Speaker Lord Allan Velasco has been reelected unopposed as representative of the lone legislative district of Marinduque province for a third consecutive term.
The Marinduque Provincial Board of Canvassers on Tuesday
proclaimed Velasco as the winner in the congressional polls after the
tabulation of all election returns.
Velasco obtained 100,794 votes in the final tally.
Marinduque has 161,538 registered voters, but only 140,674 voted.
The Speaker’s parents, retired Supreme Court Justice
Presbitero Velasco Jr. and Lorna Quinto Velasco, were also reelected as
governor and mayor of Torrijos town, respectively.
“I am deeply honored and humbled by my reelection to the
House of Representatives. I am extremely grateful to the people of my beloved
province of Marinduque for putting their trust and faith in me to represent
them in Congress for another three years,” Velasco said.
He also congratulated his colleagues in the 18th Congress
who have been reelected to the House.
“I look forward to seeing all my fellow House members as we
and our Senate counterparts convene in two weeks’ time as the National Board of
Canvassers which will canvass the votes cast, and proclaim the newly-elected
President and Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines,” he added.
Hailing from Torrijos town, Velasco was first elected
Marinduque representative in 2010. He tried to get reelected in 2013 but lost
to the late Regina Reyes-Mandanas, whose COC was later canceled by the Comelec
after she was found to be naturalized American citizen.
After almost three years of battling it out at the House of
Representatives Electoral Tribunal and the Supreme Court, Velasco took his oath
of office as congressman in February 2016 or three months before that year’s
general elections. He ran again for the same post in 2016 and 2019, winning
both instances.
In October 2020, Velasco assumed the speakership in the
middle of a raging global pandemic. Undaunted, he was able to lead the “bigger
house of Congress” in producing desperately needed legislation aimed at
mitigating the impacts of COVID-19.
To pull this off, Velasco prioritized the health and safety
of House members and employees in order to keep the legislative mill running so
that the chamber could continue to pass critical emergency pandemic response
measures.
The House under Velasco’s leadership has put in place strict
health and safety protocols, including regular COVID-19 testing and mass
vaccination.
This resulted in the passage of urgently needed legislation,
foremost of which is Republic Act 11525 or the COVID-19 Vaccination Program
Act. Despite initial supply challenges worldwide, Congress nevertheless
supported the complete rollout of the country’s inoculation program through
this law, expediting the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines and the establishment
of a P500-million indemnity fund.
For two years in a row, Velasco oversaw the passage of the
national budget that contained programs and projects designed to address the
pandemic, making the spending plan the government’s “single most powerful tool”
to fight COVID-19.
Even as he became Speaker, Velasco would always keep a close
watch on Marinduque, ensuring that his constituents are provided with basic
government services and that they benefit from the programs and projects he
specifically made for them.
