LDP announces legislative agenda

The Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino – Puwersa ng Masa senatorial team yesterday unveiled its seven-point legislative agenda, which is anchored on "jobs, food health and education."

The legislative agenda was announced by the LDP senatorial candidates in sorties and rallies attended by enthusiastic crowds in key areas of Mindanao, a region which, the LDP claims, "will go solid for the opposition."

LDP candidates in the Mindanao rallies – Edgardo Angara, Rueben Canoy, Juan Ponce Enrile, Luisa Ejercito, Panfilo Lacson, Jamby Madrigal, Ricardo Puno, and Ombra Tamano – said the seven-point agenda will be the "guidepost and dominant theme" of the legislative measures the victorious LDP candidates will propose in the Senate.

The seven-point agenda is topped by food sufficiency through agricultural modernization and rural development. The others include:

• Education, health, housing and other social services;

• Peace and national security;

• Jobs and investment generation;

• Environment protection;

• Women and children’s rights; and

• Justice and the rule of law.

The candidates said that the collective expertise of the LDP senatorial ticket and their long and serious involvement in development and law-and-order issues will make them effective proponents of the agenda.

The seven-point agenda will be given "flesh and substance" in the Senate, according to the LDP.

"The LDP is the party of activists, doers and committed public servants," the LDP told the cheering crowds in the Caraga region.

The LDP is hopeful that it would sweep Mindanao because of the programs the candidates have initiated for the region. Integrated area development projects pushed by the LDP for Mindanao – worth several billion pesos – are now being implemented, according to Angara.

During Angara’s term as agriculture secretary, around P700 million was released for farm infrastructure projects.

The previous administration also programmed P30 billion in development funds for Mindanao in the 2001 national budget.