CEBU, Philippines - For the first time in Cebu’s political arena, 70 lawyers have volunteered to help guard and ensure the votes of a candidate, who is running for city mayor against another candidate whose family has been in power for more than 20 years.
“This is not just a battery of lawyers but a generator of lawyers kay daghan gyud kaayo. First time ni sa Cebu nga ang usa ka kandidato, 70 kabuok ang mga abogado,” said Atty. Bienvenido Baring, spokesman of the group “Volunteer Lawyers” of Bogo City mayoralty candidate Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung.
In a press conference yesterday, Yeung said she is glad that many lawyers have volunteered their services in the name of change for a better leadership in the said city.
Election lawyer Sixto Brillantes, one of Yeung’s legal counsels, said that the volunteer lawyers will help ensure that there will be no election-related fraud perpetuated by the opposing camp during and even after the May 10 elections.
The 70 lawyers are from Bogo and other parts of the province.
“They are here, brave enough to safeguard the votes for MSY (Yeung),” Brillantes said.
Baring said that some of the volunteer lawyers of Yeung were also volunteer lawyers of Cebu 4th District Rep. Benhur Salimbangon in the 2007 elections. This time they support the congressman’s sister after observing that Salimbangon has brought a lot of change and progress in the district.
“We believe in her sincerity in changing the lives of the people of Bogo. We will protect her votes,” Baring said.
He added that although they are focused on Bogo, they will nevertheless help guard the votes of the congressman, who is seeking reelection.
The Salimbangons will have over a hundred lawyers considering that the district is composed of eight towns — Sta. Fe, Tabogon, Madridejos, Bantayan, San Remigio, Tabuelan, Daan Bantayan and Medellin, and the city of Bogo.
Bogo City has a total of 64 clustered precincts. It is composed of 29 barangays with a total of 49,297 registered voters.Yeung is running against incumbent Mayor Celestino “Junie” Martinez II, who was also a former congressman of the district which was also previously held by his wife, Clavel Asas-Martinez.
Junie’s son, Tining also became a mayor of Bogo.
The younger Martinez was recently declared by the Supreme Court as the winner in the May 2007 congressional race.
Such declaration however was strongly contested by Rep. Salimbangon. The two are now again running against each other.
“God is behind my candidacy. He is the one who pushed me to run and liberate the people of Bogo, who have suffered long enough. The people of Bogo are now screaming for change, change for a better leadership,” Yeung said.
She said that if elected, the city will be corruption free and she will not accept any salary as a mayor but instead quadruple her salary and give it to the people for basic services and provide more livelihood.
“I will not accept any salary. Kaupaton ko pa na unya ibalik ngadto sa katawhan. Majority of the people in Bogo are poor especially in the mountain barangays.
“People cried everytime they see. I will give them the kind of public service that they have not experienced for a long time,” said Yeung, a noted philanthropist and whose husband is into real estate and diamond trading.
As to the criticisms lodged against by her opponents that she is just pretending to be pro-poor, Yeung said that her charitable works that have been there long before she decided to enter into politics have been helping the poor without expecting anything in return.
The MSY Charitable Foundation Inc. for instance has been helping Operation Smile-Cebu for the past 13 years in operating over 3,000 children with cleft-lip and cleft-palate for free. Normally one operation would cost around P100,000. —/NLQ(FREEMAN NEWS)