This is a current issue about the coming elections in the Philippines in May of 2010. I have heard of the Party Lists and I never thought much about them until I was approached by a close friend whose brother-in-law is running under a party list. There were other friends that previously ran for a Congressional seat under a party list and only solicited help by word-of-mouth as they were well funded. In this one, I did a search on the internet about party lists because this was in particular for an indigenous party list. One that came on top of the search is the Katribu Party List based in the same province I am in.
In the first part of their article "Progressive indigenous party list submits list of nominees, exposes dubious rivals" was an introduction of their nominees. Immediately below were their suspicions on other indigenous party lists. Very prominent were suspicions on those running that hold current positions in the government. They were quick to mention that this is another ploy of the Gloria Arroyo Administration.
One party list they suspect is the "Agapay Indigenous Peoples Rights Alliance (A-IPRA)", where the lead nominee is Eugenio "Kenny" Insigne. Kenny, who is known to me, rose from the ranks with different administrations. He is a commissioner of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). In getting to that position his intention is clear - to help indigenous people. There are many positions in the National government, and if I were in his place being a lawyer, I would not chose that.
With the outgoing administration, chances are he might not hold that position for long after another takes over. The only way he sees to continue helping indigenous people is to get elected under the same "field" he is in. It is with much regret that hard-hitting indigenous party list is doing this to him, when he actually also has his roots in our city and province! The nominees of that party list obviously have personal interests in running for a seat if they know that Kenny's roots is also in our city. If they did not know, they should have researched a little and probably invited him to be among the nominees in their list. In his current government, the position addresses the concern is on a nationwide scope. The other party list can only truly represent their locality. Doesn't that look selfish for a party list?
i am Atty. insigne, nominee of the a-Ipra partylist. it was only recently that i became computer literate and thus able to go over the internet. i was saddened by the viciousness of the attacks of Katribu party especially its first nominee whom i do not know personally. at the same time i am heartened by comments of some people like you who took time to put in their thoughts so as to help clear the waters being muddled by katribu. i decided to join the 2010 elections as a partylist representative. my desire was prompted by our experience in congress whenever our budget is deliberated where not only was our budgeted trimmed down, demands were likewise imposed by congressmen before our budget is recommended for approval. there is likewise no one in congress who will take up the cudgels for the ips. I was nominated because of my decades long involvement in the ip struggle. among others, i was a member of the cordillera negotiating panel in the cordillera peace talks which resulted in the creation of the cordillera administrative region, president of the tribal lawyers assembly which offers free legal assistance to ips.when i was chairman of he ncip, from 2008 to 2009, the commission was able to issue cadts totalling more that 2million hecatares which is almost double that issued by the former commissions in the past ten years.it was under my term that the caluit island was returned to the tagbanuas,the atis of boracad awarded their cadt, the aetas of clark and subic awarded their cadts. in the ensuing negotiations, clark development corporation agreed to give 20% of its gross earnings to the aetas.my track record has been of continous servic e to the ips. sadly, i do not see that in Beverly longid. she n her group only appear in tv attacking us so as to have free publicity at our expense. they want to have the IPRA REPEALED. This is a law which is praised abroad as an enlightened peice of legislation. My educational background is as follows:lawyer, being a 1976 graduate of san beda college, commerce graduate of slu,masteral degree from ndcp and chosen as one of its outstanding alumnus. presently, i am taking my masters in international human rights law at oxford.
ReplyDeletedecent people like you whom i do not know encourage us continue with our involvment in the ip struggle. there are a lot of our brothers and sisters who need our help. it is rather unfortunate that the attacks by katribu which we were not able to rebut because we came to know abou tthem too late resulted in our party losing a lot of votes. katribu also lost. it has always been part of our culture to encourage and not to act as as a stumbling block to the desire of others to help their people.
in closing, from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much.