LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, September 29 – Five-term Rep. Ronald M. Cosalan, today, announced that he is going to retire from politics after the lapse of his three-term limit next year to give the opportunity for young and upcoming leaders to show their worth in serving the people of the province.
Listen to his official declaration of retirement (and possible comeback!):
Cosalan will be ending his three-term limit as representative of Benguet to the House of Representatives after having served the same position from 1995-2001.
He explained that his decision to retire from politics was reached after having consulted the members of his family, his relatives and trusted supporters who advised him to give the needed opportunity for younger politicians to serve the people of Benguet.
“I believe that the province has numerous young and upcoming leaders. It is high time for our young and qualified leaders to govern the province which helped me decide to take a back seat in the upcoming May 2019 mid-term elections,” Cosalan stressed.
The Benguet lawmaker underscored that one one the legacies that he will leave behind in the province is the upgrading and concreting of some 470 kilometers of national roads aside from the rehabilitation of hundreds of kilometres of provincial, municipal and barangay roads that contributed in spurring the economic activities in the countryside.
With the significant development of the province’s major infrastructures, Cosalan claimed that the transportation of the agricultural produce of thousands of farmers drastically dropped that allowed them to have bigger take home income to sustain the living condition of their families.
He added part of the programs that he was able to initiate even he was still the Executive Director of the Office of the Northern Cultural Communities (ONCC), now known as the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), was the scholarship program for poor but deserving students that allowed thousands of them from the different parts of Northern Luzon to be educated which enable them to land in a decent job.
However, Cosalan challenged young and upcoming leaders who are aspiring for elected posts in the national and local levels in next year’s election to prove their worth that they deserve to be elected by the people because he might be convinced to come back to politician by the May 2022 presidential elections.
From 2010-2016, Cosalan gave honor and pride to Benguet after having been chosen by the previous administration as chairman of the powerful House committee on public works and highways that allowed him to source out the needed funding for the rehabilitation and upgrading of major national roads in the different parts of the province that allowed inter-municipal, inter-provincial and inter-regional linkages.
He emphasized that after retiring from politics, he will look into the possibility of going back to the practice of law although he has reservations about it because of the presence of too many lawyers in the country, thus, he will first enjoy sufficient time with his family before working on doable things that will uplift his profession in the future.
By Dexter A. See
I hope that his projects especially our road from alapang -alno-tuel-balluay-bagong road will be continued by the next congressman. These roads are farm to market roads… We hope that the next cong will be as wise and as caring as him…