House Speaker Martin Romualdez (center, standing), addresses the crowd during the launch of the Zamboanga City BPSF (Speaker’s office)

Speaker Martin Romualdez's allies from the House of Representatives has once again sent a loud message of support through their presence during the launch of the Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (BPSF) in Zamboanga City. 

This, after a total of 85 House members, including the Speaker, trooped to the province for the two-day, all-encompassing service caravan. This was the highest turnout for congressmen so far for the BPSF. 

“Tunay tayong nagagalak sa ating nakikitang pagkakaisa sa ating mga mambabatas na dumalo sa Zamboanga City BPSF. Nakaka-inspire makita ang higit 80 na mga mambabatas na kasama natin sa Kongreso para personal na ipakita ang kanilang suporta sa isang programang inilalapit ang serbisyo ng pamahalaan sa ating mga mamamayan,” declared Romualdez, Leyte's 1st district congressman. 

(We are truly happy with the unity shown by our lawmakers who attended the Zamboanga City BPSF. It's inspiring to see over 80 of our colleagues in Congress to personally show their support to a program that brings government services closer to the people.) 

Zamboanga is located in Mindanao, the bailiwick of former president Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte has become a vocal critic of the Marcos administration, and he has not spared Romualdez from his tirades. 

But Duterte's Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP) party has weakened a great deal in terms of membership and influence the past few months, and a beneficiary of this has been the Romualdez-led Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD). 

Lakas-CMD is the dominant party in the 300-plus strong House of Representatives. 

“Never before have we witnessed such overwhelming solidarity among representatives from across all regions of our country. The presence of more than 80 district and party-list representatives here underscores the commitment of the House of Representatives to serve as true champions of the Filipino people,” Romualdez said. 
 

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Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe, Zamboanga City's 1st district representative in the House, said he was very pleased with the turnout of lawmakers at the event. 

Second in terms of attendance among House members was the BPSF in Agusan del Norte, also in Mindanao, with 62 lawmakers present. This was followed by the Benguet BPSF in Luzon with 60. 

The Zamboanga City BPSF leg is the 16th installment of the service caravan that aims to visit all 82 provinces of the Philippines. 

In Zamboanga, the service caravan intends to bring over 400 government services and cash aid programs worth P580 million to the 111,000 beneficiaries in the city.