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11
Feb
Joey III calls for high level campaigning by all
Let’s not turn the campaign into a circus, please.
With print and broadcast media already referring to the start of the campaign period this week as “carnival time,” senatorial candidate Joey de Venecia III yesterday asked all candidates to keep their respective campaigns at the highest level possible.
“There is no need for mud-slinging and black propaganda. Each candidate for whatever position he or she is running for should present their respective agendas for the people to decide,” de Venecia said.
The ZTE-national broadband network whistleblower noted that some candidates were attacking their opponents rather than presenting their own programs of government.
“Whether one is running for president, vice president, senator, governor, congressman or mayor, the important thing is what they have to offer their constituents,” according to de Venecia.
An IT businessman for more than two decades, de Venecia envisions the computerization of the entire country by having an internet-connected PC in every Filipino home.
“Certainly everyone is for good government and economic development, and everyone is against graft and corruption. These are motherhood statements. What are their specific plans of government? This is what we candidates should talk about in our rallies,” he said.
De Venecia noted that some of the presidential and vice presidential candidates had publicly vowed to keep their campaigns at the highest level. He said every candidate for every elective position should do the same.
The old style politics of gimmickry should be laid to rest, de Venecia added.
He said today’s electorate, particularly the youth, were extremely interested in what the candidates could offer the country. “They are, after all, the hope of the motherland,” de Venecia said.
The son and namesake of former Speaker Jose de Venecia said that while all candidates were “pro-poor,” they should explain what they would do to lift the country out of poverty.
“We still have one of the lowest per capita incomes in the region. Our GNP growth is almost always in the low single digits,” he pointed out.
Known as the father of the Philippine call center industry, de Venecia said the IT industry was one of the best means of providing jobs and boosting incomes which could lift the country out of Third World status.
Besides IT, businessman de Venecia has also invested in agri and aquaculture.
“We will always need our farmers and fishermen to guarantee food stability,” said de Venecia, “The key is to boost their incomes to raise their status. Yesterday’s poor farmers and fishermen can be today’s middle class farmers and fishermen, and even tomorrow’s rich farmers and fishermen. All we have to do is work hard and believe in ourselves.”
