If former Bayan Muna Representative Joel Virador wins a seat in the first district of the City Council, he will push for the creation of a city college. He believes that budget for public schools should also be increased so that more students can go to school. He laments that education has become a privilege rather than a right. 
Virador recalls his high school days when some of his classmates could not take the examinations because they could not pay the school tuition. Since then, he started to be critical of the government. He joined the progressive youth group League of Filipino Students. Later, in 2003, he became a partylist representative of Bayan Muna and got arrested and detained when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a ‘state of emergency’ in 2006.
Arrested and detained with him were five other progressive partylist representatives; namely: Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casiño of Bayan Muna, Liza Maza of Gabriela, and Rafael Maraño and the late Crispin Beltran of Anakpawis, who eventually became known as Batasan 6.
Virador believes he can apply what he learned in Congress at the City Council. Virador has opposed the government’s expanded Value Added Tax law and the attempts to change the Constitution. He also hits Nograles for Nograles’ moves to change the Constitution to sell the country’s lands to foreign investors.
Listen to Virador’s speech during the Hugpong Team’s campaign sortie in Puan village in Talomo district on March 31. (davaotoday.com)
