Rep. Arthur Yap of the Third District has declared unconditional all-out support for Gov. Edgar Chatto’s 2016 reelection in a mobile service fair pronouncement taken as simply consistent with the solon’s politics of work with good men.
“Mr. Governor, when you run in 2016, the Third District is going to be with you solidly,” the congressman declared to the applause of the people of Bilar where Chatto led the 21st HEAT IT Bohol Caravan of the province Wednesday.
Yap counted equal support for Chatto from the leaders of the caravan host town frontlined by Mayor Norman Palacio, Vice Mayor Dodong Calamba and the councilors who all joined the affair.
Impliedly yet effectively, Yap reaffirmed his position earlier bared to the media of seeking his third and last term against the floating of his name for governor by a certain camp in obvious “wanderlust” for the congressional post he holds.
Former Carmen mayor and 2013 gubernatorial loser Conchita “Che” de los Reyes already intimated in public her ambition to “replace” the reelectionist lawmaker, even awkwardly “endorsing” him to be her bet against Chatto in next year’s poll for governor.
Yap’s declaration to back the incumbent governor was also deemed pushing the other quarters to a bigger blank wall this early as to who may have the credentials, or just raw guts, to banner the opposition and contest Chatto.
While they do not both belong to the administration party, the feisty and tactless woman politician and the fine-mannered, soft-spoken congressman are not allies either.
Yap further declared during the HEAT caravan, a capitol-led multi-agency innovation of service delivery to constituent doorstep with private sector participation, that he would himself lead his district in giving the governor one more term.
“Let there be no doubt that the Third District will start the 2016 gubernatorial reelection of Gov. Chatto,” the congressman stated emphatically in the huge government service fair co-led by Vice Gov. Concepcion Lim.
Board Members Dionisio Balite, Elpido Jala and Godofreda Tirol, all of the Third District, and Abeleon Damalerio of the First District also joined the caravan.
Yap thanked the provincial government under Chatto and Lim for “bringing the HEAT caravan to Bilar,” which belongs to his district.
The caravan was highlighted by the launching in Bohol of the JobStart Philippines program in the presence of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Usec. Reydeluz Conferido representing Sec. Rosalinda Baldoz, Asian Development Bank (ADB) officials, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Joel Villanueva.
At the Bohol Island State University (BISU) – Bilar Campus, they led in the distribution of certificates to graduates of skills education and technical-vocational training from different TESDA centers and assisted centers in the province.
In the same affair, Balite teased the graduates that, having best TESDA training, they can now leave Bohol and find jobs, but they must return to support him, his fellow board members and, of course, Chatto and Yap as well as Villanueva should the latter run for senator.
YAP’S PRESENCE
DUE TO CHATTO
According to Yap, it was Chatto himself prodding him to come during the caravan despite his congressional works because the big event hosted by a town in his district was an official business anyway.
The secretary-general of the House of Representatives instantly consented to his official trip back to his district as soon as the former knew it was Chatto asking for his very presence during the caravan, the congressman said.
In Congress and outside, “everybody knows Edgar,” Yap said of the governor who chaired the House tourism committee and authored the National Tourism Act while he was First District congressman.
Yap told the DOLE, TESDA and ADB officials that “we are very happy that you are here with us to see how the province and the local officials are partnering in bringing governance closer to the people.”
He reported to the barangay officials in the caravan the consolidation of the bills for the increase of their honoraria and which final version he hopes to be finished before the end of the present Congress.
Also, Yap was supposed to defend in a committee his appeal granting “discounts to first-time homeowners,” but he told the governor he had “to give way to support you and once for all to show how strong Third District is running under your administration” of the province. (Ven rebo Arigo)