Tingog Party-list Representative Yedda Marie Romualdez (House of Representatives website)
Tingog Sinirangan or Tingog Partylist is represented by Yedda Marie Kittilstvedt-Romualdez in the 19th Congress, after serving also in the 18th Congress.
Also representing the partylist is Jude Acidre, after it won two seats in Congress last May 9 polls.
Tingog Partylist is a regional political party which aims to provide local families nationwide, especially in Eastern Visayas, access to quality education, healthcare, and employment opportunities.
According to its website, the partylist group has over 200,000 active party members from 143 Eastern Visayas cities and municipalities.
The group’s name came from the Visayan word “Tingog,” which means voice. It was initially established as Tingog Leytehon on Oct. 2, 2012, but was formally recognized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as “a party-list organization qualified to run under the partylist elections” on Aug. 19, 2015. It first ran in the 2016 national and local elections.
Born on Oct. 22, 1973, Romualdez completed her primary and secondary education at Assumption College and St. Theresa’s College, respectively. She earned a degree in Nursing at the Cebu Doctor’s University.
She is the wife of House Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez in the 19th Congress. They have four children.
Romualdez won in the Binibining Pilipinas pageant in 1996 and represented the country as Miss International.
Romualdez was the Leyte 1st District representative in the 17th Congress and was the chairperson of the House committee on welfare of children during the 18th Congress. She currently serves as the House committee on accounts chairperson, according to the House of Representatives website.
Along with Acidre, she authored House Bill (HB) 2352 or the Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers, HB 1582 or the Philippine Online Library Act of 2002, and HB 1594 or the Persons With Disability Retirement Act, which would give an early retirement option to PWDs, among others.
During her term, the partylist group provided over 42,000 college and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) scholarship grants and distributed computer equipment, laptop, and tablets to schools and students, according to Romualdez’s official Facebook page.
Other initiatives the partylist implemented under her term were medical missions, distribution of dengue rapid tests, and vaccination drives; allocation of kabuhayan packages, government internship programs, Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD), and other livelihood assistance in coordination with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE); and community outreaches, among others.