Partylist hopeful asks Comelec to let them run

CEBU, Philippines - The association of guards, utility helpers, aiders, riders, drivers/domestic helpers, janitors, agents and nannies of the Philippine Inc. or GUARDJAN urged the Commission on Elections to allow them to participate in the 2010 elections.

The group, which is led by its founder and chairman Leonardo Olaer, was formally organized as a national sectoral organization during a meeting held on April 17, 2007 at the Virgo Security Agency Corp. office in Quezon City.

They were duly registered as a non-stock, non-profit organization with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 10, 2007.

The group sought anew to be recognized as a party-list organization, Olaer argued that GUARDJAN is a national sectoral organization whose core ideology is the advocacy and promotion of the interests of the working people under agency contract, commission basis, and as volunteers.

He insisted that their group seeks to represent the labor sector as it advocates for genuine reforms in the enactment of laws, rules and regulations that are truly reflective and representative of the interests and welfare of underrepresented and non-formal labor groups.

Olaer is hoping to secure a seat in Congress and plans to file a measure to seek equal opportunities for non-formal groups if he gets it. — Johanna T. Natavio/BRP   (FREEMAN NEWS)