Party-list representative bares presidential bid

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines  - Claiming that no presidential hopeful at present promotes labor rights and welfare, OFW Family party-list group Rep. Roy Señeres has declared his intention to run for president in the 2016 elections.

Señeres, native of this city and a former ambassador and chairman of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), launched his campaign   during a meeting of the convenors of a movement he formed, called “Respect Our Security of Employment” or ROSE, here Saturday night.

He claimed his plan to run for president was conceptualized after President Aquino in his previous state of the nation addresses failed to present the “real” state of the country that today is ravaged by corruption.

“I am a proud Butuanon and a Mindanaoan. That is why in February next year, I will officially launch my candidacy for president here in Mindanao because this is where the national government must focus its developmental efforts addressing massive poverty due to unemployment, underdevelopment and absence of economic opportunities,” Señeres said.

He described his prospective rivals like Vice President Jejomar Binay, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Grace Poe and other presidential hopefuls as personifications of job contractualization in the country.

“You have Mar Roxas, whose family owns a chain of malls and superstores in Metro Manila, massively practicing job contractualization on its salesladies and other mall workers,” Señeres said.

He also alleged that Binay promoted job contractualization in the local government unit he once served as mayor, and the Cayetanos serving at present at the Taguig LGU, where job orders are also promoted.

He said the government should bring home overseas Filipino workers, saying that sending workers abroad caused more harm than good to families they left behind.

Señeres said he will stop the exodus of Filipino workers by modernizing agriculture in the countryside and establishing National Industrialization Program to modernize farming in the country.

Seneres claimed that in his platform of government he would lay down clear-cut policies in the delivery of basic services on health and social services.

He said he would also promote peace and order, job generation, tourism, a better national defense, and foreign policy.

Duterte claims envoys curious about his plans

Meanwhile, foreign ambassadors have apparently shown their curiousity on the prospect of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s plans for the 2016 elections. 

Several groups have been pushing for Duterte’s candidacy for president in the 2016 polls but the mayor has repeatedly turned down such calls and declared that he is not interested and not qualified for the highest office in the country. 

Duterte said yesterday that a number of foreign ambassadors, who have lately sought audience with him, somehow hinted at inquiring about his political plans for 2016. 

“They never directly asked me about my plans but somehow I could sense they want to ask but they just couldn’t ask me straight. But I maintain my stand that I am not running for higher office. I am not interested and I am not qualified,” he said. 

The mayor recently met several ambassadors who visited Davao City and he is reportedly set to meet the ambassador from Singapore this week.

Duterte said he already established good relations with Singapore following the burning of the Singaporean flag as a reaction to the hanging of Filipina housemaid Flor Contemplacion in 1995.

“At that time we really had to find an outlet to vent our emotions, our outrage over the hanging of Flor. And I resorted to the burning of the Singapore flag,” Duterte said. 

He said that a year after the incident Singapore sent their ambassador to see him. “I believe everything is well with Singapore now,” Duterte said. 

A Singaporean tourism official even said during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Tourism Forum held in Davao City in 2006 that Duterte is very welcome to visit Singapore. 

Duterte, however, has yet to visit Singapore after the 1995 flag-burning incident. – With Edith Regalado