Human rights, land reform left out of bets' platforms

CEBU, Philippines - Matters regarding human rights, land reforms, peace talks and nationalism are noticeably lacking from the platforms of Cebu candidates, this according to the findings of a group advocating change in their evaluation on the proposals of the top gubernatorial, congressional and mayoral candidates in the province of Cebu. 

In a press conference yesterday, Pagbabago! People’s Movement for Change presented the findings of their evaluation of the platforms of certain candidates based on the People’s Criteria for Candidates. The evaluation that they presented focused on the strengths and the weaknesses of the platforms of the candidates.

The People’s Criteria for Candidates can be summed up into five parts, these are: Truth, Accountability and Justice; Economic Progress and Environment; People’s Welfare; Peace and Equality; and Love of Country.

In their findings, most candidates failed the Truth, Accountability and Justice criteria because of the fact that the candidates did not give much value to human rights advocacies amid increasing number of human rights violations.

For instance, both gubernatorial candidates, Hilario Davide III and Gwen Garcia, did not mention any human rights protection in their platforms. Both candidates also do not have a stand on land reform and developing domestic industries.

However, Capitol spokesman Rory Jun Sepulveda said that the group is misinformed about the platforms of the governor.

“Si gov ra ang naa’y klarong platform,” he said, but he added that he respects the group’s rights to express their own opinions.  

Davide III said that not mentioning human rights protections in his platforms does not necessarily mean that he is not an advocate of human rights. He also offered to clarify his stand if the group is willing to do so.

South district congressional aspirants Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Jonathan Guardo and North district congressional aspirants Francisco Acedillo, Cutie del Mar and Mary Anne delos Santos also failed to mention their stands on human rights protection. Nevertheless, Osmeña clarified that he does not condone any vigilante killings and he practices human rights protection by helping street children.

The other congressional candidates could not be reached for their reactions.

On the other hand, most mayoralty candidates from cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu also failed to integrate human rights advocacies in their platforms. Cebu City mayoral candidate Mike Rama clarified that promoting human rights is part of the job of being a mayor. While Alvin Garcia said that he cannot comment regarding the results for he barely remembers talking to the group. 

Meanwhile, land reforms, peace talks and nationalism are also left out by most candidates. According to Pagbabago’s findings, most candidates have no stand on land reform and developing domestic industries. All mayoral and congressional candidates did not mention their stand on peace talks and all candidates for gubernatorial, mayoral and congressional representative do not have a clear program on how to instill nationalism among the youth and the citizenry.

Still, some candidates guaranteed to try to stop corruption and some other pressing issues such as employment, health care, waste management, tourism and education.

Davide III said that if elected, during his first 100 days he would call for a provincial summit of stake holders, business sectors and other business groups to discuss housing plans for the people of Cebu, when asked about his lack of housing plans.

Pagbabago! is a religiously motivated change group that seeks genuine change in the country and tries to act as people’s watchdogs. They are also part of an electoral watchdog called “Kontradaya”.

Rev. Jessie Primacio, co-founder of the group, clarified how they gathered their data. According to him the group asked each candidate who tops surveys in the gubernatorial, mayoralty and congressional slate to give them their platforms to be evaluated. They evaluated each candidate’s platform by the five criteria mentioned above. 

The group admitted that they were only able to evaluate the top three candidates because they had manpower, time and date limitations.

Primacio said that their findings is a way to help people to decide on who to vote for and the same time to let the candidates know what they lack in their platforms that needs attention.   (FREEMAN NEWS)