MANILA, Philippines — Senatorial candidate Guillermo Eleazar extolled the beauty of Bicol and vowed to promote its many tourism attractions by improving transport infrastructure while strengthening disaster preparedness and response in the region.
“There are a lot of places in Bicol that can be improved as regular tourism attractions for our countrymen,” said the former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief as he met local officials of Sorsogon last Thursday.
The Partido Reporma senatorial bet praised the potential for tourism of the beaches of Sorsogon before going on a motorcade to Albay and Camarines Sur on Friday, expressing awe for the timeless beauty of Mayon Volcano.
“It would be good to strengthen tourism in Bicol because apart from the jobs it would create, many other businesses related to tourism would spring up,” he said.
But first, Eleazar said the transportation infrastructure in Bicol should be improved as an initial step to entice local tourists from Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon to visit the region.
If elected to the Senate, he vowed to fully support the restoration of the old glory of the Philippine National Railways in Bicol, as well as expressways that would connect Bicol to the South Luzon Expressway.
Aside from tourism, Eleazar said he would push for the establishment of permanent evacuation centers across Bicol to further improve its disaster preparedness and response to strong typhoons.
“This is one of the things I will push to be funded in case I get lucky and get elected with the help of our countrymen,” he said.
Agriculture
Another senatorial aspirant, former Department of Agriculture (DA) secretary Manny Piñol, said the country’s agriculture must be government’s third top priority for funding and blamed economic managers for the sector’s poor performance and development.
Speaking to “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News last Friday, Piñol recalled that when he was DA chief, the President agreed to his proposal for a P200-billion annual budget for agriculture to be at par with international standards.
“Actually, that is one of my frustrations,” he said, crediting the President for supporting his proposal and instructing the Department of Budget and Management to give the DA its needed budget for 2017 and 2018.
But when the budget proposal reached the Development Budget Coordinating Council, the DA’s proposed budget was cut to P50 billion, lamented Piñol.
“If that is the kind of mindset of our economic managers, nothing will really happen in agriculture,” he said, as he vowed to continue pursuing his advocacy to make the country’s agriculture sector stronger as a senator.
“Let us call it a coercive power of a senator who can influence the policy, the legislation and even the budgeting process,” said Piñol, who vowed to advocate for a five to six percent share of the national budget for agriculture if he gets elected on May 9.
Piñol also vowed to push for legislative measures for the amendment of the rice tarrification law which made life difficult for farmers, especially now that the prices of fertilizers has tripled.
‘Golden era’ disputed
In the same program, labor leader and senatorial candidate Luke Espiritu argued against loose claims that the 20-year Marcos regime was the golden era of the Philippines as a nation.
“We have a historical revisionist right now and the way to challenge that is to make a principled stand for the truth,” said Espiritu, president of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) and running under the ticket of BMP chairman and presidential candidate Leody de Guzman.
He said Filipinos should not easily forget the horrors brought to the country by martial law and the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, whose son and namesake is now bidding for the presidency.
“That basis of the campaign of Bongbong (Marcos) that it (his father’s regime) is the golden era. No, that is not the golden era. That is not the golden years,” Espiritu said told ‘The Chiefs.’
He attributed the seemingly strong support being given by the people to Bongbong Marcos now as a reflection of the Filipino people’s “dissatisfaction and disillusionment” with the “elite of the liberal buorgeoisie.”