AKBAYAN calls for public debate on platforms of governance of Zamboanga political rivals
text HADER GLANG

A party-list organization has called on political rivals in the city to hold a public debate on their respective platforms of governance following the proliferation of alleged sex video of former priest Crisanto “Monsi” dela Cruz.

The video showed two men having oral sex, but Dela Cruz, a staunch supporter of President Arroyo and standard bearer of the united opposition in the city for next year’s elections against incumbent Mayor Celso Lobregat, denied he was the man in the video.

“We would like to appeal to all candidates in our city not to allow local politics to degenerate into something that is abominable,” said AKBAYAN Island Rep. for Mindanao Edgar Araujo.

Araujo, also a political professor of Western Mindanao State University, hopes that the media and other concerned organizations would help the population understand what to be done in the city, especially this coming elections.

He said the voters should support an election that will be decided on the basis of the candidates’ vision for the city and not on the basis of below the built tactics or mudslinging that insult their senses.

As taxpayers, he emphasized, they deserve better politics and better leadership for this city, saying that for the past several years, they have seen the city transforming itself into a violent city, sinister city, and a city of intrigue.

“Let’s invite all these candidates to a forum and allow them to debate themselves who can present the better platforms. They should focus the campaign on issues, rather than on dirty tricks,” he said.

Asked his view on a purported de la Cruz’s sex video, Araujo replied: “What a private person does in his own private time is not my concern, but what concerns me is what public officials do using public money during both their private and public moments."

Multi-sectoral groups, youth and religious leaders have endorsed the call for a debate among administration and opposition candidates in the city on their respective platforms of governance.