Japan to give Pinoys $11-M ships

TOKYO—Japan plans to donate patrol boats costing $11 million each to the Philippines, ramping up regional efforts to monitor China’s maritime activity in disputed waters, a newspaper here said Monday.

The Japanese government plans to finance the deal in its fiscal 2013 budget starting in April and hopes to officially sign it early next year, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Japan will then provide the Philippines with the newly built patrol vessels, which will cost more than one billion yen ($11 million or P447 million) each, the newspaper said, without specifying the number of boats on offer.

Both countries are locked in separate territorial disputes with China.

Japan’s dispute is over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyus in China.

The Philippines is one of several Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, that are rowing with China over claims to parts of the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea). Two of the hotspots are the Spratly islands and Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.

The Japanese Coast Guard also plans to train Philippine and Vietnamese personnel as part of additional efforts to boost security cooperation with Southeast Asia, the Nikkei said.

In the fiscal 2013 budget draft, 2.5 billion yen has been allotted for such expenditure, it said.

Last month, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida visited Manila and called for stronger ties with the Philippines to help ensure regional peace.

Japan’s Coast Guard last month said it would create a special unit comprising 10 new large patrol boats to boost its surveillance of the Senkaku islands. February 12, 2013

Tuesday 5th Week in Ordinary Time Psalter: Week 1 Ps 8:4-5,6-7, 8-9 O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth. 1st Reading: Gen 1:20-2:4a

God said, “Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth under the ceiling of the sky.” Godcreated the great monsters of the sea and all living animals, those that teem in the waters, according to their kind, and every winged bird, according to its kind. God saw that it was good. God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the waters of the sea, and let the birds increase on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning: the fifth day.

God said, “Let the earth produce living animals according to their kind: cattle, creatures that move along the ground, wild animals according to their kind.” So it was. Godcreated the wild animals according to their kind, and everything that creeps along the ground according to its kind. God saw that it was good.

God said, “Let us make man in our image, to our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the wild animals, and over all creeping things that crawl along the ground.” So God created man in his image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God said, “I have given you every seed-bearing plant which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that bears fruit with seed. It will be for your food. To every wild animal, to every bird of the sky, to everything that creeps along the ground, to everything that has the breath of life, I give every green plant for food.” So it was.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.

That was the way the sky and earth were created and all their vast array. By the seventh day the work God had done was completed, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had done. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested from all the work he had done in his creation. These are the successive steps in the creation of the heavens and the earth. Gospel: Mk 7:1-13

One day the Pharisees gathered around Jesus and with them were some teachers of the Law who had just come from Jerusalem.

They noticed that some of his disciples were eating their meal with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. Nowthe Pharisees, and in fact, all the Jews, never eat without washing their hands for they follow the tradition received from their ancestors. Nor do they eat anything when they come from the market without first washing themselves. And there are many other traditions they observe, for example, the ritual washing of cups, pots and plates.

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean hands?”

Jesus answered, “You, shallow people! Howwell Isaiah prophesied of you when he wrote: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far fromme. The worship they offer me is worthless, for what they teach are only humanrules. You even put aside the commandmentofGodto hold fast to human tradition.”

And Jesus commented, “You have a fine way of disregarding the commandment of God in order to implant your own tradition. For example, Moses said: Doyour duty to your father and your mother, and: Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death. But according to you someone could say to his father or mother: ’I already declared Corban, which means “offered to God,” what you could have expected fromme.’ In this case, you no longer let him do anything for a father or mother. So you nullify the word of God through the tradition you have handed on. And you do many other things like that.” Reflection:

The first reading takes us back to the origins of the world: How God’s word created everything that exists and how the world was properly organized around the holiness of God. God found everything “very good”; and reading the account, we can sense a certain peace, joy, and restfulness. Everything is how it ought to be. But we know it did not last very long. The gospel reading for the day documents a conflict, a split in such restfulness, mostly brought about by human traditions that sometimes nullify the word of God. There are traditions that serve the word of God, but there are traditions that nullify it as well. Sometimes a community begins a tradition with the best of intentions, only to lose sight of the purpose along the way and make it an end in itself. When a tradition loses its soul and violates the commandment of charity, the community loses its original restfulness. That is reason enough to examine its validity.

As we are about to enter the season of Lent, this is a fitting invitation to examine our ways of living, which may often be taken for granted. Has any of our ways lost its soul?