Gibo's campaign focuses on language rights

Our special presentation on our talkshow on Straight from the Sky tonight, we bring you Globe Telecom’s Corporate Social Responsibility program dubbed, Bridgecom with the group called the Coalition for Better Education (CBE). This link with Globe and CBE was designed to train teachers to be Global Filipino Teachers as we submit that better education starts with better-trained teachers. What’s remarkable here is that, teachers outside the urban centers have proven to be the best ones amongst those who began this program, which will certainly cascade down to the other teachers.

We have with us, Mr. Jeffrey Tarayao, Globe Telecom’s Head Corporate Social Responsibility; Dr. Caridad Labe, President Coalition for Better Education (CBE); Arnel C. Bautista and Christy Kimeiafar, Global Filipino Teacher graduates representing the first batch of well-trained teachers. Listening to them gives you the impression that indeed things can only go better for the education of our children. So watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm tonight.

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Lakas-Kampi Presidential Standard bearer former Defense Sec. Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. has come up with a new video dubbed “Panatang Makabago” where he presents the people of this very culturally diverse country, especially the indigenous and marginalize tribes from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao speaking in their indigenous languages rooting for Gibo as the hope of this country. While his previous advertisement, which showed him piloting a Boeing 747, was taken very well especially the youth that Gibo would pilot the Philippines to greater heights, the new ad touches the hearts of the people who do not live in Metro Manila.

I got a lot of responses for this newly released video ad in my Facebook as it truly hits the nail on the head because while all the Presidentiables (yes, including Gibo) do come from Luzon; however, it is only Gibo Teodoro who believes in the preservation of the cultures and languages of these people. What they see in Gibo is that he is championing our right to speak our native tongues, something no Presidentiable have ever done in a campaign!

Truth to tell, it was due to my language advocacy that a Congressman Gilbert Teodoro, Jr. first wrote me that he fully concurred with my advocacy on the preservation of our diverse language and cultures and people. He agreed with me that the so-called “Nationalists” Filipinos wanted to turn all Filipinos into a Tagalog speaking race, when the reality is, the 7,000 plus islands of this motley archipelago are inhabited by different people of various races and cultures. Whenever you see a Presidential forum, most of the Presidentiables speak in Tagalog, thinking that all of us speak or understand this language. So, will language be an issue that could send a President to Malacañang? Perhaps!

If you looked at the campaign of former Cebu Governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña when he ran for President in 1998 elections, we might find the answers to this question. While Joseph “Erap” Estrada won the 1998 Presidential campaign with a whopping 39.86% of the votes, Jose de Venecia came second with 15.87%, while Sen. Raul Roco was third place with 13.83% while Lito Osmeña was fourth place getting 12.44%. The numbers for second to fourth place are so close together. In that election, Lito Osmeña bested the other “also rans” like Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and Miriam Defensor Santiago and Alfredo Lim who all ran for President.

Now that Lito Osmeña is running for Senator, he is convinced that he would win the hearts and minds of the regions that speak Cebuano or Bisaya. This is also the strength of Gibo Teodoro in this Presidential race, which is as tight as the 1998 elections. In effect, what Gibo has done is make us proud to be Filipinos who speak Cebuano, Ilonggo, Waray, Ilokano, Bicolano, etc. and this could just make a huge difference in winning this Presidential race.

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The local elections haven’t officially started yet, but the firing has begun. Former Sen. John “Sonny” Osmeña chastised his cousin, Mayor Tomas Osmeña for being “deceptive” and asking hizzoner to apologize to the people of Cebu for the mistake of awarding Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) whom Sonny O says is corruption personified.

Of course Mayor Osmeña defended the giving of the Order of Rajah Humabon award to the President, for indeed PGMA has done more for Cebu City than all the other Presidents combined. The Mayor mentioned in great detail all the things that Pres. Arroyo did for Cebu. While I agree with Mayor Osmeña in giving the President the Humabon award, however like it or not, Sonny is correct in chastising his estranged cousin because the Liberal Party campaign is really focused on the “Good versus Evil” and the opposition had always tagged Pres. Arroyo as the evil one! Confused?