THE post-Marcos era has presented the nation greatest opportunities for ascent to greatness, thus, electoral process, especially voting of public officials, should be considered a sublime duty by every citizen.

Vice Mayor Beng Climaco stressed that political maturity of the citizenry is an essential requisite in Philippine's dream of becoming a developed nation that can stand at par with other First World countries that "rose from ashes," like Japan and Germany after World War II.

Climaco, an educator from the Ateneo de Zamboanga University (ADZU) before serving as vice mayor, believes the Filipino people have grown politically mature enough to discern that choosing political leaders holds the key to the future of our embattled nation.

She is now aspiring to be the representative of District 1 in the House of Representatives.

Zamboangueños, she said, can discern that the candidates they will elect to public office must possess the basic requirements of public servants namely, academic qualifications necessary to do the tasks at hand, the integrity to uphold morally upright practices and the genuine sincerity to catapult the community to greater heights of self-empowerment and productivity.

She said results of surveys show trends and probabilities but in the final analysis, performance and character are the ultimate benchmarks by which the candidates are individually judged.

A well-informed citizenry, she said, will produce better leaders but a community whose residents displayed active and concerted effort to improve their well-being will produce great leaders that the whole nation can emulate and be proud of.

For instance, the City Council under Climaco's leadership, which was awarded as the second best legislative body in the entire country by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Philippine Councilors League (PCL) can serve as a model for other lawmaking bodies. It earned to its credits the passage of 109 ordinances and thousands of resolutions that benefited the city's constituents in many ways.

Not to mention, is the synergy between the executive and the legislative branches of the city government that earned for it meritorious awards and recognitions from the Office of the President with the Galing Pook Award and from the United Nations through its United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

But she cautioned the people that the making of a great city does not end in choosing the right leaders. The participation of the citizens in government affairs and the vigilance to protect the democratic processes like transparency in government transactions, participation of various sectors in setting up of priorities and budget preparations can never be overemphasized.

"It is the people themselves who ordained the quality of life that they will enjoy or suffer," she said. "We are public servants who are given mandate but the people must assert their rights and power," she wisely quipped.

Performance-based judgment

She may be leading by a wide margin in the District I congressional race based on the series of surveys conducted by various independent groups, but Climaco is not complacent and satisfied.

"We are working very hard and we work not only for ourselves but for the rest of the members of the (LDP) Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino," Climaco said even as she expressed elation over the encouraging survey results.

She thanked the respondents for preferring her than her rival but hoped that the high preference rating in the surveys could be translated into votes come May 14.

Climaco, who is the incumbent vice mayor and presiding officer believes that name recall and more so performance are factors that contribute to the high preference rating.

"As I have stressed earlier on, I am offering my service to the people but I want them to judge me based on my merits and accomplishments," she said.

Since she became a member of the City Council in 1998, Climaco has initiated number of resolutions and authored numerous ordinances that are now being implemented in the city.

One of the gifts, which the City Council under Climaco's leadership can give to the people of Zamboanga, is the passage of 109 ordinances and thousands of resolutions that caused the city to be chosen as the 2nd Most Outstanding City Council among the highly urbanized cities in the country recently.

The recognition given two weeks ago is in line with the 2006 Legislative Awards annually being sponsored by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Philippine Councilors League (PCL). Cebu City topped the award.

Region wide, the City Council is number one in terms of performance. "We never expected to be chosen as the second best out of the 15 highly urbanized cities in the country," according to Climaco.

Her satisfactory performance was also cited by the Civil Service Commission as the Regional Outstanding Lady Executive (Rolex) late last year.

Her initiative to come up with an enabling law for Republic Act 7192, otherwise known as the Women and Nation Building Act, is considered as one of the highlights of Climaco's sterling performance. "As a result of the enactment of the law, the local government unit then under the leadership of the late Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat and later under the stewardship of Mayor Celso Lobregat and the Gender and Development (GAD) Focal Point has been able to implement numerous projects for the benefit and welfare of the different sectors in the city."

The mutual support and cooperation between the legislative and the executive branches of the city has caused the recognition of Zamboanga by the Office of the President through the Galing Pook award and the United Nations Development Program through the trailblazing award under the Medium Development Goal Award, the District I congressional aspirant emphasized.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/zam/2007/...greatness..html

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It is imperative for the people to be politically conscious and choose wisely who to put in power to move the country forward.

Most people will agree that the Philippines is not politically mature country!!!!! Politicians sing and dance during campaign !

^ We need politicians like Patton and MacArthur. We can do without those panty-wearing sissies in the government.

Anyway, in the recent survey that TU is already inching thier way up!

Democrazy is screwing the Philippines

Puede bang mahiram si LKY for like 20 years?

People need to mature the fukk up and stop supporting actors who enter politics.

To hell with political dynasties as well.

The BIG question is: HOW COULD FILIPINOS BE POLITICALLY MATURE IF ITS LEADERS DON'T ACT MATURE ENOUGH?

I think the Philippine voters are already matured enough because they voted to the right candidates according to their political agenda not by popularity especially the actor candidates and the boxing candidate which were not voted because the Filipinos think that they are not qualified to be politicians.

Actually I want the White people to dominate our country and be similiar to Australia. I just hope the Germans, Spaniards, French, and other Europeans can help the Philippines just by populating the land itself. White superior power is what Philippine people need!!!! I could care less if they drive out the native groups.

like i said in the other threads, we just need more white people to dominate our country. white superior power people!

dont feed the trolls plz salamat po

? its just a suggestion if we are under the white people's control the philippines can increase in the worlds economy. we just need to kiss up to the white guys! its true!

yeah seriously but if don't counter "it". "it" continues to post stupid remarks without reason or senses. "its" pretty stupid you know we need to help it move along so it might find another $hit hole to stuff it's face in. i know "it" get it's jollies off by pissing on someones else race i mean that what pron is for right.