That is the question I asked myself before I filed a case against seven (7) of the eight kagawads in our Barangay who wants to grab power from the Barangay Captain to the point that they held a "Special Session" without the Barangay Captain and myself the Barangay Secretary and even came up with two resolutions duly signed and all... The case I filed was quite solid but it seems that the local ombudsman is taking his time coming out with a resolution...
(rumor has it that since the respondents are close allies of the House Speaker they are confident that law fraternity mates of the speaker within the office of the ombudsman will "Take Care of Them") and since I belong to our Mayor's group who happens to be a political adversary of the speaker my case is bound to be "shelved"...
But I have never lost faith in the Filipino and I am still hoping that justice will be served to put an end to the present "Legislative Hegemony" in our Barangay...We serve a barangay with a registered voting population of 30,000 as of 2007 which means that it is like running a municipality... I'm not sure if having a soft spoken, very religious and Godfearing Barangay captain to replace the overbearing, bossy and very corrupt former barangay captain was timely when we took over last December 2007, but since he picked me for his secretary and confidante due to my NGO and street parliamentarian background I am bound to deflect any and all attempts by the kagawads to unseat him and make a mess of our birthplace...
The Barangay Captain, the Barangay Treasurer, one kagawad and myself are presently being portrayed as the MISFITS in our Barangay because we do not condone the jacking up of prices in all barangay puchases... Bakit daw ayaw namin pumayag mag jack-up ng prices eh hindi naman daw namin pera iyon eh sa government naman, and besides iyon naman ang nakaugalian na eh... Sa tinagal na ng panahon bakit kami lang yata ang may gustong mabago ang nakasanayan na?!...
Now my wife and kids want me to quit and just get back to the quiet NGO and Advocacy life because they fear I might be biting more than I could chew (I've had a few "death threats"), but the people in our Barangay want me to stay on and continue the fight... They said I'm the first person to ever dared face up to the traditional culture of corruption and that if I left everything would be for naught...
I'm still here...
Kaya Natin! » Kaya Ko Rin! » To be, or not to be...
To be, or not to be... (2 posts)
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Posted 1 year ago (#) ()
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carry on the good fight. about 2 months ago, i attended a breakfast event at the Club Filipino where Among Ed was the guest speaker. I remember the challenge posed by Among Ed to us. who else will bring us good governance? who else but ourselves. we cannot count on our traditional politicians anymore to clean up the system. Among Ed did say that he would very much like to go back to the priesthood if only someone can take over the task of good governance in his province as he has already proven that it is possible and that the system can work if people will only band together and if good people are willing to come forward to accept the challenge of political leadership. being a politician can be a vocation as much as being a priest or a family man are vocations. we cannot merely be watchers in the sidelines. sometimes we do need to be in the arena. "Do not be afraid."
Posted 1 year ago (#) ()
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