(In photo: JV Ejercito on the campaign trail with son Julio)
JV Estrada is the only senatorial candidate we have touched based with so far, in the run up to next week’s national elections. In keeping with his commitment to be a true-blue netizen, his social media team has been active in making sure that his message is put across.
We don’t think it works against JV that he’s an Estrada by blood and by name. He says it is more important that his track record as former San Juan City mayor and legislator speak for itself.
On being mayor: “We were able to raise our income from P300 million annually when I started as a leader of the city and this rose to P1.1 billion during my last day in office. In effect, our income quadrupled, even if I was in the opposition,” JV said.
“Because of good fiscal management we were able to implement all our dream projects. We had a new City Hall, we were able to establish a state university which is funded by the local government. But for me, the biggest accomplishment is being able to uplift the living conditions of our people. San Juan has the lowest poverty incidence among the LGUs all over the country. Because of our vibrant economy, we were able to give jobs and opportunities to a lot of citizens,” he added.
As a congressman of his city, Ejercito-Estrada made a mark as one of the most prolific lawmakers. Of the 149 House Bills and 18 House Resolutions he authored, 5 bills were approved on third reading and made it to the Senate.
In crucial discussions for the national budget in the Lower House, then Congressman Estrada consistently fought for additional budget allocations for SUCs in fiscal years 2011 and 2012.Reason for his push: he saw early on that the question about the future of public education was threatened by the inadequacy of funding. The determination paid off with the allocation of an additional PhP 16 Billion for the 2013 budget of SUCs.
On his advocacies, JV Estrada says he fully supports the Freedom of Information Act. ” I think that this will be a good instrument of the administration in the fight against corruption, and thrust for good governance. I’m also an author of the FOI and I believe that all government transactions should be made public, as long as it does not impinge on national security. I believe that public office is a public trust, hence there is no need for us to hide anything, any transaction or any contract should be made available to the public anytime.”
These simple statements show that while JV is very much an Estrada, he is not a tree split from the same trunk. His views are certainly progressive and speak of a new generation’s world views. Not to mention we can definitely expect better English from him at the Session Hall should he succeed in being elected as a Senator of the Philippines.:)