The partylist group PM opened its electoral bid for “genuine representation for the marginalized” with a grassroots campaign involving workers, urban and youth. A group of idealistic youth campaigned early morning Tuesday by train hopping for their favored opposition senatorial bets and the partylist group PM.
“It is an uphill fight against the deluge of fake partylist groups, many supported by the administration and all promoting the candidacy of trapos. But the only way to gain representation for the truly marginalized is by fighting and winning,” declared Manny Manato, nominee of PM and chair of the informal settler network Kilos Maralita.
Around 15 student leaders from the PUP Central Student Council and the student party SPEAK leafleted the MRT and LRT train stations at North EDSA, Cubao, Recto and Pureza on Tuesday as the opening salvo of a youth campaign for principled politics. The youth leaders say that they are campaigning early to jump the gun on trapos who have the money and influence to dominate the election period.
On Monday, the same groups crowdsourced from fellow PUP students to finance the printing of the leaflets that they distributed yesterday. Dubbed “Piso mo para sa Pagbabago,” they successfully solicited donations for national candidates that they assert embody the advocacy and fight for real social change.
The youth leaders are challenging candidates to support the demand to increase the education share of the national budget to 6%. They believe that the protracted fight over the pork barrel of solons that led to the delayed enactment of the General Appropriations Act is a case of the teapot calling the kettle black. The real issues are greater budget for social services like public education, universal health care, extended maternity and guaranteed public employment for the jobless.
Also yesterday, Partido Manggagawa worker and urban poor leaders are launching their official partylist campaign by going to the grassroots. In Bulacan, urban poor leaders are hopping from one relocation area and depressed community to another across the towns of Marilao to Malolos to propagate the demand for affordable housing for the poor. It was in Pandi, Bulacan where a government housing project was occupied by informal settlers.
Meanwhile, in Cavite, union leaders are going to leaflet fellow workers in the giant Cavite Economic Zone to highlight the call for a national minimum wage and regular jobs for all. The demand for regular jobs, a national minimum wage, affordable housing, increased education budget and other social services are the key planks of the electoral platform of PM partylist.
