FORMER Transport secretary Oscar Orbos on Friday asked Filipinos to support presidential candidate Grace Poe who, he said, “will lead us to great change with fresh ideas and new solutions to old problems.”
“At no point in our nation’s history are we writing a new narrative for our country led by Senator Grace Poe,” Orbos said in a statement.
He also welcomed the support of Poe’s Gobyernong May Puso for Project Serendipity, a program that aims to provide better social security and welfare to all.
In an open letter being distributed to houses, in churches and public places, Orbos is exhorting voters to support the universal social security program that Poe has agreed to explore in case she wins the presidency.
“The program calls for the automatic allocation of 20 percent of all government resources annually to address the people’s needs in Health, Education, Livelihood, Pension and Shelter or H.EL.P.S.,” Orbos said.
“With Project Serendipity in place, the people are given the power to decide on what the government will do for them,” Orbos said.
Aside from addressing H.E.L.P.S., Project Serendipity will address poverty, corruption, criminality and protection of human rights, thereby returning dignity to the people.
On April 9, Poe signed a Covenant of Support for Project Serendipity in Sorsogon spearheaded by Bishop Arturo Bastes.
“It is an assurance that should Poe win in the May 9 elections, the project’s advocacies will be addressed while the needed constitutional amendment is still in process,” Orbos said.
The platform of Gobyernong May Puso advocates for progress and development that will benefit every Filipino.
Poe envisions a country where no Filipino is left behind and no place in the Philippines will be left behind when it comes to economic, political, social and cultural development through a people-centered government.
Orbos said that, as a former government bureaucrat, he thought that the problem of governance was so endemic that inclusive growth is next to impossible, not till he thought of the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund similar to other developed countries.
Orbos envisions the sovereign welfare fund as a buffer fund for community care and crisis grants where the government will automatically provide financial assistance to the victims of calamities, and even to families in crisis due to homelessness or hunger.