by Recto I. Vidal
The United Leader-ship Coalition (ULC), a political entity recently made possible after the province’s dominant political group Tibyog It Akean and opposition group Kusog It Akean joined forces for Aklan’s progress and develop-ment, asserted its political supremacy after all sixteen barangay officials and municipal officials pledged their commit-ment to support the ULC in next year’s May 2010 local elections.
In a mass oath-taking held at the posh residence of Mayor Edgar Peralta of this vote-rich municipality of New Washington last week, barangay officials including three municipal councilors formerly aligned with the opposition, came in full force to take their oath as new members of said political coalition with no less than Aklan Gov. Carlito S. Marquez assisting them.
To cap the historic event, Marquez also inducted provincial board members Rodson Mayor, Nemesio Neron and Daisy Briones as new party members of the coalition.
In his message, Peralta proudly recalled that during his term, the United Leadership in Aklan led by its founder former Aklan Rep. Atty. Allen S. Quimpo, he was able to muster at least 80 percent of the elected local officials in New Washington leaving only twenty percent to the opposition.
"Now with this mass oath-taking that took place tonight, I can proudly say that the ULC has managed to ensure the full commitment and support of these officials 100 percent," Peralta enthused.
He added that, "I’m confident that next year’s election is merely a formality. We can now focus our energies in the development projects of our municipality," after noting the absence of any opposition that will challenge his administration.
In a news conference that followed, Peralta credited the political phenomenon to the solid track record of the United Leadership Coalition as far as good governance is concerned.
For his part, Aklan Rep. Florencio T. Miraflores was happy to note that the Aklanons has finally reached a certain level of maturity after realizing that a united leadership can bring the province’s political leaders into a common goal and set aside political differences for Aklan’s progress and development.
MOVE: VAWC Cases Against Aklan Kids,
Women Alarming
"Alarming and glaring." This is the description given by Franklin Quimpo, provincial head of the Men Oppose to Violence Everywhere (MOVE) in describing the rampant cases of violence against women and children in Aklan.
"From the month of January 2009 to Sept. 10 this year, MOVE Aklan documented a total of 545 Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) cases wherein at least 61 women and children are victimized every month or a total of two (2) victims each day," Quimpo pointed out.
In a meeting last Friday held at the women center "Daeangpan it mga Kababayenhan", the Aklan Police Provincial Office (APPO) reported that at least 160 cases were reported in Kalibo followed by Boracay with 93 cases.
The sudden rise in the number of VAW cases was attributed to the heightened awareness of the victims and their respective families, thus they resolved to report to proper authorities the incidence of abuses against them.
Other reasons cited are due to poverty, absence of separated rooms prompting the kids to sleep on the same room with their parents, drunkenness, ignorance, poor parental guidance, absence of mother due to work, prohibited drugs, peer groups, lust, pornographic materials, and text messages from cellphones.
The APPO also reported that there is an increase in the number of suspects who are at large. Reasons cited are the late reporting of said incidence, incident happened in remote areas, and undecided complainants.
A case of human trafficking, a non bailable offense, resulted to the closure of Scorpio videoke bar in Kalibo after it was found out that minors were forcibly detained and made to work as guest relations officers by the manage-ment. An APPO office admitted that lack of political will hampered their campaign against human trafficking.
To further strengthen its campaign against VAWC, MOVE advocate Grace Quimpo suggested the strengthening of the referral system of the Municipal Social Welfare and Development.
She also underscored the problem of the data base that should be addressed in order for MOVE to have a more accurate picture of the VAWC cases in Aklan. /MP
No comments:
Post a Comment