Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte said President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has already "hit his stride" as Philippine leader, even as pundits chimed in on the latter's first 100 days in office.

“President Marcos has done well in his first 100 days in office, hitting his stride already at the onset of his six-year term with major initiatives and feats meant to set in motion the Philippines’ economic and political resurgence," Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party (NUP), said in a statement Thursday, Oct. 6.

Marcos will mark his first 100 days in Malacañang on Friday, Oct. 7.

According to Villafuerte, the Chief Executive made the right call as far as the country's path to recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic is concerned.

"The President was correct in anchoring our country’s rebound from Covid-19 on generating more capital from both foreign and local investors and sustaining the massive infrastructure program of the past Administration to stimulate high growth and create jobs at the start of his presidency," he said.

And then there's handpicked Cabinet members, which impressed Villafuerte from the outset.

“Even before the President assumed office last June 30, Mr. Marcos had sprung a surprise on even his critics with his excellent choices for his then would-be Cabinet, ranging from the highly respected technocrats for his economic team to outgoing or former local executives to head major departments,” Villafuerte said.

Villafuerte noted in particular the President’s decision to name himself the Department of Agriculture (DA) secretary, which according to the Bicolano underscored the administration’s paramount concern for farm modernization and food security.

"The appointments of Vice President Sara, who is former Davao City mayor, as education secretary; Benhur (Benjamin Abalos), a former mayor of Mandaluyong City and ex-MMDA (Metro Manila Development Authority) chairman, as local government secretary; former Cavite Gov. Boying (Remulla) as justice secretary; and Liloan, Cebu Mayor Tina (Garcia-Frasco) as tourism secretary, underscore the premium that the Marcos administration is giving to the wealth of wisdom that deep backgrounds in local governance can offer in national policy making," he added.

On the economic diplomacy front, Marcos’s recent official trips to Indonesia, Singapore, and the United States (US) have yielded almost P20 billion worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) pledges combined. These are projected to create a total of 134,000 jobs for Filipinos, the former three-term Camarines Sur governor said.

Also, Villafuerte said Marcos's decisive move last month to allow the voluntary wearing of face masks in outdoor settings—two years after mandatory mask rule was imposed nationwide—would further hasten the country’s recovery from Covid-19.

A week prior to this relaxed mask policy, Villafuerte had proposed to the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) a compromise policy to make mask-wearing optional in places with low Covid-19 infection rate and keep it mandatory only in Metro Manila and other high-risk provinces and cities.

“This eased mask mandate approved by the President is expected to further speed up our recovery from the still lingering coronavirus, given that our stringent health protocols...have made the Philippines among the last economies to recover from the two-year global health and economic crises.”