Know your candidates for So. Leyte
It’s a Facebook campaign for S. Leyte’s bets; meet Jerome, Jeffrey and Ramil
By Jani Arnaiz
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:14:00 04/30/2010
Filed Under: Elections, Internet, Social networking
THEY ARE YOUNG and unknown to the political arena of Southern Leyte province.
Yet, the Roden brothers, Jerome, 33, and Jeffrey, 31, are unfazed. They are running for governor and congressman, respectively, in the May 10 elections as independent candidates.
While the administration and major opposition candidates have started campaigning way before the start of local campaign period on March 26, the Rodens are using the social networking site Facebook to advance their “mission and vision” for the province.
They also have a radio program in a radio station located in an unlikely place—Surigao City—which is across the sea from the island of Leyte.
But broadcasting from Surigao actually made sense. Southern Leyte only has two radio stations, one in Sogod town, the government-run dySL of Radio ng Bayan and the other in this city, dyDM, run by the Diocese of Maasin. Both radio stations have limited coverage compared to the stations in northwestern Mindanao that can be heard throughout the province whose towns are all located along the coastlines.
Campaign
The two launched their campaign through Soley, a contraction of Southern Leyte and acronym for School of Leaders Empowered by the Youth (Soley), an “informal group of leaders and citizens who share a common vision of people-based sustainable development and principled governance by meritocracy.”
Jerome, in an interview using the Facebook site, said, “I am running for governor because I believe that the people of Southern Leyte have been choosing these leaders in the absence of a sound alternative that brings with him a concrete platform of government.”
Asked if they would use only the Internet to campaign, he said: “We would also campaign through the grassroots level because we have the capacity to run a province-wide campaign.”
Jerome believed he could get the votes of Southern Leyteños “as soon as they see the details of our plans and programs for the province and the roadmap on how we intend to go about it.”
He said they would leave the mudslinging to the traditional politicians.
Jerome claimed he has 508 Facebook fans and 163 for Soley.
Jerome is a product of Cebu Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and graduated cum laude. He was a finalist in the search for Ten Outstanding Students of Central Visayas.
Jeffrey, is a graduate of the University of the Philippines where he took up Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and later proceeded to study law at the UP College of Law. He has yet to take the bar examinations. While studying law, he won the Best Debater Award as captain of the law school’s debating team.
Jeffrey sees himself “as an alternative candidate, who is not part of the old political dynasties that have alternated in ruling the province for five years now.”
He added that his foremost concern this election is to provide Southern Leyteños “a choice.”
The Rodens came from Padre Burgos, a town that has become the haven of foreigners who love the sea and diving.
Jeffrey told the Inquirer that he viewed the Internet as an emergent form of mass media.
“In the country, radio is still predominant and TV is ascendant. Print media provides expository supplement and the Internet is at best a jump-off point for information and serves as a bulletin board from which mainstream media may derive information,” Jeffrey said.
In his Facebook account, he has 1,012 friends.
Own video
Another independent candidate using the Facebook is Ramil Laraga, 34, who is running for councilor in Maasin.
Laraga also produced his own video advertisement singing his campaign jingle himself.
He is seeking a seat in the city council hoping to continue his “calling” of serving the marginalized sectors this time through political resolve, he said in this Facebook account.
Though this is his first time to enter politics, Ramil is no neophyte in “public service.” Apart from being the son of a former acting mayor and councilor Catalino Laraga Sr., serving the public has also been deeply rooted in Ramil’s consciousness when he joined a religious ministry.
Religious
A Bachelor of Arts Philosophy graduate from University of San Carlos-Cebu City, Ramil is a former seminarian.
Ramil said that for seven years, he immersed himself in religious and community work in various provinces in the country by working at the Communication Foundation for Asia, a foundation run by priests.
He left the seminary in 2000.
“I am interested in social issues and hope that one day I can help change our country by doing ordinary things extraordinarily,” he said.
He has 1,459 friends in Facebook.
good style. an automated election and internet campaign…well and good. but then again, this is Philippines, a third world country.
ot
hi everyone:
there is a discussion at the yel cobile’s furom. the reason why i dont want to post it there is– the dumb 7th mill will cut you off if he wont like you respond / or responds.
here we go.
“he ( mian ) is not an engineer so whats the problem ???”
interesting. lets roll.
Huh…
By the way, have you ever heard about yummy-cebu.com? I hear they just started a new contest called Mama’s day out!
@ metacognitive:
Go ahead, post your comments on my site. I welcome you as well as many others’ comments. All I ask is to be mindful with the Forum’s rules so we all can be ethical with our viewpoints.
Please don’t be intimidated by 7th Millenium’s verbosity. It’s just his nature. I know that a lot of people are somewhat frustrated of his style of banter, but sometimes ignoring him helps. Or, you can go ahead appropriately fire back at him, if deemed necesssary, he he he.
Aside to Jani: Sorry for this OT, Bay. I saw that I had to finally intervene to offset potential misconception or inuendo.
Thank you all for understanding. BTW, please regard this election as the turning point for our province’s well being. Your wise vote is extremely essential. Despite odds, I continue to dare say “Mabuhay ang Southern Leyte ug ang mga tawo nga kanunay nag-antos”! Gob bless us all.
thanks mr yel,
i welcome the reverend. milleneum spy police anytime its sliding french door.
he he he. .
you may think its his nature. i think its ALZHEIMER….he just dont make since most of the time, all the time. that i understand
puede ka na mo simang .
@millinneum aka sam mercado.
how can you be so STUPID .. deleting comments at mr yel website.
and blocking them.
ingat lang kayo sa mga propose millenneun community
nitong stupid nga kababayan ninyo,
ingat. DO NOT BE A VICTIM OF THIS DUSE.
@HECK says:
“how can you be so STUPID .. deleting comments at mr yel website.
and blocking them.
“ingat lang kayo sa mga propose millenneun community
nitong stupid nga kababayan ninyo,
“ingat. DO NOT BE A VICTIM OF THIS DUSE”
Name calling again! Who says we delete others’ comments? You may ask the Administrator who is a computer expert and webmaster. He knows the email addresses of those who participated in the Forum of MaasinCity.com. Investigate them who are against your blogs, comments, forum topic …
We believe the Administrator has the software which can track whatever you are accusing us of and attacking us personally. We might even do that just t to find out who you are, if we have the time after spending time learning the financial crises in Greece, Spain, U.K., U.S. – which is suffering floods in Tennessee and oil spill in Louisiana. Too many international headlines to learn from than paying attention to your personal attacks.
@metacognitive & @HECK:
I’d like to ask both of you to use a litlle bit of civility and, at the same time, not abuse the amenity that the host of this medium has provided us. We all know about 7th Mil and we also know about the Maasin City Forum site. I actually contacted Sir Yel to get some affirmation from him about blog deletions and rules. He pretty much kindly pointed me to the Forum’s rules, and he indicated that he was not aware of any deletions of blogs or posting. He did confirm that he has a “tracker” that can pinpoint to a blogger’s location, IP address, etc. But he said that for ethical reasons, he does not do that to prevent an encroachment on anyone’s privacy. He said that if anyone whom you suspect to have tampered with any postings in his Forum, let him know so he can do appropriate actions at his end. As for his email, I think you can contact him through ccobile@webionic.com.
So, that being said, please let’s all refrain from name calling. Doing so will only make us lose our objectivity under which we are commenting for the posted articles in this web site.
Lastly, we are big boys and girls now. I think one word is really enough for a wise man. Usahay, sungot kaajo nga ang ubang mga tawo, kanunay magpabadlong ba.
Meanwhile, let’s focus instead on the other “sungot” which are the Mercado brothers. I have heard that they, especially Oging Mercado, are getting desperate. Oh BTW, I have heard too that during the last election, Mian Mercado sent a messenger to Dundeet asking her to concede her candidacy for P13 million. What a loser! Now, that I can believe for I know who really Mian is!!!
@ sam mercado
be my guest
@taga maasin
i agree lets focus on the other ” sungot “
@All Commentators:
Hey Guys & Gals, Sir Yel’s site is running a Poll on our local candidates. Let’s try to populate his poll and at least see who we anticpate to win during this election. The link (I hope it works) is, http://www.maasincity.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl/Blah.pl?v-search/p-topten/, and it’s subject is “Election Guestimates”. Some people had already punched their poll votes. Let’s go mga Kababayan!!!
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