"Who’s the early favorite?"
"Who’s the early favorite?"
While the elections are still nine days away, the jockeying for the next leader of the House has already begun as all top three presumptive contenders for the Speakership—Taguig’s Alan Peter Cayetano, Marinduque’s Lord Allan Velasco and Leyte’s Ferdinand Martin Romualdez—are almost sure of landing seats in Congress.
The race for the House top post, of course was made possible with incumbent Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo serving her third and final term.
Of the three, Cayetano seems to be the least favored among veteran lawmakers who are also almost assured of reclaiming their seats in the 18th Congress. They are too wary of the former senator’s presidential ambition. To support Cayetano’s Speakership bid would might later run in conflict with the respective political parties of the lawmakers who might be fielding or supporting their own candidates in 2022. Thus, the most likely toss-up might be between Velasco and Romualdez.
However, one thing that might be going against Velasco, aside from his young age, is his being a newbie in an arena composed mostly of seasoned politicians. Compared to Romualdez who is a returning congressman after serving three terms from 2007 to 2016, the 41-year-old Velasco has barely served six years in Congress, defeated in 2013 by Regina Reyes for Marinduque’s lone congressional representation.
Velasco might not even be able to seek refuge in his new political party PDP-Laban in his Speakership bid to drum up support from administration allies as no less than Presidential daughter Sara Duterte declared that PDP-Laban is not the President’s party but that of the Pimentels. Hence, no one among the administration allies should be beholden to PDP-Laban.
Which now brings us to the early favorite—the lawmaker from Leyte who was deprived of the Minority Leadership post in 2013 when then President Noynoy Aquino, in his obsession to annihilate the Romualdez—Marcos clan in the field of politics, willingly lent administration congressmen to another ally, San Juan Congressman Ronaldo Zamora, who eventually bagged the Minority Leadership after having garnered the second highest vote for the Speakership, next to Quezon City Congressman Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte.
And what exactly would make Romualdez the most logical choice among his peers when they decide who will lead them come July? His impeccable background.
Romualdez earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and studied law at the University of Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. He holds a Certificate for Special Studies in Administration and Management from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass, USA.
He is a lawyer and the current president of the most prestigious association of defenders of the Philippine Constitution Association.
He served for three consecutive terms as the representative of the 1st District of Leyte. During his stint as congressman of his district in Leyte, he supported the massive investments in infrastructure that spurred progress and development.
He championed small businesses and industries in his district and the plight of disadvantaged and vulnerable sectors of society, PWDs, senior citizens, the sickly and the poor.
One of his benchmark legislations during the 16th Congress was the passage of House Bill 1039, a law exempting persons with disabilities from paying value-added tax on certain goods and services. This bill was signed into law last March 23, 2016 and is now known as Republic Act 10754 or an act on expanding the benefits and privileges of people with disabilities. Moreover, he principally authored House Bill 1036, which seeks to promote the establishment of micro-business enterprises by providing incentives and benefits to barangay initiatives. His legislative record from the 14th-16thcongress proved testament to his compassion for public service and exemplified his malasakit for the marginalized.
He is also well respected in the private sector for his exemplary contribution and sterling accomplishments serving in several boards in the business and banking industries. His experience and relationships in the private sector have served him well not only in his legislative work in Congress but he has turned to his own corporate and private network for the invaluable help, support and assistance that flooded into the Yolanda super typhoon stricken areas across Central and Eastern Visayas.
As a public official, he considers the “Yolanda” super typhoon disaster as his most challenging and trying experience and has taken a special interest in working towards reforms and legislative measures to ensure that no one else has to ever experience and live through the tragedy that they experienced.
A champion of local government empowerment for the effective and indiscriminate delivery of basic social services to the public, he advocates for the alleviation of poverty and suffering of Filipinos and truly believes that every Filipino family should enjoy a decent quality of life.
He continues to be inspired by simple displays of malasakit and determined to give back to others after having witnessed and been on the receiving end of this monumental display of generosity and charity during the devastation and desolation from Yolanda. Culling from their Yolanda story, he espouses the virtue of malasakit not only in times of disaster or tragedy but in our day to day lives, as part of the Filipino branding to exercise malasakit in relationships with others and in everything that we do.
And that malasakit has earned him the respect of people close to him but also of his political opponents. And that could well served him as his greatest weapon when he guns for the Speakership before President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his fourth State of the Nation in July.