"We should choose our leaders wisely, the leaders that we want and hopefully, the leaders who can really address these serious concerns our country faces, our city faces."
By Stephen J Pedroza
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — The leader of the oldest university in Mindanao urged the first-time voters to select the leaders whom they trust to address the intertwining struggles of our country.
“We should choose our leaders wisely, the leaders that we want and hopefully, the leaders who can really address these serious concerns our country faces, our city faces,” said Fr Roberto "Bobby" C Yap SJ, president of the Jesuit-run Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan in his message to the social media-savvy audience at the recently-concluded #TheLeaderIWant forum.
“For the first-time voters, I hope you find these upcoming elections interesting and you’re excited to exercise your right and your responsibility to vote as citizens,” Yap added.
Organized by the social news network Rappler in partnership with XU’s Development Communication Department, #TheLeaderIWant forum in CDO encouraged Kagay-anons to take the #PHVote challenge of being better informed and ripple substantial information among their virtual and personal circles so the imminent elections follow the CHAMP process and results. As a local electoral campaign led by CDO Archbishop Antonio Ledesma SJ DD, CHAMP stands for “clean, honest, accurate, meaningful and peaceful” elections.
[PRUDENT CHOICE. Fr Bobby reminds the students to be prudent with their decisions come elections: “We should choose our leaders wisely, the leaders that we want and hopefully, the leaders who can really address these serious concerns our country faces, our city faces. File photo.]
Yap said that XU supports discussions on social issues, which can be beneficial to the young voters in evaluating their bets for different public offices in May 2016 polls. He asked the voters to look at the stances of the candidates on climate change, food security, alleviating poverty and peace in Mindanao, among other issues.
“We would really like to go into real discussions on the many serious issues and challenges that our country faces,” Yap reiterated.
The youth have an important role to play in determining the country’s future especially as the national and local elections draw near.
In May 2016, there will be more than 18, 000 positions to be filled up across the country and based on Comelec figures, close to 20% of the 52 million registered voters are from the youth sector.
According to the October 2013 barangay elections, there were some 285, 645 voters who registered in CDO, distributed to about 800 polling precincts.
Having the monikers as the “Gateway to Mindanao” and “City of Golden Friendship,” CDO also serves as the central business hub of Region 10 (Northern Mindanao), the second most vote-rich region in Mindanao with 2.46 million registered voters.
CDO will also be the host of the first presidential debate on February 21, 2016. The venue will be announced later.
As a non-partisan university, XU forms part of the Lambigit Igsoon para sa Hiniusang Pag-uswag sa atong Katilingban 2016 (LIHUK), a multisectoral network of concerned and active electoral advocates in CDO, with members coming from the church, civil society organizations, academic institutions and government agencies.
LIHUK, which also means “act” or “move” in Bisaya, calls for “Barug Kagay-anon alang sa tiunay nga piniliay” (Stand up, Kagay-anon, for truthful elections).