DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 19 Feb) — The country needs a national volunteer corps, not a mandatory military service program, former presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella, now a candidate for President, said.
Abella was answering a question regarding his thoughts on a mandatory military service for Filipinos once they reach 18, as proposed by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, who is running for Vice President.
“My alternative would be a national service volunteer corps,” Abella said at the online forum, Candida Dates 2022, on Friday afternoon.
Abella is the second Presidential candidate to engage in conversations with Mindanawon voters through the online forum organized by the Davao Association of Colleges and Schools, in partnership with the Mindanao Consortium of the Ateneos in Mindanao (Ateneo de Davao, Ateneo de Zamboanga and Xavier University), Initiatives for International Dialogue and MindaNews.
Ernesto “Ernie” Abella, former spokesperson of President Rodrigo Duterte, now a candidate for President, explains his platform of government during the Candid Dates 2022 online forum on Friday, 18 February 2022.
The first was Norberto Gonzales of the Partido Demokratikong Sosysalista ng Pilipinas on February 14. In the local conversations, Atty. Ruy Elias Lopez, candidate for mayor in Davao City against Vice Mayor Sebastian Duterte and Maria Victoria “Mags” Maglana, candidate for Representative of the city’s first district against reelectionist Paolo Duterte guested on February 4 and 11, respectively.
Abella said he saw for himself the effects of a mentorship program and what it did to the youth, especially those who were looking for role models.
He said there was a need for the national government to truly implement a volunteer and grassroots-based initiatives program.
He said programs should come from a government that will listen to its people’s needs from the grassroots and not the other way around.
“Civil society is a powerful force in the transformation of a nation especially with regards to corruption,” Abella said.
“Pwede pong magkaroon ng pagbabago, pwede po talaga yumabong ang ekonomiya, local society para po maging makatarungan, mapayapa at masaya ang ating bayan” (There can be change, our economy and local society can prosper sto make our nation just, peaceful and joyful), he said.
Abella is campaigning for a government that aims to make the country just, peaceful, and joyful (makatarungan, mapayapa, at masaya), under programs that encourage citizen participation and a vision that does not only look at a six-year term but beyond, even up to a century.
A government ran and supported by the elite would always tend to legislate power to “till towards their favor,” he said.
“Ang isang malaking bagay/role po ng civil society is to be able to complement the vision of the national government along with the vision and action of the local government with the principle of subsidiarity, “ said Abella, who was a pastor of The Jesus Fellowship here.
“So ang nakikita po natin ay kailangan mabalanse. We need to rebalance this power and the nation so that it becomes more just. And how do we balance it off? By encouraging. Not just encouraging but actually almost pushing civil society to become part and parcel of the daily running of the nation. Sa atin pong local government code, kasali po ang civil society,” he said.
For Mindanao, Abella said he aims to push to develop mega industries in power and agriculture.
Everything changes when a community gets energized.
“You know what happens when there’s light in a community? It changes everything,” Abella said.
Abella was President Rodrigo Duterte’s first spokesperson from 2016 to 2017 before he became Undersecretary for Strategic Communications and Research at the Department of Foreign Affairs. (Yas D. Ocampo / MindaNews)
