was trying desperately to find an explanation, any excuse to let him go. It was not the Sanhedrin either because they wanted him dead but they did not have the authority to order an execution. They were under martial law of a foreign power. The definitive power came from ordinary people - a screaming crowd demanding blood. CRUCIFY HIM! Was this the same crowd who was yelling "Hosanna to the Son of David?" What went wrong?

VATICAN CITY, April 6, 2009 -Residents of L'Aquila, Italy are working to recover from a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that has left 92 dead and some 1,500 people injured. Upon hearing of the disaster, Pope Benedict sent a telegram to the local archbishop offering his prayers for the victims and expressing his solidarity.