House of Representatives members led by House Majority Leader and Leyte 1st district Rep. Martin Romualdez are urging Filipinos to support the new administration of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.
“The President has a clear vision of his mission, of what he wants to accomplish for the nation, and of what needs to be done," Romualdez, the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) president, said following Marcos's inaugural address on Thursday, June 30.
"It is our moral responsibility to support him and help him and his administration,” added the solon, who pundits say is a shoo-in for the House Speakership in the upcoming 19th Congress.
Romualdez was among the VIP attendees to historic inauguration of Marcos at the National Museum in Manila.
Romualdez said he and his House colleagues would await the legislative proposals the new administration would present to the legislature.
He lauded then newly-inaugurated president for making clear to the nation that he and Vice President Sara Duterte would stick to their message and advocacy of unity as they try to tackle the many problems of the country.
For his part, Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte, who is the National Unity Party (NUP) vice president for political affairs, called on his countrymen rally behind Marcos's fresh call for unity and economic transformation at this precarious time when the world continues to reel from the impact of the lingering Covid-19 pandemic, food supply shortfalls, the oil price shock, and geopolitical tensions.
Villafuerte, who was the principal author in the House of both Bayanihan 1 and Bayanihan 2, said he has already filed a new version of the Bayanihan measure in support of the plan of the President and incoming Speaker Romualdez for a "BBM economic stimulus package".
“All of us Filipinos should move forward from the past and work as one with the new President in confronting—and overcoming—the major risks to our country’s sustained and strong recovery from the global health and economic crises wrought by the pandemic and which has been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Villafuerte said.
“Supporting this call for unity and collective action against the backdrop of domestic and global challenges is the least we can do for our country and President BBM, who, by the way, has won the biggest electoral mandate ever in our country’s history with over 31.1 million votes,” he added.
Villafuerte further reckoned that the country "¥cannot regain its pre-Covid upward trajectory from hereon minus national unity, as President BBM was spot on when he pointed out in his inaugural speech that the overwhelming electorate mandate he had received from our people meant they ‘rejected the politics of division.’”
The Bicolano also welcomed the President’s announcement that he is drawing up a “comprehensive, all-inclusive plan” for economic transformation.