LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Tribal leaders from the major tribes in the province are calling on the voters, young and old, to vote for a veteran lawyer as the next representative of Benguet to the House of Representatives when they will exercise their right to vote during the May 13, 2019 mid-term elections.
Ibaloi, Kankanaey and Kalanguya leaders who were able to attend most of the political sorties of the three aspirants for the province’s congressional post claimed that the primary job of the representative is the crafting of laws beneficial to the interest of the legislative district and the country as a whole, thus, it is fitting that the one to be voted to the said position is a veteran lawyer who known and understands his job and not for any other purposes.
Incumbent Rep. Ronald M. Cosalan will be ending his three terms as the province’s representative to the House of Representative on June 30, 2019.
Based on the history of Benguet, those who served as the province’s assemblyman to the defunct Batasan Pambansa and representative to the house of Representatives were actually lawyers starting from the late Assemblyman Andres Cosalan, Sr., the late Rep. Samuel M. Dangwa and incumbent Rep. Cosalan.
Among the aspirants for the province’s congressional post which will be vacated by Rep. Cosalan include 5-term Mankayan Mayor and 2-term League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Benguet chapter president Atty. Materno Luspian, former 3-term La Trinidad Mayor and 3-term Gov. Nestor Fongwan, Sr. and Atty. Torxon Keith.
The tribal elders, who opted not to be identified, explained that they were witnesses to the speeches of the aspirants for the congressional post and they saw who really known and understand the job of a lawmaker that is why voters should not water their votes in the upcoming conduct of the political exercise.
According to them, law making is a tedious process that needs wisdom, knowledge and network of the one who will be elected to such sensitive position because he will be representing the people of Benguet in the conduct of proceedings in the House.
With the campaign period coming to an end, the tribal leaders urged the province’s electorate not to sell their votes to self-styled politicians who pretend to serve but actually maximize their stay in power to advance their own personal and business interests which is detrimental in the delivery of service to the people who are longing for effective and efficient public service.
They claimed that people should vote for those who have the passion to serve the public and not for those who use their positions to acquire properties and advance their own business interests because in the end, it will be the electorate who will suffer the consequences of the wrong votes that they casted for the wrong leaders.
Benguet has the largest voting population among the six provinces in the Cordillera Administrative Region with over 200,000 registered voters for the upcoming May 13, 2019 mid-term polls.
By HENT