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THE Liberal Party—with its anointed one, Senator Mar Roxas,
already taking on a presidential glad-handing persona (albeit with
no prospective “First Lady” in sight!)—has obviously felt
that, to quote party sources, “it’s time to get back to the
people”. And with the next presidential election just over 24
months away that sounds like a classic no-brainer.
But never mind. Pointing out, rather curiously,
in its media release that the Liberal Party is “mindful that they
are in power because of the people,” the illustrious political
entity celebrated its 62nd anniversary a few days ago not, as is
customary, in a no-expense spared bash in a luxury hotel but rather
in social intercourse with the lowly communities of Barangay
Commonwealth in Quezon City. (Which probably explains the less than
impressive attendance. But that’s another story).
A key event during the day-long
celebration was that tried and tested staple of the US political
season—a town hall meeting—where party standard bearer for 2010
Roxas and the LP leaders saw and heard for themselves the problems
and concerns of the community.
On a more practical level, the occasion was also
used to serve the people with a medical and dental mission and
opportunities for livelihood training and also to stage a job fair.
During the town hall meeting, two major
advocacies of the party (and matters on which Roxas is extremely hot
judging by his public utterances)—the suspension of the
value-added tax (VAT) on oil products and the lowering of the cost
of medicines—received wide support from the communities and
sectors who joined in the celebration.
Present was Efren de Luna, head of the transport
group ACTO, who spoke in behalf of the transport sector, beset with
lower earnings as a result of record-high oil prices worldwide. Also
participating was George San Mateo of PISTON.
During the meeting, many of the participants
from the community also expressed their worries of having to buy
medicines at high prices to combat their various illnesses.
But trying to keep Roxas away from his “Mr.
Palengke” mold (though another Senate stalwart lays claim to be
the “original Mr. Palengke”) is never going to be easy. Thus the
Liberal Party anniversary celebration also included a visit by Roxas
to the Commonwealth Market where, of course, he was in his element
pressing the flesh.
According to a party source, this is only the
beginning of such pro-people events, and they have plans to
replicate many such town hall meetings in other parts of the
country.
So don’t say you haven’t been warned!
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Away from the LP anniversary celebrations, Sen.
Mar Roxas was also holding forth on the government’s Energy
Summit, expressing a hope that it would hammer out a master plan in
response to the ‘abnormal’ situation of high oil prices. This
even as he called for immediate relief to the public through the
suspension of the value-added tax (VAT) on oil and petroleum
products.
“It’s good to have a summit on a vital
problem. It’s not so good if the results are meant to cover up the
government’s inability to provide urgent relief to our people,”
Roxas lamented.
Expressing disappointment that the summit agenda
seemed to gloss over concrete measures to bring relief to consumers
and commuters, Roxas said that “the Energy Summit must maintain a
sharp focus on people’s concerns and not muddle the agenda with
too many technical debates.”
He added: “The smorgasbord of topics and
proposals—from conservation to opportunities in gas exploration
and even the revival of nuclear energy—provide forward looking
solutions but does not resolve the impact of rising prices at the
household level.”
Roxas further asserted that suspending the
12-percent VAT on oil will not only give the people—who are now
suffering from the decrease in their purchasing power—immediate
relief, but it will also buy the government enough time to map out
and implement long-term reforms.
rjottings@yahoo.com
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