How does one know that he or she is going to be an elected public servant? Is it because his or her ascendants are public servants and the latter’s legacy must be continued? Or is it because one just has the calling to serve? It is a little odd that this calling requires a person to be at work or on call, twenty four hours a day and seven days a week. It takes ninety-nine percent effort and resources and a lifetime of concern, yet more and more persons file a certificate of candidacy every election year.
Our topic this Thursday, June 3, 2021 at 8:30 in the morning, at our Balitaktakan segment at RNG Luzon will be about this strange calling. Our guest will be Honorable Councilor Joel Alison Alangsab, City Councilor, Baguio City. He will be explaining to us how he chose to be a public servant while he had many opportunities elsewhere, such as being a BENECO director. He relinquished this position when he was elected as the ABC president. Honorable Alangsab was elected as the number 1 Kagawad in Barangay City Camp Central in 1997, He acted as OIC Punong Barangay (PB) because the elected PB went overseas. In 1998, he was appointed as the Punong Barangay. In 2013, he was elected as a regular councilor of Baguio City garnering the 9th place. He was in the 4th place as City Councilor in the 2016 National and Local Elections and he gained the first place as councilor in the 2019 National and Local Elections. He is currently the Chair of the Committee on Health and Sanitation, Ecology, and Environmental Protection of the City of Baguio.
So, how does the Honorable Councilor do it? What are his methods? Is it just pakikisama, 100 percent sincerity? Or pure x factor? We will find out in tomorrow’s program and we shall be touching on the general provisions of Republic Act 2006 (Fair Election Act) including on line campaigning with the latest developments.
***All comments mentioned in this article are made in my personal capacity as a lawyer and
are not made as an employee of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).