By OMAR LABUNTOG
Team OKKA .
COUNCILOR Alam Lim, official candidate for congressman in the 2nd district of Cagayan de Oro City of PDP Laban, officially informed organizers of the candidates’ forum held at Xavier University last Tuesday afternoon (April 23, 2019) that he was begging off.
Lim himself had told City Comelec Officer Atty. Ramil Acol that he was begging off from the activity days before. It was Acol who officially invited the candidates. Lim’s publicist sent a message to the event convenor Nestor Banuag reiterating the candidate’s decision to beg off from the forum. The text message, quoted below was sent to Banuag at 10:42 am last Tuesday:
“The Organizers, Lihuk 2019 Movement
“Hon. Alam Lim, candidate for congressman in the 2nd district of Cagayan de Oro City, thanks the organizers of the ‘Pag-ila, a Series of Local Candidates Fora: Issues and Platforms’ for inviting him to this platform for candidates to further convey to the public their person, competencies and plans.
“He however expresses his apologies for begging off from the forum due to conflict of scheduled. He had committed to attend to important campaign events scheduled much earlier.
“He wishes the event to succeed. He has formally informed the City Comelec on this matter.”
The non-attributed statement in the news story, “Congressional bets agree on drainage plan,” where it was reported that “newcomer Lim reportedly claimed that his flight was delayed” is wrong, baseless and disparaging.
Councilor Lim holds high transparency in public service and is in fact very accessible to the media and the public in general. In fact, the official statement on his absence was also shared to the media, including Mindanao Gold Star Daily.
Since he filed his certificate of candidacy in October 2018, Lim had participated in over 500 pulong-pulong and met with over 30,000 people.
His campaign team summed the results of his listening campaign to the identification of the top issues and concerns of the people of Cagayan de Oro, which are traffic, flooding, drugs, garbage, poverty, criminality, inflation/high prices of commodities, lack of jobs/livelihood, water problem.
More than the drainage masterplan, as president of the Liga ng mga Barangay, Councilor Lim supports the ongoing and pipelined flood control and modern drainage projects. His personal connection with the President would greatly factor in bringing in mega infra projects to address the problems of traffic and flooding.
Lim’s legislative agenda is responsive of the top issues and concerns of the people. As a quick response to the problem of poverty and lack of livelihood and garbage, he has facilitated the release from the Department of Agriculture 50 heads of cattle for dispersal in the upland barangays of the 2nd district, 90 fishing boats for the coastal barangays and six waste biodigesters for the urban barangays.
On the drugs problem, Lim led barangays in implementing community-based drug rehabilitation programs. This is instrumental in the City Anti-Drug Abuse Council winning the silver award nationwide in 2018 and as benchmark city of the Dangerous Drugs Board.
(Omar Labuntog is a former barangay chairman of Lapasan. He is working in Councilor Alam Lim’s campaign for a congressional seat.)
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