ILOILO Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. urged the village chiefs to be vigilant against election fraud and vote-buying this coming May 13 polls to ensure that the election results reflect the will of the people.
Defensor made the call during his keynote address at the opening of the Liga ng mga Barangay (LnB)-Iloilo Provincial Congress held in the Waterfront Hotel, Cebu City on March 3-5, 2013.
More than 1,000 barangay captains from Iloilo province attended the convention with the theme “LnB Iloilo: Unified and leading the way to an investor-friendly province.”
rDefensor expressed his observation about the massive vote-buying during elections perpetrated by the moneyed politicians.
He said having a peaceful and orderly election is not enough. It should also be clean, fair, and honest.
Defensor noted that since he joined politics in 1969, he has not engaged in vote-buying activities and has only offered himself to the people.
“The candidate who buys votes has no accountability to the people, thus, we cannot expect full commitment and real good governance from that politician,” Defensor said.
He challenged the village chiefs to “make this election a real instrument of change and reform.”
“You are the frontliners in the field of governance… it is expected of you that you become models to your constituents. Let us work together for a clean, fair, peaceful, and honest election so that the real will of the people will come out,” Defensor said.
LnB-Iloilo president Jeneda Salcedo-Orendain thanked Governor Defensor for gracing the event, which gathered majority of the barangay captains from the 42 municipalities and one component city of the province.
Orendain said the village chiefs have learned a lot from the various resource persons whom they had invited for the three-day convention. (PR)