GenSan News Online Mag

NOTE:  Allow us to feature a guest writer for today’s blog post.  His name is Ben Sumog-uy.  He writes an insightful article about the AIM and LP coalition in General Santos City, in time for the May 2010 local and national elections.  Ben is currently finishing his law degree at the Mindanao State University GenSan.  He is also a part-time blogger.  Read on….

Harmonic alliance

The recent decision of the Achievement with Integrity Movement (AIM), a well-entrenched local political party founded by former General Santos City Mayor and Congressman, Adelbert W. Antonino, to work in alliance with the Liberal Party (LP) this forthcoming 2010 electoral campaign has earned positive reviews from various sectors and communities here in GenSan, or even in the entire First Congressional District of South Cotabato.

The alliance brings to the fore a amazing combine of tough national and political personalities who are giving their respective adversaries in the electoral race an uphill battle, as they continue to maintain their dominance in the national and local political arenas.

At the local level, AIM is fielding the incumbent City Mayor of GenSan, Pedro B. Acharon, Jr., for the House of Representatives, while the concurrent representative of the First Congressional District, Darlene Magnolia R. Antonino-Custodio, is battling for the mayoralty post.

On the national scene, LP is working to rev up Senator Noynoy Aquino’s fight for the presidency; while Senator Mar Roxas is grappling it out with his adversaries in the vice presidential race. They are leading in the results of all surveys conducted by mainstream survey institutions.

Academe-based political analysts here regard the political alliance forged between LP and AIM as a rhythmic corroboration between two titanic electoral parties, which are bonded by common history, vision, principles and programs.

With LP and AIM already tailing their respective opponents, based on both formal and informal surveys and in terms of electoral infrastructures, the political alliance has caused the overarching political power to emerge ominous in the horizon, exuding the aura of an awesome electoral power.

Viewing things through the lens of ideology (to use usual activist jargon), LP and AIM are progressive parties that strongly embrace the concept of liberal democracy, but with strong pro-poor welfare and economic development programs to ensure that the poor shall not be bulldozed in the processes of development.

This liberal democratic concept is one that bats for a libertarian society where all the people could freely and fully exercise their right to self-expression and pursue their dreams for a contented and meaningful life. Towards this end, LP and AIM are seeing to it that the social equilibrium is maintained through its pro-poor programs and projects.

"Former Congresswoman Lualhati Antonino and GenSan City Mayor Jun Acharon flank Senator Noynoy Aquino during their visit to the Queen of Mindanao Festivals Pageant at the Robinsons Place GenSan during the Kalilangan Festival last month"

Without these pro-poor programs, all major development interventions would only end up aiding social inequality and widen the social fault-line that separates the rich and the poor, plunging our society deeper into a state of disarray and crisis of hope.

LP and AIM have earned strong followings among various social classes because of their common advocacies for equitable economic development and solid egalitarian principles. They aim at creating a society that humanizes the rich and dignifies the poor, giving them all the right to hope and all the opportunity to dream.

LP and AIM are diametrically different from all other traditional parties that become visible only during elections. They have a permanent organizational life and are continuously accompanying the people in their struggle for reform and social transformation.

Finally, LP and AIM are both holders of solid records in the fight against graft and corruption and other forms of excesses and abuses in government. They are permanently painted in the canvass of the people’s consciousness because of their unrelenting fight to restore honesty and decency in government.

They are meant to stay, at least, after the 2010 elections.