The word is out that Sen. Richard Gordon is running for President in 2010. Interviewed during DYTR's morning program Cuentas Claras last Tuesday, the gentleman from Olongapo made no bones of his plan to succeed Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The opening salvo came in the form of a full-page ad that appeared last week in two national newspapers. Entitled Bagumbayan Volunteers for New Philippines, Gordon spelled his 10-point agenda once elected to the highest post of the land. He explained that his Bagumbayan ad serves as the road map of his presidential plan. Gordon's entry in the presidential battlefield widens the choices of voters. The early birds were Vice President Noli de Castro, Senators Manuel Villar, Mar Roxas, Panfilo Lacson and Loren Legarda. Former president Joseph “Erap” Estrada threatened to get into the fray if the opposition will not agree to a common candidate.

BAGUMBAYAN

Through Bagumbayan, Gordon invites patriotic Filipinos to join and embark together on the grand mission “to reclaim, rebuild, and reconsecrate what Rizal—111 years ago- -bid farewell to as”our ‘Lost Eden'. “Where our heroes have fallen, there shall we rise, reborn,” Gordon indicated in the print ad placed on the December 30, 2007 issue of broadsheets in time for the commemoration of 111th anniversary of Rizal's martyrdom. In the 10-point agenda included in the ad, Gordon proposed a vision “grounded on values and empowered by volunteerism to achieve victory” and that the volunteers for a new Philippines shall be “instruments of a movement dedicated to transform the Philippines into a Bagumbayan, a new Philippines ”. The print ad entitled “Bagumbayan/Volunteers for a New Philippines /A Covenant for a New Philippines” stated that crisis and confusion is prevalent and that as a people and as a nation, the Filipinos seem to have lost their way in a prolonged season of economic challenges and political rancor. The ad also stated that fear and helplessness made many citizens inured to corruption and injustice.

Moreover, despair drove many Filipinos to “hard and lonely work abroad”. “We cannot lurch from one scandal and one rebellion to another, and expect to achieve our destiny as a modern, just, and progressive nation,” Gordon stated in the print ad. On this, the senator call for unity to lift the nation from a deep pit of hopelessness and come up with a modern-day Bagumbayan- -the 21st century Philippines.

First point is to be “responsible for ourselves, for our fellow Filipinos, and for our country” and become “horizon-chasers with duty, dignity, and determination”.

Second is to reinvent government into one that really serves and protects the people.

Third is to “fortify law and order through self-discipline, vigilance, and respect for the rule of law.

Fourth is to build a strong and growing economy by working, saving and investing to achieve prosperity.

Fifth is to prioritize education as “the key to national development to compete and lead in the new global economy”.

Sixth is to provide adequate access to health care for all, especially the needy.

Seventh is to create jobs so that Filipinos need not seek opportunities abroad. Instead, they can devote their talents directly to the country and their families.

Eighth is to assist Filipinos in securing decent homes to live in and lands to till for them to be dignified and productive citizens.

Ninth is to strengthen and reinforce the family as the foundation of the nation “to develop proper values and virtues in individuals and build solid character.

The 10th point is protection and preservation of the environment.