Rengelle Pelayo of the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (middle) and Gerald Carillo of Partido-Barug-PDP Laban (left) faced off during the CDN Debates held on Saturday and hosted by Cebu Daily News Digital Officer-In-Charge Cris Evert Lato-Ruffolo (right). /CDN Digital File Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — They come from two opposing camps. But Rengelle Pelayo of the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) and Gerald Carillo of the Barug PDP-Laban both agree on the need for them to collaborate should they win seats in the Cebu City Council.
Both said that they will especially advocate for the establishment of a rehabilitation center that will cater to medium and high risk drug users and the establishment of community based rehabilitation centers that will focus on family reformation.
“We should not treat them as addicts but as patients,” said Carillo, son of former Councilor Gerardo Carillo, who was perpetually disqualified from seeking an elective post by the Office of the Ombudsman after he was found guilty of ordering a former government aide to work for a private establishment that he owns.
Pelayo, 28, and Carillo, 23, also found the need to set up a study center in each of the city’s 80 barangays to provide an area for students to work on their assignments or school projects and study.
“Each barangay already has a space that can be utilized as a study center. We only need to maximize that space so that students will no longer travel to the city center just to avail of the 24/7 public library,” said Pelayo, who served as Sangguniang Kabataan Federation President and an ex-officio member of the Cebu City Council from 2007 to 2010.
The two also discussed issues on youth empowerment, garbage collection, and the city’s social welfare services during the CDN Debates, Know your Candidate face off held at the Maayo Hotel in Mandaue City on Saturday, April 6.
On the issue of garbage, both said that this needed to be studied by concerned government agencies and the academe in order to come up with a wholistic solution to the problem.
“There are a lot of studies by our universities on waste management for Cebu City and these are underutilized by the government. We should involve our universities and our students on this,” said Carillo.
But they differ on their views on the requirements for the release of cash aid to solo parents and senior citizens.
Carillo said that the requirements should be simplified to no longer include voter’s registration. He said there are other documents that will prove the applicant’s residency like a barangay clearance.
“Being a voter has no connection with being a solo parent or being a senior citizen,” he said.
For Pelayo, the voter’s registration requirement is a filtering mechanism that will help the city government ensure that assistance will only be released to its residents.
“How do we know if they are really residents if they don’t vote in this city?” she said.
Still, both agree that city residents deserve to receive help from the government. /dcb