Punchline
Overseas kabaleyans as stakeholders
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
LOCAL candidates should follow the lead of Sen. Alan Cayetano, the re-electionist senator who did the first ever “Google Hang-Out” in the country in an attempt to engage voters overseas in a discussion of vital issues close to their hearts.
Google Hangout is a new internet application by Google wherein ten participants from anywhere in the world conduct a virtual hangout online. Cayetano showed how it’s done last Friday by “hanging-out” with overseas Filipino workers.
There are thousands of overseas kabaleyans who will troop to the embassies to vote and their potential cannot be ignored. They will and can make a difference.
Note that each town and city in Pangasinan prides itself of having an association or two in many cities in the USA, Europe, Middle East, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. Their numbers have increased over the years, and without a doubt, they can influence many of their relatives voting here.
And as Cayetano has shown, the internet has become a valuable tool and certainly much cheaper activity to win votes of overseas Filipinos. In his case, he invited OFWs to discuss how issues relating to inflation, unemployment and wages (Presyo, Trabaho, Kita) have affected them and their families living here. Our local candidates can discuss plans how they can be counted on to make the overseas kabaleyans proud of their roots, i.e., a peaceful and clean community, more livelihood opportunities, zero tolerance for corruption, etc.
Our candidates will be surprised to learn that their kabaleyans abroad who have either taken residence or sought employment are just as involved and interested as the locals at home in determining how the election in their towns will turn out.
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OVERSEAS KABALEYANS’ INITIATIVE. But if local candidates are reluctant to do it, the overseas associations can take the initiative and invite their town’s candidates for a conference via Skype or Google-chat at a miting de abanse that the association will organize for its members. One candidate per “hang-out.”
What the associations simply need to do to organize it is to set up an internet connection in a ballroom that can seat hundreds of members. Set up giant screens backed by a good sound system so members can appreciate the whole proceedings. A panel of four should be organized that will ask the invited candidate the prepared questions. They cam make it a self-liquidating affair by selling the tickets.
This way, overseas kabaleyans will no longer have to feel like outsiders but active stakeholders in their respective communities’ development.
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THE CHURCH AS IT SHOULD BE. You have to hand it to Archbishop Soc Villegas.
He showed the way to a decent and a God-fearing governance when he asked Dagupan Mayor Benjie Lim: Where is God in this (Lim administration) government?
Last week, he taught his flock the relevance of God in their political lives. He reminded the laity and the clergy in the archdiocese that God gave man two gifts: intelligence and freedom. Intelligence to discern the truth and what’s morally right, and freedom to make their choices without compulsion from anyone.
Being the man who consistently practices what he preaches, he tells his flock that he will not be heard nor seen whispering to anyone’s ear about his personal preferences among candidates.
And, unlike the rabid bishops who believe that espousing Team Patay or Team Buhay has a place in the Church’s teachings, Archbishop Soc will not allow posters or streamers promoting or insulting specific candidates in the Lingayen-Dagupan diocese.
Yup, with Father Soc, the archdiocese will not be politicized. A hundred cheers!
And that’s how it should be.
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PEOPLE’S PLACARD. I already don’t know what to make of the members of the MadiLIM and MakuLIMLIM party in Dagupan and their supporters. Ignorant? Stupid? Or simply corrupt?
Not only are its leaders and lapdogs unabashedly siphoning public funds for their personal aggrandizement and using official protection of illegal activities as a means to raise campaign funds, but they have since become your worst kind who deliberately deceive the public without batting an eyelash.
A PUNCH reader was aghast on hearing a Mr. Lim’s “jukebox duo” on radio, namely Ruel Camba and Joel Fonseca, defend their patron Mr. Lim for refusing to make public the details of the proceeds from past city fiestas and Bangus Festivals.
Read this: It is not Mr. Lim’s nor the city hall’s responsibility to report to the public but it is for The PUNCH to get the details from city hall! Gee, I am beginning to wonder if Messrs. Camba and Fonseca are loyal friends or the worst enemies of Mr. Lim!
Secondly, that claim is in fact an affront to the city hall information office for insinuating that it is not performing its mandated task – to keep the public informed.
God help the city if the bunch at the city hall continues to remain in power. They are not only ignorant about the libel law but worse, ignorant about basic aspects of governance. The high school kids who take over the city’s reins for a week annually appear to be better educated than them oldies. They know and understand that the responsibility for accountability and transparency rests on them as public officials, not on the public they serve.
Nonetheless, since The PUNCH was dared to check out the city hall for the details of the report that Mr. Lim and the duo claim to have filed, we did just that. And, as expected, The PUNCH was told by both the Treasurer’s Office and the Accounting Office that no such report on proceeds from the city fiesta and Bangus Festival were ever filed by Mayor Lim or past chairmen, namely Councilors Brian Lim, Jess Canto, Guillermo Vallejos and Red Erfe-Mejia! (Translation: No millions remitted to the city). Worse, they never fully liquidated the P3 million given them as seed money! (Now comes Councilor Alvin Coquia getting this year’s share of P3-M).
For that deliberate barefaced attempt at deceiving Dagupeños, “Our People’s Placards” on the front page will remain to read: TO MAYOR BENJIE LIM, BRIAN LIM, JESS CANTO, GUILLERMO VALLEJOS, RED ERFE-MEJIA: Sabihin ninyo sa tao kung magkano ang kinita ng Dagupan sa mga nakaraang fiesta at Bangus Festival. Hwag ninyong ibulsa ang pera ng Dagupan at tama na ang pagsisinungaling ninyo!”
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