TACLOBAN CITY–At least 136 out of 138 barangay chairmen and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) leaders here in the city attended a special gathering Sunday (July 29) in a show of support and alliance to Tingog Sinirangan, a party-list group based in the region.
While Tingog Sinirangan regional chairman and first nominee Jude Acidre thanked the recently elected barangay and SK chairmen during the gathering, they assured them of their continued support through their priority projects and programs.
“We believe that in party-list, the party should be remembered and not the individual personalities. Tingog Sinirangan is more than its nominees,” said Acidre as he disclosed the various medical programs and initiatives they conducted around the region despite not winning the position during their first attempt in the 2016 national elections.
In a speech, Acidre thanked Tacloban for giving them over 40,000 votes, which pushed the Tingog Sinirangan into an “advantageous position” among hundreds of party-list groups.
“Tacloban did not also disappoint us for giving us the biggest margin of votes. If Tacloban wasn’t there, we’ll not make it there, too. Maybe it’s not yet our time, but we’re not tired,” said Acidre, adding that they continue to serve the city and Eastern Visayas to “return the favor” that they received from their supporters during the 2016 national elections.
“Whether we have a position or not, we remember Tacloban. We’re here to give you service,” said Acidre as he called the barangay and youth leaders as their “partners.”
According to Acidre, Tingog Sinirangan will be the second “voice” to the congressional districts in the region.
For the past three years, Tingog Sinirangan already conducted over 40 medical program services around Eastern Visayas. Its latest is the free check-up and cataract operation they started in July until August.
Although a newcomer in the national party-list elections, Tingog Sinirangan has been in existent since 2012.
Lawyer Butch Corpin, its second nominee and the current executive director of Lakas-CMD party, said that Tingog Sinirangan was formerly called as Tingog Leytenhons, a provincial political party in Leyte.
Former congressman Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, its chairman emeritus, pushed for its entry in the regional level to give “voice” to the region’s people along with bringing in the development of the regional countryside, and representation in the House of Congress through the party-list system.
The Commission of Elections accredited Tingog Sinirangan through a resolution promulgated on Aug. 19, 2015, which qualified the party to run in the party-list elections in May 2016 national and local elections.
Acidre has been in a region-based party-list organization for over 10 years.
Meanwhile, Leyte First District Rep. Yedda Romualdez, who accompanied Acidre during the event, said they are “pushing for more projects and we’re doing many things.”
She highlighted the ongoing tide embankment, by-pass road and bridge projects in Tacloban City and Leyte province.
Romualdez assured many more projects will happen in the City and in her district, saying that Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and the new House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are “very kind and close to us.”
Newly-elected Association of Barangay Chairmen (ABC) president Eden Chua-Pineda and Sangguniang Kabataan Federation president Thomas Diaz lauded Romualdez and Tingog Sinirangan for responding to the needs in the barangays in the city.
Now on her second year in Congress, Romualdez was instrumental in the passage of 13 laws and 23 other legislative measures now on its third reading, making her as one of the hardworking representatives in the 17th Congress. (RONALD O. REYES)
