ED's Programs for Oro's Young People

::Education Establish the Congressional Scholarship Program for poor but deserving students :: Establish the Barangay Library System to afford barangays access to modern library facilities :: Build more classrooms in public schools ::Sports and Recreation :: Improve the Pelaez Sports Center (rubberize the existing tracks and improve its sports facilities) :: Construct multi-purpose covered courts in all barangays, equipped with basketball courts and other sports amenities:: Develop recreational, child-friendly parks in urban barangays :: Improve sports facilities in public schools :: Provide funds for Sangguniang Kabataan's(SK) sports and other Youth-centered development intiatives :: Anti-Drugs :: Pass legislation aimed at improving rehabilitation and after-care programs of drug dependents :: Upgrade facilities at the city's drug rehabilitation center

Campaign Trail

Sunday, April 22, 2007

FAQs: Ed Cabanlas on the Pork Barrel Fund Issue

Question: How would you appropriate your "pork barrel" fund in such a way that it is spent with transparrency?

Answer
: Crowing to high heavens the supposedly above-board use of the pork barrel fund is merely pure rhetorics, lacking fundamental means upon which the public money is spent credibly.

Essentially, utmost transparency in dispensing the Priority Development Assistance Fund or "pork barrel fund" can ONLY be realized through the participation of five sectors: business, NGOs, the academe, government, and the religious sector. We have to understand that when officials enjoy more discretion, they have greater opportunities to demand bribes.

If given the chance by the electorate to serve, I shall appropriate my pork barrel funds to the priority programs enumerated in my platforms of government, with the full participation of these five sectors.

Now that sounds easier said than done. How would I go about it?

First, these five sectors must be empowered to review procurement procedures--as it is a fact that maintaining an ambiguous system of procurement remains an avenue for corruption to flourish.

Second, these sectors will be given full access to monitor services or goods procured by the Congressional Office or the appropriate government agencies.

Through this system, these five sectors can look closely at the type of projects I am implementing, the contractors doing the project, the beneficiaries--most importantly---and the actual project accomplishments.

In my 18 years of being a legislator, I must say that empowering our people to monitor the use of public funds is a key step to deter corruption and pave way for the prosecution of the corrupt.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Nganong Pilion Ta si EDGAR CABANLAS

MAY KAPASIDAD. MAY KASINATIAN.
• Miyembro sa Konseho Probinsyal (Provincial Board Member) sa Misamis Oriental gikan sa tuig 1988 hangtod 1998
• Miyembro sa Konseho sa Siyudad sa Cagayan de Oro gikan sa tuig 1998 ug sa kasamtangan Lider sa Mayoriya sa Konseho (Majority Floor Leader)
• Nahimong Manlalaban sa nagkadaiyang grupo sa mga Mamumuo ug sektor sa Urban Poor
• Kasamtangang Tsirman sa Komitiba sa Urban Poor, Subdivision ug Landed Estate, ug Turismo
• Vice-Chairman sa mga Komitiba sa Laws and Rules, Peace and Order, Blue Ribbon ug Labor
• Abogado sulod sa 27 ka tuig

ADUNAY NAHIMO. NASULAYAN NA.

• Nagpanday sa balaodnon nga nagmugna sa landmark Piso-Piso Program ni Mayor Dongkoy Emano, nga nakatabang sa liboang kabus nga walay balay ug yuta
• Nagpanday sa Anti-Professional Squatting Syndicate Ordinance aron mahilikay ang mga Landless Organizations gikan sa pag-panlimbong sa mga mapahimuslanong sindikato sa yuta
• Nagpanday sa Road Heirarchy Ordinance aron mapalapad ang mga dalan sa subdibisyon
• Nagpanday sa 10-Year Comprehensive Land Use Plan sa Siyudad (Pinaka-una sa Cagayan de Oro)
• Nagpanday sa Ordinansa batok sa limbongan nga mga Taxi Meters
• Nagpanday sa Ordinansa alang sa pagbutang og hulagway sa mga nag-unang Tourist Attractions sa Siyudad diha sa mga Taxi
• Nag-unang instrumento aron sa pag-pahimutang sa 63-hectare Relocation Site sa Barangay Canitoan
• Nag-unang intrumento alang sa pag-pahimutang sa Siyudad ilawom sa NHA Resettlement Program aron matabangan ang mga walay balay ug yuta

SAYON DOULON. DILI ELITISTA.

• Lumad gayud nga Kagay-anon (natawo ug na-edukar sa Cagayan de Oro)
• Kung mabuligan isip Kongresista, mo-pirmi sa Cagayan de Oro ug dili magpuyo-ay sa Manila aron gayud masabtan ang panginahanglan sa mga kabus sa Segundo Distrito
• Dili sama sa uban nga magpakita lamang sa Siyudad sa adlaw sa piniliay, si Konsehal Edgar Cabanlas nasulayan na nga nakigsandurot sa bagang katawhan, labi na sa mga walay balay ug yuta, nalupigan, ug sa mga kabos nga nanginahanglan ug libre nga tabang-legal

KONKRETONG PROGRAMA. GARANTISADONG AKSYON.

Political Platforms of Ed Cabanlas

A. Youth Development

1) Education

  • Establish the Congressional Scholarship Program for poor but deserving students
    Establish the Barangay Library System to afford small communities access to modern library facilities
  • Build more classrooms in public schools

(2) Sports and Recreation

  • Improve the Pelaez Sports Center (rubberize the existing tracks and improve its sports facilities).
  • Construct multi-purpose covered courts in all barangays, equipped with basketball courts and other sports amenities.
  • Improve sports facilities in all public schools.
  • Provide funds for Sangguniang Kabataan’s(SK) sports and other Youth-centered development initiatives.
  • Develop recreational, child-friendly parks in urban barangays.

B. Good Governance

  • (1) Establish the 2nd District Congressional Office to bring government closer to the constituency.
  • (2) Responsive and Transparent Governance through participatory, consultative approach with the business, NGOs, the academe, government, and the religious sector on pressing national issues, such as the matters on impeachment, Charter change and in the dispensation of the pork barrel fund.

C. Housing and Urban Poor Development Programs

  • (1) Pass a law declaring inhabited, barren timber lands as alienable and disposable and through local government units (LGUs), distribute the lands to qualified beneficiaries.
  • (2) Pass a law amending the Urban Development Housing Act of 1992, to give housing developers the option to convert the required 20% allocation for Socialized Housing obligation into community projects in marginalized communities.

D. Health

  • (1) Through grants or loans, acquire funds to re-model the present J.R. Borja Memorial Hospital into a bigger, more advanced J.R. Memorial Medical Center.
  • (2) Basic Barangay Health Programs
    *Free medicines for indigents
    *24-hour maternity lying-in service
    *Ambulance units for each barangay
  • (3) Anti-Drug Abuse
    *Pass legislation aimed at improving rehabilitation and after-care programs of drug dependents
    *Upgrade facilities at the city’s drug rehabilitation center

E. Public Security

(1) Responsive law enforcement

  • Establish the Cagayan de Oro Central Response Unit, a modern, centralized police communication center for urban search and rescue services and crime response.
    Equip police with fast-moving, all-terrain vehicles and better communication tools to improve mobility and faster response-time.
  • Pass legislation to further widen the scope of police accountability; a kind of law that instills a sense of respect, responsibility and professionalism among our men in uniform.

F. Tourism & Environment

  • Provide training and financial assistance to micro, small and medium entrepreneurs involved in the national government’s Tourism Negosyo program.
  • Create additional parks in the city as tourist attractions.
  • Greening of all subdivisions and other Urban Poor communities.
  • Identify vulnerable environmental sites in the city and pass a law declaring them as protected areas.
  • Provide ready-infrastructure support for potential eco-tourism sites in the city and provide funds to promote existing ones.


FAQs: Ed Cabanlas on the Impeachment Issue

(1) What would be your position on the impeachment issue against Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Congress? Would you vote YES or NO?

Answer: The impeachment issue is an open-ended subject that should generate reactions from all sectors of the society. If we were to answer it in a YES or NO form, then meaningful discussions would automatically terminate as the YES and NO camps would then be busily defending their positions.

There have been countless arguments taken against and for the impeachment. I resent that the public, specially the Youth, is left-out in the process.

The matter of impeachment essentially boils down to the search for TRUTH and ACCOUNTABILITY. And when it comes to these things, only the people can make the best judgement--NOT Congressmen.

Were the impeachment complaint against the President is filed again before Congress, I will refer the matter to my constituency. Specifically, I will directly seek public opinion and sentiments on the issue through my leaders in the grassroots community. I will listen to them in forming the basis of my stand on the issue.

(FAQs for Ed Cabanlas will frequently be updated everyday, as he answers socially-relevant issues in this space. If you have questions, please e-mail Ed: edgar.cabanlas@gmail.com)