MANKAYAN, Benguet – Mayor Frenzel Ayong requested the municipal council to pass a resolution expressing the town’s warm welcome to Anti-Crime Through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap as the caretaker congressman of Benguet following the untimely demise of the late Rep. Nestor Fongwan, Sr. who succumbed to a lingering illness last December 18, 2019.
Ayong underscored the appointment of the party-list congressman as the province’s caretaker should be viewed in a positive way because it will eventually open the opportunity for Benguet to be promoted around the country as the party-list organization where the caretaker congressman belongs has established chapters around the archipelago.
The Municipal Chief Executive pointed out the people and officialdom of Benguet should seize the opportunity of having the caretaker congressman to link Benguet with his connections outside the province so that investors will be enticed to invest in agri-tourism projects among others that will help spur the economic activities, generate enough employment opportunities and establish sustainable sources of livelihood around the province.
Even with the limited resources, Ayong revealed that supporters of ACT-CIS party-list in the municipality worked hard during the campaign period that allowed the same to garner the second highest number of votes among the party-list organizations that aspired for the prescribed seats in the House of Representatives.
“We should not be too negative about the appointment of a non-Cordilleran as the province’s caretaker but instead, let us seize the available opportunities that will be made possible so that development will flourish in the different parts of the province that will result to sustainable economic growth in the countryside,” Mayor Ayong stressed.
According to him, the municipal government also intends to invite the caretaker congressman as the town’s guest of honor and speaker during its fiesta celebration in March to show the warm welcome that should be accorded to the newly appointed caretaker congressman from one of the party-list groups that topped the results of the May 2019 mid-term elections in so far as the party-list organizations that joined the political exercise.
Ayong emphasized the caretaker congressman already made initial pronouncements he will continue to advance the legislations, programs, projects and representations of the late Benguet Lawmaker in the House aside from the continuous operations of the congressman’s offices in Batasan and the Provincial Capitol that is why there is no reason for the people of Benguet to doubt the sincerity of the caretaker to render the needed services for the growth and development of the province and the welfare of the people.
He claimed Benguet was not at the losing end with the appointment of the non-Cordilleran caretaker congressman but it gained the opportunity to be aggressively promoted in the different parts of the country with the current connections of the party-list organizations and its established chapters nationwide, thus, it is but proper for the people and officialdom of Benguet to extend support to the caretaker so that he will be able to effectively and efficiently discharge his additional duties and responsibilities.
By Hent
