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Churchill Aguilar

SINCE most of my clients are government agencies, the election ban has pretty much put my consultancy on hold for the next two months. This prompted me to come home to Cagayan de Oro and do my civil duty of educating people to be wise voters as well as promote clean and peaceful elections.

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One of the events I am trying to brew is to launch yet another fun run to advocate clean elections. If you can remember, my team successfully launched an election run in 2013. It was well participated by different political parties who committed to a secure and fair elections. Even the Comelec partnered with us on that event.

Sadly, my renewed enthusiasm was met with coldness and pessimism by some key players. A co-organizer told me that what I am wishing was next to impossible as the three dominant political parties are not as sports anymore at this time of the game in their race for the mayoral seats. To prove him wrong, I made initial contact seeking for an audience and arranging an appointment with the information officer of city hall to explore this worthwhile activity. Sadly, there was no response as of this writing.

I am disheartened by the possible premature death of what would be a historic event where the three parties would publicly sign an agreement that they would be committing themselves to ensure a fair and clean 2016 elections. Without the enthusiasm from the city hall would simply mean that such plan will never really see the light of day. I speak from experience because the first fun run I orchestrated was the “Sendong” run in December 2012. The previous administration was also reluctant for it to be materialized for reasons that it could magnify their shortcomings on the tragedy. Niagi intawon ang akong grupo sa buslot sa dagum para lang ma dayun ang Dagan Kagayan. And while it still pushed through with the support of the church and the private sector, the very day of the run was almost a tragedy itself. The roads were not secured by the RTA, exposing our 15,000 runners to great danger and adding insult to injury, they came very late and disorganized. If it were not because of former councilor Ian Nacaya who was there and who I asked to talk to them, the run would not have started at all.

The planned fun run is just a fun run. It’s a simple advocacy. But it can already show us and gauge who among our politicians these days can rise above and beyond the occasion and show to us Cagayanons that leadership is not just about winning–it’s values personified. I could be wrong about this negative forecast since I have not really sat down with any of them yet. I was still making initial moves and was still dealing with a staff. But then again, the first step has to be traversed first for any of this to successfully be materialized, i.e., the full support of the present administration.

Otherwise, we perpetuate the culture of “to each his own.” “Kung kami mudaug sa eleksyon, among tao ra sad malipay.” Pagkapait.

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