komentaryo

The urgency of the environment #Eleksyon2016 #EarthDay2016

I had started on this series on the environment – from urban development to climate change – because the early press releases on today’s debate declared that the topics would be about disaster preparedness, climate change adaptation, health care, education, and fighting corruption. Since last Sunday though, I’ve heard otherwise, and if the grapevine is correct it will be a free-for-all (yet again!) as far as topics are concerned.

Also, if my news is correct, today’s #PiliPinasDebates2016 will include a section where candidates will be required to raise either a yes or no paddle with regards issues, instead of, oh I don’t know, giving them time to explain where they stand on each issue. I hope a candidate decides to raise both paddles, or just refuses to raise the paddles, because choosing a president should not be based on yes or no answers, but on clear platforms and programs.

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komentaryo

Climate change and matuwid na daan #Eleksyon2016 #EarthDay2016

Each candidate for president is talking about development and change. From those big concepts, they will reveal that what they mean by development is infrastructure and investments, towards job creation and poverty alleviation.

None of them though are talking about the construction of roads and better public transport as connected to air pollution. None of them are talking about urban development as interwoven with reducing our carbon footprint.

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komentaryo

Environment, development, cities #Eleksyon2016 #EarthDay2016

The most important platform a Presidential candidate must have is one for the environment. It is the one that they need to be clear about, that they need to work on beyond imagining the environment as mere resource that should be, must be sold, like we have no choice. Here is where we need to hear a pro-people stance, one that will dare say no to big business, irresponsible mining, illegal loggers, oligarchs and transnational corporations.

A real platform for the environment is the ultimate pro-poor platform. It is what will distribute wealth equitably, it is what will allow for our indigenous peoples to continue caring for and earning from their land, it is what can be the impetus for changing the impoverished provincial conditions across the country.

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komentaryo

Leading by example #Eleksyon2016

I’m pretty sure Malacañang knows it, we all know it, and even the voting masses can see through it: that when the Palace uses public money to talk dirty about Mar Roxas’s political rivals, that in fact, it is doing the classic foot-in-mouth.

So when it says the next President must “lead by example,” one cannot help but ask: so what kind of example has this current administration been for all of us the past six years?

If they’ve been leading by example, what is it that we must emulate from them, and what kind of leadership is Roxas inheriting exactly when he says he’s continuing Matuwid Na Daan?

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komentaryo

Divorce and freedom #Eleksyon2016

Triggered by The Rundown 2016, an ABS-CBN News Channel and UP Economic Society program that aired live on January 29, here is another issue that one must take into consideration when deciding on who to vote for. The Rundown asked the first batch of its Senatorial candidates about their stand on divorce, and to have had only one senatorial candidate say yes to divorce among the many who were there, is just utterly disappointing.

Of course the show’s format was such that the second batch of Senatorial candidates were not asked the same questions as the first batch, which does make one wonder: how do you choose among these candidates when we don’t ask them about the same issues? (more…)