i-site’s 2007 Election Files

THE Genuine Opposition (GO) is the umbrella political coalition party of the opposition’s senatorial and local line-up for the 2007 Philippine midterm elections. It is a multi-party and multi-sectoral coalition that includes the United Opposition (UNO), Liberal Party (Drilon Wing), Nacionalista Party, Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Aksyon Demokratiko, Partido Demokratiko ng Pilipinas-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), Partdio ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), and civil society groups.

The common platform of the GO is focused on anti-corruption and poverty-alleviation.

CAMPAIGN WEBSITE
http://www.genuineopposition.com

10-POINT PROGRAM

GO will strive to create more opportunities for all Filipinos, especially those who have less, to achieve a higher quality of life in a society that is justly, peacefully and honestly governed.

GO adheres to the principles of transparency, accountability and good governance and will endeavor to eliminate lying, cheating and stealing.

GO assures to protect the sanctity of the Constitution by opposing any attempt by the Arroyo regime to amend the Constitution by any mode as recent attempt have exposed the desires of said regime to tamper with the Constitution solely for the purpose of remaining in power.

GO reinforces the Constitutional provisions of checks and balances in government and pledges that the Senate shall continue to be the people’s vanguard against abuses.

GO will sponsor and/or support legislative initiatives that would:

• Generate more jobs through labor intensive infrastructure projects in the rural areas rather than mega projects which are prone to large scale corruption.

• Train our youth in higher skilled disciplines through increased budgetary allocations for our educational system at all levels including teacher’s pay, books, classrooms, computers, distance learning and school feeding programs except anomalous rice subsidies.

• Substantially lower the cost of drugs by as much as 90% by providing incentives for domestic production of drugs, adoption of procurement reforms in the health sector and parallel importation of affordable medicines.

• Lower the costs of transportation and power through the aggressive development of renewable domestic sources of energy.

• Reject any new tax such as the proposed tax on text messaging, improve tax administration and exclusively utilize the additional revenues collected from EVAT for priority areas like education, healthcare, agriculture and science and technology.

• Strengthen the protection of human rights by granting prosecutorial powers to the Commission on Human Rights and upgrading its investigative capabilities and review the government’s counter-insurgency program to de-emphasize the heavily militarist approach and once again address the deeper causes of social conflict — poverty and injustice — through development programs.

• Contribute to the arrest of global warming and ensure a cleaner and better environment for future generations through programs that would accelerate the use of cleaner fuels, reforestation, lower electricity consumption and waste recycling.

• Organize additional support programs for OFWs that will provide them with legal assistance abroad in their countries of work, retraining services, entrepreneurial mentoring and welfare and counseling services to the families they leave behind.

• Reinforce the effectiveness of the press in its role as watchdog against graft and corruption by decriminalizing libel and increasing penalties for harm done to newspersons.

• Institute other meaningful reforms to make the economy more dynamic, efficient and equitable and make the Filipino workers and enterprises more globally competitive.