Lacson vows budget reform for vendors

MANILA, Philippines — Underprivileged sidewalk and market vendors will benefit from a budget reform program if Partido Reporma standard-bearer Panfilo Lacson is elected in May.

Lacson also vowed that demolition squads destroying and confiscating the goods sold by vendors will be a thing of the past once he secures the mandate to carry out his new policy directions for the welfare of the marginalized sectors.

“In case you did not know, my own mother worked as a market vendor for a long time, too. Through that (job), she managed to send all of us to school – we were eight siblings. So, I know how market vendors like you feel,” the senator said in Filipino as he spoke to groups of market vendors in Baclaran, Parañaque City last Thursday.

He encouraged them to keep themselves organized and be compliant to local government ordinances, so they could avoid having serious run-ins with the law in the future.

“The situation in Baclaran really is that cops could drop by every once in a while, or the barangay officials because, of course, they have ordinances or laws to carry out. So, what we should do is to keep (the vendors) organized, so you could set up stalls (to sell your goods or services) legally,” he said.

Lacson recalled his days as Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and how he dealt with a number of abusive cops trying to extort money from both legal and illegal vendors through his “anti-kotong” drive.

He took the opportunity to present his flagship Budget Reform Advocacy for Village Empowerment (BRAVE) program in which local government units (LGUs) nationwide will be given the wherewithal to design and implement livelihood projects for their constituents.

Seeing BRAVE as a long-term solution to the cycle of poverty resulting from migration into the big cities, Lacson said: “If we are going to provide ample support (for the LGUs) and allow them to implement (the projects) themselves, it would help us greatly, so that every rural district, every town, every province has enough budget allocation to improve the living conditions of people in their respective localities.”

Reds tag Ping as Rody’s ‘attack dog’

In Baguio City yesterday, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) floated the idea that Lacson is serving as “(President) Duterte’s attack dog” against the camp of presidential aspirant, Vice President Leni Robredo.

Marco Valbuena, information officer of the CPP, said that Lacson “who surely is aware that he has no chances of winning, is using his campaign as platform to serve as Duterte’s attack dog against the Robredo camp.”

Valbuena said the CPP believes that the senator’s red-tagging of activists supporting Robredo “is serving the tyrant Duterte’s scenario-building to justify the possibility of imposing martial law as a last resort option to secure power.”

“This scenario is set to be played when plans to steal the results of the May 2022 elections for the Marcos-Duterte tandem become untenable because of the overwhelming rejection of the people,” he said.

The CPP officer’s remarks followed yesterday’s arrest by police of peasant organizers in Cavite, a day after a congressman claimed that “NPA-trained” activists joined Robredo’s campaign rallies.

The CPP said this sort of red-tagging is a veiled attempt to sow fear among campaigners and supporters of Robredo and other progressive candidates and parties.

Valbuena said Lacson’s claim to be in possession of “intelligence information” citing participation of national democratic organizations and parties in Robredo rallies as a prelude to a “coalition with the communists” in case of her victory is merely an attack prompted by “mounting support for Robredo.”

“(Lacson) is a veteran of red-tagging against activists and oppositionists,” the CPP officer said, adding that his statements were allegedly made up by National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict witness Jeffrey Celiz who claimed to be a former New People’s Army (NPA) rebel.

For the record, Valbuena said “neither the CPP nor the NDF (National Democratic Front) has forged any agreement with any of the political parties running in the May 2022 elections.”

To his own defense, Lacson emphasized he did not intend to ruffle the feathers of Robredo and her supporters when he expressed concern over the possibility that her camp had been infiltrated by leftist groups.

“I did not say Mrs. Robredo knew about it. But they (her supporters) already put some color behind it (my statement) and accused me of red-tagging. I was not red tagging. I was only saying study the problem carefully because we might end up under a coalition government,” he said.??

But the senator from Cavite stood pat on his warning against attempts by communist rebels to influence the outcome of the elections and forge a coalition with the next administration with the aim of taking over the government.

He expressed concern that some of them are legal front organizations of the CPP-NPA-NDF who used the reported arrest in Cavite of drug suspects as propaganda.

Lacson scored the groups that claimed activists were arrested in Cavite after he warned of the possible infiltration by the CPP-NPA-NDF in Robredo’s campaign.

He said a fact-check showed the arrests were related to an operation of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency against illegal drugs in the province. – Artemio Dumlao, Paolo Romero