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Caceres, Chavez, Arias, Austria, Escudero bare platforms on Kandidato


The 2019 midterm elections are less than a month away, but it's not too late to get to know your senatorial candidates a little better with GMA News TV's Investigative Documentaries: Kandidato series.

The most recent episode digs deep into the platforms of Jesus Caceres, Melchor Chavez, Marcelino Arias, Bernard Austria, and Agnes Escudero.

Barber-teacher Caceres wants federalism, but not House version

Jesus Caceres has been a teacher, a farmer, a barber, a radio announcer and an SK chairman in Libmanan, Camarines Sur from 1996 to 2002.

Being the 13th of 16 siblings in a family of barbers, the English major from the Camarines Sur Institute of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (CASIFMAS) has worked as an Alternative Learning System (ALS) teacher but also earned P500 a month by cutting hair.

He is running as an independent candidate endorsed by the Katipunan ng Kamalayang Kayumanggi Party.

Although he was not elected councilor of Ligmanan in the two times he ran, Caceres said he wants to be a senator who would focus on helping out-of-school youth and low-wage workers like barbers and farmers.

But above anything else, Caceres says he wants to push for the Senate's version of the draft federal charter. "Kasi po 'yung sa version ng Kamara ay tinanggal nila 'yung anti-[political] dynasty, tinanggal nila 'yung anti-pork barrel at saka 'yung unli-terms, at saka 'yung anti-turncoatism, wala po doon," he said.

Radioman Chavez wants press freedom, land for landless

As a radio broadcaster and commentator for 35 years, Melchor Chavez wants to take the fight for press freedom to the Senate.

"Bilang komentarista sa radyo, ilalatag ko ang ating karapatan sa pamamahayag. Tuloy-tuloy ang pagnanasang freedom of the press ay dapat ho'y dito sa bansa natin," the candidate said.

The political science major from Notre Dame College has been president of the Association of Commentators and Announcers of the Philippines (ACAP) since the 80s, as well as executive vice president of the President Citizens Crime Watch (CCW) since 2013.

Kandidato dug deeper into the radio personality's childhood as the son of a farmer and a tindera in Kidapawan City, Cotabato. Chavez also revealed what kept him going after failing to enter the Senate in the eight times he filed for candidacy.

Allowed to run again this year under the Labor Party Philippines, the press freedom fighter with a "land for the landless" advocacy plans to tackle issues troubling poor Filipinos like land-grabbing if he wins a Senate seat.

Lawyer Arias wants equal rights for workers

Eighty-year-old lawyer Marcelino Arias from Tubong, Agusan del Sur is running under the Labor Party Philippines with an advocacy for labor rights.

He passed the 1971 Bar exams after getting his law degree from the Far Eastern University following a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Lyceum of the Philippines in Manila.

Arias paid for law school with his salary as a patrolman of the Mandaluyong Police from 1968 until 1970. He now has his own law firm in Pasig City, handling mostly criminal and property cases.

The octogenarian lawyer seeks to take the fight for labor rights to the Senate once more, even after losing the senatorial race back in 1992 and several other races for various positions before that.

"Ang priority ko po ay mga benepisyo ng mga manggagawa...The law must be implemented and executed without discrimination," the candidate said.

Labor leader Austria seeks education, agricultural, health systems reforms

Vowing to fight contractualization or "endo" and the Rice Tarriffication Law, Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista Ng Pilipinas candidate Bernard Austria from Novaliches, Quezon City describes himself as a full-on social democrat.

"Sa madaling salita, ito po 'yung panawagan natin is prosperity for all ang ina-advocate natin," he said.

Austria holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree from the Philippine School of Business Administration, where he participated in several youth organizations fighting for student rights.

He was a consultant at the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Special Concerns (OPASC) and worked as an operations head and a legislative staff member at the Quezon City Hall before becoming deputy operations head in 2016.

Austria once ran for Congress as Anak Bayan representative in 1988 but lost. He is now the Philippine Association for Free Labor Unions' vice president for political action and was formerly the national chairperson of the Democratic Students Union in 1995.

The labor leader bared the improvements in the health, education and agricultural sector he intends to fight for should he secure a seat at the Senate.

Agnes Escudero wants to fight for IP rights

Licensed professional teacher and National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) project coordinator Agnes Escudero is taking a shot at the Senate so she can turn much-needed attention to indigenous peoples’ (IP) rights and welfare.

"It so happened na mas nakita ko na dapat bigyan ng attention ang kultura ng ating bansa kasi ito 'yung isa sa napakalaki na naiiwan natin, 'yung patungkol sa mga customary laws and traditions," the candidate said.

She may have been born in Makati, but home to her now is an IP community in Mindanao together with five children she had with her Manobo husband.

"That's where and when I started, na-immerse ako sa mga indigenous people because my husband, years and years ahead, siya na ang mga nagturo sa akin ng mga communities na talagang very remote. Doon naintindihan ko ang kahalagahan ng indigenous law and, there, nakasalamuha ko ang iba't ibang tribo na talaga namang very warm," she said.

Escudero got her bachelor's degree in public administration at the Irene B. Antonio College of Mindanao and is now a master's student in management at the University of the Philippines in Mindanao.

She also took up chemistry at Adamson University, which named her the Most Outstanding Alumna for her efforts to help the indigenous people of the Philippines.

—Margaret Claire Layug/KG, GMA News

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