Infotextblast


Friday, February 8, 2013

Cebu candidates urged to answer locally-developed tool to guide voters


By Rachelle M. Nessia

CEBU CITY, Feb. 7 (PIA) -- A non-government organization in Cebu is appealing to local candidates to provide vital information that will help voters vote wisely during the May national and local elections.

Dilaab Foundation Inc. urged candidates to answer a questionnaire called the LASER Test, or the Lifestyle, Action, Supporters, Election Conduct, Reputation Test, and send this back to the group for posting on its website.

LASER Test is a tool developed by Dilaab Foundation Executive Director Fr. Carmelo Diola to guide voters in understanding and discerning their candidates.

The foundation has already disseminated the LASER questionnaires to candidates in Cebu City, Mandaue City, Talisay City, and Lapu-Lapu City, said Jenny Tan, project coordinator for Dilaab Foundation’s Circles of Discernment for Empowerment (CIDE).

However, only 16 percent of the candidates answered the test.

“We are hopeful that we can get more than 50 percent because this is added exposure on their part and this can help start a dialogue between the voters and the candidates,” said Tan.

Answers to the test will be posted on the Dilaab Foundation website, www.dilaab.net, to be launched on Feb. 15, 2013.

Cebu voters can read the answers of the candidates in their areas on the website.

Atty. Carlo Fortuna, Dilaab Foundation volunteer, said that when the test was first released in 2007, one of the first candidates to answer the questionnaire was the late Interior and Local Government Sec. Jesse Robredo who was then a mayoral candidate in Naga City. (RMN/PIA-7 CEBU)