Finally, politics

YEAR 2010 promises to be a good year for some while others are experiencing an even better year. And the congressman-elect of the city's first district can very well fall under the latter as he snatched victory from a formidable opponent in last May's elections and he will soon be a father to his second child.

In his first official foray into politics, the newly elected young congressman from the city's first district already has a lineup of things that he wants to get done in his first three years as part of the House of Representatives.

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Replacing his father as the city first district representative, congressman-elect Karlo B. Nograles bares his plans for his first three years in the halls of the Batasan, well, aside from giving justice to the Barong Tagalog and providing additional eye candy during marathon sessions.

"One of the things that I want to happen is that we get more drug courts and family courts here in the city, we do not have enough courts to expedite the judiciary system," the young Nograles said in an interview with Sun.Star Davao, adding that the family courts will be more focused on handling gender sensitive cases.

The young legislator is also eyeing the possibility of giving prosecutorial powers to the Commission on Human Rights, Commission on Audit, and the Civil Service Commission. That is on top of the run of the mill projects expected from a congressman, which includes university scholarships, healthcare programs, and the ever so infrastructure programs.

The soon to be father of two, as his wife Margarita Montemayor-Nograles is seven months pregnant with their second child, has already hit the ground running, a few days before he even takes oath as the city's representative on the noon of June 30.

Tagged as his father's protégé, Karlo sees nothing wrong with such.

"But I am more particular with the details compared to him, and I prefer to be more hands on when it comes to work," Karlo said. "I want to know personally what works and what doesn't."

The past campaign may have been one of the dirtiest that Davao City has seen in its political history, with candidates from opposing parties being called names and tagged with what-not.

"All the name calling and criticisms that were thrown my way, I all shrugged it off. If it's not a legitimate issue why should I bother with it? If its just name calling it has nothing to do with public office," Karlo said. "We should all be mature enough to veer away from those kinds of things and focus on serving the people."

Despite all what has been said and done during the campaign season, Karlo extends a hand of reconciliation to his family's arch enemies in the political stage of Davao City.

Karlo ran and defeated Councilor Mabel Sunga-Acosta with a very narrow margin while his father, House Speaker Prospero Nograles was pummeled by Vice Mayor Inday Sara Duterte in the mayoralty race.

Now that he will have to work with a Duterte administration, Karlo surprisingly expressed no qualms about it, despite the obvious rift the two families mutually shared with each other during the campaign.

"I can work with anybody," Karlo said. "Whatever differences we may have had during the campaign must be set aside for the benefit of the people. Providing service for the people is the primary reason that we ran." (CPM)