House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, who pundits believe will play an integral part in the upcoming 19th Congress, has officially secured a fresh term as Leyte 1st district representative.
Romualdez, the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) president, ran unopposed in his district and garnered a total of 181,480 votes during the May 9 elections.
His proclamation took place at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday, May 11, at the Province of Leyte Old Legislative Building.
"We thereby proclaim the above-named winning candidate (Romualdez) as the duly-elected menber of the House of Representatives of the 1st legislative district of Leyte," Provincial Board of Canvassers chairperson and provincial election supervisor, lawyer Antonio Gulay Jr. said before handing over the certificate to the reelected veteran lawmaker.
In an ambush interview after his proclamation, Romualdez said that he would focus on further providing for his constituents on the matters of education, health, livelihood, and recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Nandito pa tayo sa pandemya, sana endemic na po (We're still in a pandemic, hopefully it will be an endemic soon). Kailangan talaga (What we need to do is), we have to bring back our economy" the Lakas-CMD president said.
He vowed to work hard so that his constituents would have "money in their pocket so that they have food on their table, they can have their children go to school, and the family will be attended medically".
Romualdez is one of the campaign managers of leading vice presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte. Duterte chairs the Lakas-CMD.
He is also the cousin of presidential race frontrunner Bongbong Marcos. He was the one who trained Marcos's eldest son, Sandro, on legislative work in preparation for the latter's bid to become Ilocos Norte 1st district congressman.
Romualdez, a lawyer, is a product of the University of the Philippines (UP). He is the president of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa)--the oldest and most respectable association of legal luminaries in the country.
He finished his undergraduate studies with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1985.
In 1988, he obtained a Certificate of Special Studies in administration and Management from Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. He then proceeded to law school, earning his Bachelor of Laws from the UP College of Law in UP Diliman, Quezon City, in 1992.
Before his stint in government, Romualdez served as concurrent trustee and president of Doña Remedios Trinidad Romualdez Medical Foundation and Dr. Vicente Orestes Romualdez Educational Foundation.