by Joyce Pangco PañaresOriginal Story: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNation.htm?f=2009/december/22/nation2.isx&d=/2009/december/22
The business community seeks an intelligent platform in the 2010 presidential elections, judging from the outcome of a recent survey conducted by the Makati Business Club, according to Malacañang.
This was validated by the strong showing of administration’s standard-bearer Gilberto Teodoro who, for the first time, placed second in the pre-poll survey of the anti-Arroyo club, after Senator Benigno Aquino III, said deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar.
Aquino’s topping the survey also reflected the influence of some members of civil society on the business community, Olivar said.
“What is noteworthy or heart-warming though is the second position taken by Teodoro,” Olivar said. “If we assume that the business community is a community that recognizes and respects intelligence, achievement, and platform as qualities to look for in a presidentiable, then the higher level of support that has been given to Secretary Teodoro in this particular survey reflects positively on these qualities that he has as a candidate for next year.”
Teodoro has been slowly but steadily gaining on his rivals in various pre-election surveys since he filed his certificate of candidacy early this month.
The 1989 Bar topnotcher and Harvard-trained lawyer also placed fourth in the latest Social Weather Stations survey that was released at the same time as that of MBC’s.
Teodoro’s remarkable showing in the recent surveys is an encouraging sign with about five months to go before the 2010 polls, Olivar said.
In the survey, MBC members were asked: Who among the candidates running in the 2010 elections would you prefer to see as the next Philippine President and Vice President?
No list of candidates was provided to prompt the respondents in the survey that was conducted from Dec. 8 to 18.
At least 61 percent of the club’s members preferred Aquino while 14 percent were for Teodoro, followed by Senator Manuel Villar Jr. of the Nacionalista Party with 7 percent, Senator Richard Gordon of Bagumbayan with 4 percent, and deposed President Joseph Estrada of Partido ng Masang Pilipino with 1 percent.
Meanwhile, Teodoro pushed for the expansion of the government’s conditional cash transfer program beyond the one million impoverished families already enjoying coverage nationwide.
The program provides beneficiaries a monthly P1,500 cash allowance to buy food and school-related materials for their children.
The conditional cash transfer program has proved to be successful in lifting the lives of beneficiaries that its coverage should be expanded in Maguindanao and other impoverished areas of Mindanao, Teodoro said.
“If we expand the program in Maguindanao and many poor communities of Mindanao, I have no doubt that the literacy rate will skyrocket and the incidence of hunger in the region will be dramatically reduced,” he said after his third visit to Maguindanao recently.
Original Story: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNation.htm?f=2009/december/22/nation2.isx&d=/2009/december/22
No comments:
Post a Comment