Martin Romualdez reelected as Leyte 1st District representative

FILE PHOTO: House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez. INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines — House Majority Leader and Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) president Martin Romualdez has officially been re-elected as Leyte 1st district congressman following the May 9 elections.

Romualdez, who ran unopposed in his district, garnered a total of 181,480 votes.

It will be his fifth term as representative of Leyte 1st district.

His proclamation took place at 9:40 a.m. at the Province of Leyte Old Legislative Building here.

In an ambush interview after his proclamation, Romualdez said that he would focus on further providing for his constituents on the matters of education, health, livelihood, and recovery from the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic.

“Nandito pa tayo sa pandemya, sana endemic na po. Kailangan talaga, we have to bring back our economy,” the Lakas-CMD president said.

He vowed to work hard so that his constituents would have “money in their pocket so that they have food on their table, they can have their children go to school, and the family will be attended medically”.

Romualdez is one of the campaign managers of leading vice presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte. Duterte chairs the Lakas-CMD.

Romualdez is a lawyer from University of the Philippines (UP) and president of Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) or the oldest and most respectable association of legal luminaries in the country.

He finished his undergraduate studies with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1985.

In 1988, he obtained a Certificate of Special Studies in administration and Management from Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.

He then proceeded to law school, earning his Bachelor of Laws from the UP College of Law in the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, in 1992.

One of the laws principally authored by Romualdez was Republic Act (RA) No. 10754, which exempts more than 1.5 million persons with disabilities (PWDs) from the payment of 12-percent value added tax (VAT) on certain goods and services. It was enacted in the 16th Congress or during the time of the Aquino administration.

In the 18th Congress, Romualdez is the principal author of the laws covering the Malasakit Centers, Modernization of the Bureau of Fire and Protection (BFP), Bayanihan to Heal as One Act (Bayanihan Act 1), and Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2),  among others.

/MUF