Carlos Serapio vows to use OVP funds for political reform

Vice presidential candidate Carlos Serapio on Saturday said he intends to use the budget of the country's second-highest office to pursue his advocacy for political reform.

During the debate hosted by CNN Philippines, Serapio said the budget of the Office of the Vice President, which is at P702 million this year, would help realize this vision.

"We are in a state of moral convolution, and unfortunately our politics, our elections have not really been able to resolve this issue of moral convolution. And therefore we have to introduce what we call a strategic, innovative exercises in the political process so that our young people will see something different than what is going on with our politics," he said.

Serapio said he would like to share to the youth his almost 50 years of experience fighting for improvements in the country's political structure.

"We want the Office of the Vice President to be a table of idealism. It will be a table of philosophy, of advocacy, of aspirations, of vision. Most especially it will be a table for the young people, for the young generation," he said.

Manny Lopez of the Labor Party Philippines was also asked the same question, but he opted to discuss his views on political dynasties.

"There are good dynasties, there are bad dynasties, and there are terrible dynasties, and to avoid the prospect of having terrible dynasties, we have to do something," he said.

"We propose, under the Labor Party, a structural and political reform agenda that will empower the people once more...A functional people's initiative with a prescribed implementation guidelines that could enable ordinary citizens to legislate, to amend laws, or rescind laws."

Five other vice presidential candidates also took part in the debate, where other topics such as corruption, the war on drugs, and oil price hikes were tackled. —VBL, GMA News