By MARK FRANCISCO
LESS than a week before the election, the sports-driven PBA partylist pushes its last leg of campaigning in Cagayan de Oro City Wednesday (May 4) with a rally at the Community Amphitheater, the second group to hold an event at the renovated local landmark after the rally of presidential candidate Sen. Manny Pacquiao last Saturday.
The PBA Partylist represents the youth, Filipino athletes and artists particularly the poor and marginalized to discover, cultivate and harness talents from poor and disadvantaged families, to empower and foster leadership especially in at-risk and disadvantaged youth, to use sports, culture and recreation as a means to uplift the poor and to empower athletes and artists as movers for national and cultural pride, progress and development.
A day earlier in a press conference, PBA partylist third nominee Rambo Ortega vowed to bring back the glory days of countryside sports in the Philippines like the Palarong Pambansa if elected into office.
The rally at the Community Amphitheater this 3:00 p.m. will be a star-studded one, bringing in celebrities such as Ortega’s fiancée Maja Salvador, Adrian Alandy, Pooh, Kakai Bautista, Marco Alcaraz, Whamos and Antonette Gail.
Currently sitting at the Lower House with one seat, PBA Partylist has passed the following laws, among others: extending the implementation of a lifeline rate, strengthening compliance with occupational safety and health standards, providing assistance to new graduates by waiving government fees and charges collected in connection with their application for employment, increasing the maternity leave to 100 days for female workers, providing free tuition and other school fees in state universities and colleges, etc.
