“He will be a valuable asset to the next administration.”
Incoming President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (BBM) did well in choosing Cavite Representative Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla for his up and coming Secretary of Justice.
Remulla won re-election as representative of the seventh congressional district of Cavite in the May 9, 2022 elections.
The Cavite solon was preparing for his legislative plans for his district when about three days after election day, the incoming president called him up and asked him to go to the Marcos campaign headquarters for a brief meeting.
At that meeting, the soon-to-be President BBM offered Remulla the Justice Department portfolio.
“From the way you have been comporting yourself in deliberations in the House of Representatives, and from your keen understanding of the law, I am certain you’ll make an ideal Justice Secretary,” the incoming President told Remulla.
Prior to the meeting, Remulla thought that BBM only wanted to consult him about certain legal issues. The offer from BBM came as a complete surprise to Remulla.
Flattered, Remulla expressed his appreciation for having been in the mind of the soon-to-be President, but he asked for time to ponder on the offer. The incoming President acceded to Remulla’s request.
Earlier this week, and after much thought, Remulla finally accepted the offer.
Remulla will not be assuming the helm at the Department of Justice immediately, though. He said he will finish whatever pending legislative work he has in Congress, inasmuch as his current term in the House of Representatives lasts until June 30.
The veteran lawmaker is a bit ambivalent about leaving his political comfort zone in Cavite, but he is willing to return to the executive branch of the government and give the incoming BBM administration all the help it needs in bringing the country back on the highway to post-pandemic recovery and development.
Before he entered the mainstream of Cavite politics, Remulla was a ranking official under the administration of President Joseph Ejercito Estrada (June 1998 to January 2001).
His late father, Juanito “Johnny” Remulla, was Cavite Governor during the administration of the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., BBM’s father. The elder Remulla was a delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention, and a loyal supporter of the elder Marcos.
Like his father, Boying Remulla is a lawyer and a natural for political leadership. In his younger days when his dad was still the provincial governor, Boying inquired about the wants and needs of ordinary Cavite folk, and conveyed what he found out to his father and his father’s key people at the provincial capitol. He monitored the remedial steps the provincial government took about the information he gave it.
More often than not, the market vendors, micro-business owners, ambulant peddlers, jeepney and tricycle drivers, street folk and many other ordinary people from Cavite did not even know they were talking to the governor’s son.
Boying Remulla, however, is more than his father’s son. He is his own man.
An alumnus of the University of the Philippines College of Law, Remulla had always had his eyes on public service as early as his college years.
After passing the Bar examination (he was among the top 20 examinees during his time) he established his own law firm and handled many pro bono cases. He dabbled in some real estate business to keep the free legal aid services of his law firm operational.
Politics eventually beckoned and soon, Remulla accepted President Estrada’s invitation to join his administration as a point person in Malacañang.
While in Malacañang, Remulla helped an unemployed future senator from the Liberal Party get a job in the government. After the jobless guy got the help he needed from the palace, the ingrate joined the anti-Estrada frenzy in 2001 and publicly denounced his benefactor, to Remulla’s disbelief.
After the end of the Estrada administration, Remulla returned to Cavite and began his political career as a congressman.
As a legislator, Remulla authored many laws that helped improve the plight of laborers and overseas Filipino workers.
Remulla’s finest hour was in 2020 when he successfully opposed the renewal of the expired legislative franchise of the ABS-CBN broadcasting network.
Almost single-handedly, Remulla exposed the network’s unmitigated misuse of its legislative franchise, and its unauthorized use of another broadcast facility’s franchise, in violation of the Constitution and telecommunications laws.
Even the meddling partylist representative Joselito Atienza, who was lobbying for ABS-CBN, could not match wits with Remulla.
Other pro-ABS-CBN solons accused Remulla of abridging press freedom, but they could only whimper against the arguments raised by Remulla on the legislative floor.
In the end, the Supreme Court proved Remulla right when it upheld the unbridled prerogative of the House of Representatives not to issue a new legislative franchise to ABS-CBN.
I have no doubt that Boying Remulla will be a valuable asset to the administration of incoming President BBM.
