CEBU CITY — Aiming to raise the level of political awareness among voters in line with the next year’s election, several groups of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) here have recently joined forces to launch the Good vs. Evil Brigade, a movement seeking to achieve good governance for the country.

Among the groups that pledged to support the movement are Cooperative-National Confederation of Cooperatives (Coop-NATCO), Alliance of Barangay Apas Community Association (ABACA), Lihok Filipina, Kaabag, Fellowship for Organizing Endeavor (FORGE), Center for Participatory Governance (CPAG), Akbayan Partylist and other student and church based organizations.

Francisco Fernandez, President of Pagtambayayong Foundation, front liner of the said movement during its official launching last Sunday, bared that people from various sectors, particularly the urban poor, church, academe, among others, are already fed up with the evil practices in Government and by politicians, which is why the need to have leaders with good traits.

“We created this non-partisan movement, as we are pushing the idea that man by nature is good.

In a democracy, bad leaders are our fault and so it is about time that Cebuanos choose leaders possessing good qualities,” Fernandez explained.

He pointed out that Cebuanos like all Christians must choose the path they are destined to be, that is, “the path of goodness and this will be manifested by choosing good leaders next year.”

The movement, Fernandez stressed, will not endorse any political figure. What it will strive for is to put a demarcation line between the good in conscientious voting against patronage politics.

Meanwhile, in line with the belief that money is the root of all evil, the group urged candidates not to engage in vote buying.

“Our goals might be too ambitious but we are selling an idea, a belief which will soon be put to action,” Fernandez disclosed.

Ferliza Contratista, the group’s events coordinator informed that currently the Good vs. Evil Brigade is only covering the whole province of Cebu but it will soon reach out to neighboring provinces to intensify its campaign.

“We also have a Voters Education Program and radio programs to supplement the crusade,” she said.

Contratista also said the movement has a page in Facebook, the popular social networking site online and maintains a Yahoo Groups email address to mobilize its movement, linking more supporters, in the internet.