Santosh Digal

According to Transparency International, the Philippines are one of the most corrupt countries in the world, showing no improvement over last year, driving potential investors away.

The Catholic Women’s League decides to economically and spiritually support 2,200 seminarians to help vocations and strengthen the presence of the Church in the country. The Bishops’ Conference and the government are all praise.

Davao’s Assumption College launches programme that includes the history of indigenous peoples and audio-visual material about the guerrilla. For the college president only peace education can change the situation in Mindanao, the predominantly Muslim island torn by 40 years of insurgency.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, after the withdrawal of Malaysian mediators, has decided to "reclaim" the land of their ancestors, which for decades has been farmed by Christians. The police want to avoid armed confrontation, and are not intervening.

Placed under a car in the church parking explosive device damages wall and windows. Three militants from Abu Sayyaf, al-Qaeda’s Filipino branch, are blamed.

More than a thousand young people are set to travel to Sydney, including 20 from Hong Kong. Talks between political and Church authorities are currently underway to prepare pilgrim reception. Organisers expect more than 500,000 youth to come.

The rise in the price of rice is making public food assistance for the poor even more essential. To avoid the "disappearance" of the sacks of rice, they will be distributed at the parishes in Manila, and then throughout the entire country. Bishops: there is enough land to feed everyone; the state must provide better support for farmers.

Under emergency hospitalisation for a tumour, and subjected to chemotherapy, she is receiving the affection and prayers of those who remember all that "this great Christian soul" has done for her country and for the Islamic community.

Representatives of the World Conference of Religions for Peace have met in Davao. The city's Catholic bishop supports the desire of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is asking for talks with Manila to be resumed.

Armando Corio, a born-again Christian, was stabbed in the head and the chest in church. Police are looking for Rizalde Cordero who on the night of the murder was seen fleeing the place of the crime with a knife in his hand.

The prelates call on the faithful not to duplicate the one and only sacrifice: the one by Christ. Mgr Paciano Aniceto, archbishop of San Fernando City, stresses that Easter rites have turned into a tourist attraction and that is terrible.

Today, a few days short of Easter Sunday, Muslims celebrate the birth of their prophet. In Mindanao religious leaders are convinced that this coincidence is an extremely positive event, using it to express their commitment to peace in the area.