Entrepreneurial Farmer

Ambrosio R. Villorente

Advance Campaigning

The election period starts on January 13 – June 12, 2013. The campaign period for senators and partylist candidates is from February 13 – May 11. Candidates for congressmen, elective regional, provincial, city and municipal officials is on March 29 to May 11, 2013, according to the Commission On Election. However, some candidates has started campaigning after filing their certificate of candidacy. 

Please take a walk at the Kalibo bridge. Stroll toward Numancia and witness the names being flashed at the electronic billboard. Names just flash, no services or goods offered to sell. This campaign method will instill their names in the minds of the voters to hasten name recall comes election day.  

There are spot announcement over the radio to portray to the listeners that person is kind hearted, helpful, generous, a philanthropist. This is being done via the testimony of persons who appear very hard up in life whose relatives got sick, no enough money to pay hospitalization expenses. They acknowledged the financial assistance that candidate gave them which enable them to buy medicine, blood, and others spent in the hospitalization until patients got well.

They became so helpful and generous as the election nears.

There are candidates who donate both money and material to defray the expenses of some projects. They assure probable voters for more donations.

Accept the things candidates offer you. Study how to vote right. Follow your conscience in voting.

Candidates who give favor to limited few are unfair, unjust and play favorite. A promising candidate for a public office is a person who does things for the common good. He is a person who refrains from giving things or services to a person if he cannot give the same to as many persons who also need the same. 

ANOTHER SCAM

There is a new scam in Kalibo, Aklan. The victims are the old men and women who has labored long and hard that qualified them for a monthly pension either from the Government Service Insurance System or from the Social Security System. 

The SSS pensions are for those retirees from private firms. The GSIS pension are for those government retirees.  

Comes the Metro Negros Credit Corporation which provides pension loans to the pensioners. Many applied for loans, were given loans of varying amounts depending upon the amount of monthly pension the applicant receives. 

They signed loan applications, presented valid IDs to authenticate their identity. Upon approval of their loans, the applicants surrender their ATM Cards and PIN to the Metro Negros Credit Corporation. For one thing, the ATM card holder is instructed by the Bank to keep PIN a secret, known only to card holder.

However, the borrowers surrendered the ir ATM card and the PIN with their applications. 

Since last week, several borrowers complained they are still indebted even after having fully paid their loans. They discovered their loans were renewed by fictitious persons.

Moreover, withdrawals from their bank account are more than the amount loaned. Their 13th month pay or bonus are withdrawn.  There are those who lost their monthly allotment from relatives either in the Philippines or abroad deposited on the same bank account which ATM cards were deposited the Credit Corporation. 

Madyaas Pen learned all ATM cards are transmitted to the head office of Metro Negros Credit Corp. Better luck next time pensioners.  /MP