LIVE BLOG: Cebu local candidates’ forum, March 19

Rappler will liveblog the event on Saturday, March 19, starting at 9 am.
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CEBU CITY, Philippines – “Panaghimamat” is a Cebuano word used to describe a gathering with the purpose of exchanging ideas.

This is the title of the forum featuring local candidates in Cebu City on Saturday, March 19, a day before the presidential debates also in the City.

Organized by local youth groups, the forum will be held from 8:30 am until the afternoon at the Little Theater Events Hall on Gorordo Avenue.

Cebuano youth are asking Cebu City candidates for mayor, vice mayor, and district representatives to discuss the issues that concern them most: prevalence of HIV, disaster risk reduction and climate change, and LGBT rights. 

The other issues they want to address are agriculture and fishing development, and sustaining the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino (4Ps) cash grant program.

While many of the candidates and political parties have sorties and rallies happening on Saturday, organizers are challenging the candidates to come and share their platform with the youth.

“They usually have this conflict when it comes to invitations. When the other candidate attends, the other will [decline] the invitation,” Jumjum Ouano, main convenor, told Rappler.

In addition to the youth groups, the forum is being produced by the Ateneo School of Government, the National Youth Commission, the First Time Voters Network and Rappler.

Rappler’s Ryan Macasero and Imi Espinosa of the University of the Philippines-Cebu will co-host the forum.

Check out blow-by-blow updates from the Queen City of the South at these hours:

8:00 am – 11:45 am – Candidates for Congress

2:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Candidates for Mayor and Vice Mayor 

Rappler is bringing this #PHVote coverage to you in partnership with Sun.Star and through the Rappler citizen journalists in Cebu. – Rappler.com