STA. BARBARA, Iloilo — A total of 480 winning village and youth officials from the town of Sta. Barbara, Iloilo took their oath during the celebration of Independence Day on Tuesday.
The officials are composed of 60 village chiefs and 420 village councilors who won in the last May 14 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls.
The oath-taking was administered by Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. right after the almost one-hour program for the celebration of Independence Day in the said town.
The winning village and SK officials will assume office starting June 30.
In his speech during the celebration, the governor stressed that the “election is the manifestation of freedom” and “manifestation of a free country.”
However, Defensor noted that there are many areas in the province where there have been reports of vote-buying during the previous local elections.
“If we buy the votes of our fellowmen and we put in shame the honor of Filipinos through vote-buying, they are not giving substance to the freedom that our forefathers fought for,” he said.
He said that even the youth candidates were taught about vote-buying.
“It is a prostituted kind of political exercise and we are putting in shame our fellowmen who fought and died for our freedom,” he added.
The governor then appealed to the people of Iloilo to teach the candidates, who will be running in the incoming 2019 elections, a lesson by just getting their money but not vote for them.
“We should teach them the true meaning of freedom, true meaning of liberty, liberty with substance, liberty with bread and liberty with honor,” he added.
Meantime, Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, newly-installed OIC Regional Director of the Police Regional Office in Western Visayas who was also present during the celebration, urged the winning village officials to bring back unity and cooperation in every community.
“I am hoping that we will join hands together to fight criminality and to achieve our goal of maintaining the peace and order in Western Visayas,” he said in his speech. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
