A blessed Easter to all!  Here in Balugo we prepared for the feast of the risen Christ by Good Friday Stations of the Cross; and confession of the children and adults.  The chapel was cleaned and decorated with flowers.

Of course, here in the Philippines, Good Friday is the day observed by most; seems like the death of Christ is more important than His Resurrection from the dead.  Guess, it’s a cultural thing.

The chain saw boys are going crazy cutting trees.  Not much concern here for the environment.  Money from cut lumber is always the goal.  Copra is declining because coconut trees are being cut down right and left.  Permits are supposed to be obtained but I’m sure money changes hands for permission to cut.

Here on St. Camillus Land we promote saving the environment by not cutting any trees while planting mahogany seedlings.

A couple of days ago a young woman attempted suicide here by drinking poison.  She was admitted to the hospital but as of now there is no word about her condition.  I heard her husband was a heavy drinker.  She has five children.  Wonder why she keeps having a child year after year.  Sure must be a sick relationship between the two.

Health Notes

What’s going on with the cheaper medicine bill?  Seems the bone of contention is the House’s requirement for the docs to prescribe only generic drugs.  The docs are right in not wanting that item in the bill.  But the problem is that the docs sometime promote expensive drugs in order to get a kickback from the drug companies.

However, the biggest problem is the lack of quality control of generic drugs by the government.

The congressman (he’s a doc), who supposedly initiated the ‘generic only’ section of the bill, is you guessed it, the owner of a company making generic drugs.  How’s that for baloney?  Does anyone care about having less expensive medicine for the poor?

Until next month, Fr. Tom Welu, MI.