Batas Mauricio AGRICULTURIST-FARMER Felipe Gabriel is raising a worrisome warning against the food and meat Filipinos are growing and thereafter eating, saying they are filled with deadly poison which are killing many of our countrymen arising from toxic fertilizers and pesticides, and even formalin which is used in embalming dead persons. In a Facebook post in Jan. 16, Gabriel urged the Duterte government and all farmers to stop using chemicals in the production of rice, fruits and vegetables, and in feeding meat-producing animals and fish, and instead use what he said was organic farming materials that blend with beneficial micro-organisms and break down toxic residues of chemical farming. A high school classmate of mine  during the early 1970s, Gabriel says he is now devoting his life as an agriculturist to fight the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides which are used in growing rice and vegetables, saying the phenomenon of “poison farming” is now widespread in the Philippines.
  • •
Leslie Bocobo, a socio-civic-political commentator in various social networking sites, posted this on Jan: 15, 2017: “Allow me to complain this time to this administration. “1) Why is Leila de Lima still not in jail, considering the evidence against her? 2) Why are Noynoy Aquino, Mar Roxas, Butch Abad, Dinky Soliman, Jun Abaya, and others, still not tried in court for crimes against the Filipino nation? 3) Why is the Supreme Court slow in acting on Bongbong Marcos’electoral protest? 4) Why are certain bishops not charged in court for engaging in a conspiracy to overthrow Duterte? 5) Why hasn’t Kris Aquino returned Imelda Marcos’ jewelries yet?” I hope answers can be given by the personalities and agencies concerned, and even by President Duterte himself.
  • •
Brisk walking on busy thoroughfares on late afternoons as a way of shedding unwanted fat brings untold gems of everyday living, if only one’s eyes are opened wide enough and one’s ears are geared up for hearing good enough. One particular gem--or gory detail, if you may--that hits me everyday is the facility with which very young Filipino kids utter invectives and profanities against one another, in public yet. It is as if saying “p..ang ..a” or “h.nd.t” or even “h.y.p ka”, or uttering or displaying some other abuse against their fellow youngsters, has become a way of life for them. Surely, this kind of an attitude and way of talking are merely imitated--and I cannot help but think that the children who are vulgar and profane in their language have either been subjected to such indignities right in their own homes, or have not been properly taught by their parents, by their relatives, and even by their schools. Do we want to remedy this malady? We should, unless we want our next generations to grow up with foul language in their mouths (and with foul language, bad character). And the only way to do this is God’s way. In Ephesians 6:4 of the Bible, we are told: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord…” What is the training and instruction of the Lord? We find this in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 of the Bible, which says, in part: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts… Also: “… Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates…”