House Speaker Martin Romualdez convened Visayas lawmaker for their inaugural caucus with the aim of unifying solons from various political parties toward one common goal--to uplift the lives of their constituents.

During the meeting, lawmakers from Regions 6, 7, 8 and the Negros Island on Wednesday, Aug. 7, made a commitment to work together to ensure that priorities for the Visayans are reflected on the national agenda.

“Each of us carries the hopes of our kababayans back home. The Visayas Caucus is our way of making sure their voices are heard and felt in the halls of Congress," Romualdez said.

The Visayas caucus was established to provide a focused, non-partisan platform for regional advocacy, according to Romualdez.

While members belong to different national political parties, the caucus is anchored on the belief that regional development must be championed collectively—through consensus, coordination and shared leadership, he added.

“And very important and critical that the synergies and engagements and the relationships of all of us in the region become closer and tighter. And I think we have so much in common to share. I was recently also in Mindanao about the other month and we talked about the Mindanao agenda. So similar to what we talked about when I was in Butuan, in Caraga, we’d like to get the Visayan agenda—hence the Visayas caucus,” he said.

“In other words, in the four regions that we have identified, we really want to focus and concentrate on what are the top priorities per region. And you having placed me here in this position to serve you as the Speaker, I would like to actually deal down with you sit down with you and get this priority projects, programs moving faster,” he added.

Romualdez made it clear that the caucus will not operate as a political bloc, but rather as a mechanism to identify common concerns, push for responsive policies, and secure funding for vital projects that directly benefit the Visayas.

Among its key priorities are infrastructure development, water security and disaster resilience, agricultural modernization, health care and education access, tourism recovery, inter-island connectivity and digital transformation.

The caucus will also create sectoral working groups; engage with key government agencies, such as National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Transportation (DOTr), Department of Agriculture (DA) and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG); and push for formal representation in inter-agency bodies that influence regional development.