Two of the three Gubernatorial candidates in the province of Davao del Norte bared their respective platform during the candidates forum held yesterday (April 26) at the ceremonial hall of the Davao del Norte Provincial capitol building.
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The system of embassies and consular offices of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) collects millions of dollars from overseas Filipino workers in the form of passport fees, taxes and other levies on the “disposable” population of the Philippines, a population which is now the mainstay of Filipino economy. With some $19 billion in remittances from Filipinas and Filipinos who work relentlessly, often under intolerable conditions and in unbearable alienation from home, family and community, one would expect the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) to be most energetic in ensuring that overseas Filipinos are empowered and enabled to participate in the electoral process, that they are provided with the means to have a voice in the choice of Philippine political leadership. Were wealth and resources truly the determinants for influence in Philippine politics ? which is the usual explanation for the enormous influence of landlords, warlords, bosses and corporations ? then, logically, overseas Filipinos would have a significant presence in electoral politics.
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Statement on the May 2007 Elections
The May 2007 elections is a crucial event in our country. It is held at a time of intensifying economic, political, cultural and spiritual crises. It comes at a time when there are more than 800 victims of extrajudicial killings and other forms of human rights violations happening in our midst. It also takes place at a time when serious questions about the legitimacy of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s rule still hound her.
?Ah, patay na diay? Kanus-a? Kinsa nagpatay? (Ah, he is dead? Since when? Who killed him?)? the Davao City mayor mockingly asked a crowd in Bankerohan during a campaign rally this week.
But feisty mayor, who is facing no real threat to his position in next month?s elections, takes pains to justify his decision to field his initially reluctant daughter as his running mate.
By Marilou M. Aguirre
davaotoday.com
DAVAO CITY ? “Murag walay eleksyon nga naay eleksyon. Murag naay eleksyon nga walay eleksyon. (It doesn?t feel like we have an election in an election season.)?
This was how Mayor Rodrigo Duterte described the upcoming elections during a rally this week in Piapi, Boulevard, a neighborhood in the city’s first district.