Special Blogger Event with Chiz Escudero

I helped organize a blogger event for Senator Chiz Escudero on November 7, 2009, at Annabelle’s Restaurant along Tomas Morato. There were a lot of bloggers who were eager to meet him especially since he just left his old party, the NPC. There were so many questions lingering and this event was a good venue to clear a lot of things out with Senator Chiz. We arrived at the venue around 11AM to help set up together with former NTC Commissioner Jorge Sarmiento (now part of Team Chiz). Eventually the bloggers started coming in. As usual, my favorite mom blogger, Noemi Dado, was the first to arrive. Jonas arrived shortly after and eventually we were able to pack the venue. Rochelle, who had previous commitments, even caught up. Unlike the first Chiz blogger event, we didn’t have to wait for hours before this one started. Shortly after we ate lunch, Chiz came in, sat down, quickly gobbled down his food, and the conversation began.

Chiz Leaving the NPC
Chiz gave a quite lengthy explanation as to why he bolted out of his party. From what I understood though, it was mostly because of policy differences. In his speech when he announced that he was resigning from the NPC, Chiz highlighted 3 major issues which he wanted to push for:

1. He is against contractual-status workers. This is prohibited by law and it should be enforced.
2. He is against Pork Barrel. It’s a source of corruption.
3. He is for land reform changes – give the farmers their land.

Obviously politicians and businessmen will be against these three items because they’re the ones benefiting from it. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the major backers of the NPC will be hit quite bad in the first and third points.

Anyway, after the initial explanation, Chiz was bombarded by questions left and right. I’ve already posted some clips of him about who he would endorse if he didn’t run as well as his Senatorial bets. An interesting discussion popped up when Chiz was engaged by one of his most vocal critics, Benj. They talked about secular government and how Chiz was recently misquoted on why he wanted students who were victims during Ondoy to be considered for an automatic passing grade. That’s for a separate post though.

I’m not sure if it was Dine or Jane, but someone also asked Chiz his stand on OFW’s. Chiz basically reiterated his earlier positions that he took during the Blas F. Ople Usapang OFW Leaders Forum. As one of the top countries exporting labor, the Philippines should be at the forefront of coming up with multi-lateral or bi-lateral agreements that will protect the welfare of our workers abroad. Paul Farol also asked very interesting questions, most of which I’ll discuss on separate posts.

The RH Bill
Chiz also talked about the highly controversial Reproductive Health Bill. He shares that he doesn’t think it won’t get approved anytime soon because PGMA is against it, and that the moment it’s passed in the Senate and Congress, PGMA will either just veto it or not assign any funds to the program. Personally he wants people to be informed on how they can plan their families. He’s also anti-abortion unless it’s needed to save the life of the mother.

There were so many other topics discussed that it will take me some time to short through my notes and the videos that I was able to take!

My Personal Take
Over-all, I think Chiz is a really good guy. He has the right heart for service, and maybe that’s also his weakness. He can’t stand how politics is being done now to the point that he might not be able to win battles that need fighting because the weapons needed are covered in blood. I genuinely respect and admire him for his passion for what is right, and in the event that he still decides to run, I still believe that he actually has a chance. If he finds a way to convince and let the people know who he really is, then maybe he can make it. He definitely has a very tough battle ahead of him but nothing is impossible.

Thanks to all the bloggers who attended. If you’ve written a post on the event, please leave a comment here or drop me an e-mail so that I can link to you.

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