Former Candelaria Mayor Ferdinand ‘Bong’ Maliwanag (right, sitting in checkered shirt) and beside him, former vice mayor Naty Atienza lead...
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| Former Candelaria Mayor Ferdinand ‘Bong’ Maliwanag (right, sitting in checkered shirt) and beside him, former vice mayor Naty Atienza lead the Pundasyon, a Christian-based group which aims to introduce moral reforms in governance for their town and in Quezon province. (JOHN BELLO) |
by John A. Bello
CANDELARIA, QUEZON – A Christian and reform-minded group which calls itself Pundasyon, a pray and vote movement, has held a soft launch here on Saturday (Sept. 29).
Led both by former mayor Ferdinand ‘Bong’ Maliwanag and former vice mayor Naty Atienza along with several civic spirited townmates, they vowed to introduce and campaign for the propagation of a Christian-based political reforms before, during and after the elections next year to effect real change in public service and politics.
“Naniniwala ang aming grupo na tanging Diyos lamang ang makakapagpabago sa mga maling kalakaran ng pulitika o serbisyo publiko na ating kinagisnan. Dahilan sa kanyang kadakilaan, Siya lamang ang makakapagpabago ng kasalukuyang sitwasyong umiiral tuwing darating ang halalan sa ating bansa na pinamumunuan ng tinatawag na 3Gs – guns, goons, gold,” read the manifesto circulated during the initial meeting held at the conference room at 3rd floor of FOG building beside Buddy’s Restaurant and spearheaded by Maliwanag who served for 3 full terms here as mayor from 2007-2016.
Present at the Saturday meeting with a handful of local media practitioners and constituting as the initial committee members were former and incumbent local and barangay officials, 2 members from Catholic church and United Church of Christ of the Philippines. They were identified by Maliwanag as former vice mayor Naty Atienza, former councillors Manuel Bunyi, Francisco Mauhay and Dindo Salas, Lydelle Dizon, Panong de los Reyes, Tony de Luna, Goring Robles, Abner Caguitla, Gitoy Rigos, Ello Galang, Rev Manalo, Belo Emralino, Badoy Panaligan, Chito Maliwanag and Rodan Reyes.
After the recent barangay elections, the core members of the group started to meet and reflect ‘for what is good for Candelaria’ and they came to their belief that “without God, we can do nothing. With God, everything is possible.”
Pundasyon takes as its vision ‘a society of public servants and citizens with love for God and fellowmen’ and takes as its mission ‘to search, to practice, to propagate and promote truth which will serve as guide for public servants and citizens’.
It came up with the following basic principles and policies for governance:
- Open and available service governance for the ordinary and influential citizens and whose leadership will not be feared and will respect public opinion.
- Zero corruption, full people’s participation and transparency which aims to reclaim the Seal of Local Governance and whose leadership believes in ‘walk your talk’
- Peace and order with police visibility and where drug pushers are jailed, drug users are subjected to rehabilitation and no to extra-judicial killing.
- Small Town Lottery legal compliance where the Phil. Charity Sweepstakes Office should give to the STL bet collectors and supervisors their 10% sales commission and to the bet winners the full P800 to every P1 bet. They proposed to have the STL operator get business permit from local government unit based on the 10% gross income of the STL operations.
- Discipline for both the motorists and pedestrians to have order in the streets.
- Full local government support for education, sports, senior citizens, women, cooperatives, overseas Filipino workers, health with preventive medicines for those with afflicted with health diseases, stroke, cancer and others.
Expansion of government center in Bgy. Malabanban Sur and invitation of national government agencies to locate in Candelaria
- Expansion of water service
- Tourism development in Banahaw area
- Professionalism in government service
- Incentives to investors to lure them to invest in Candelaria
- Public consultation on other national programs and projects like Phil. Rural Development programs 2 and 3.
Maliwanag, who also served as vice mayor for 3 terms before becoming mayor, believed that they have tried to serve their best for their constituents according to the usual ‘system’ of public service guided by the ‘Divine will’.
Maliwanag said they are not trying to be angels aspiring to return to public governance but they prefer to be on the good side for the benefit of the millennials and the next generation.
“This is a long and tough process we face and the Pray and Vote movement starts to take up the challenge for the sake of our town and our province,” he told his colleagues at the meeting.
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