Bohol’s First District Representative Rene L. Relampagos once again brought pride to the province of Bohol as he received another commendation from House Speaker Sonny Belmonte, Jr. of the House of Representatives for being one of the very few 21 out of 297 house members who posted perfect attendance in all the sessions of the 15th Congress that commenced last June 6. This means that Cong. Relampagos attended all 168 sessions in the 15th Congress as shown in the records. World boxing champion and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao posted the highest number of absences along with Negros Occidental Representative Julio Ledesma IV. They only attended 108 plenary sessions each. Aside from Cong. Relampagos, the other 20 house members who also registered perfect attendance were House Speaker Sonny Belmonte himself, Reps. Giorgidi Aggabao of Isabela, Emmeline Aglipay of DIWA party-list, Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo of Camarines Sur, Jorge Banal of Quezon City, Leopoldo Bataoil of Pangasinan, Vicente Belmonte of Iligan City, Winston Castelo of Quezon City, Marguerite del Mar of Cebu, Salvio Fortuno of Camarines Sur, Roilo Golez of Parañaque City, Fernando Gonzalez of Albay, Bernadette Herrera-Dy of Bagong Henerasyon party-list, Rosendo Labadlabad of Zamboanga del Norte, Edcel Lagman of Albay, Florencio Noel of An Waray party-list, Reena Concepcion-Obillo of Una ang Pamilya party-list, Pedro Pancho of Bulacan, Roberto Puno of Antipolo, Romero Quimbo of Marikina City, and Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro.

When asked of his reaction to the commendation given him, Cong. Relampagos expressed elation and said that his perfect attendance in the sessions of the 15th Congress reflects his sincere dedication to his work and explained further that he did not want to be a factor of delays in legislation work that’s why he tried to attend all the sessions. He added that he is grateful to the Almighty for giving him good health that contributed much to his success during his first term. Cong. Relampagos took oath last Friday before President Noynoy Aquino himself, along with other elected officials and will attend another oath-taking ceremony with other elected officials of Bohol today at the Bohol Cultural Center. Their second term will officially start at noontime today. In his second term, Cong. Relampagos will expand and enhance his prioritized programs as summarized in the acronym GOODHEALTH which means Golden Opportunities Of the District in Health and Sanitation, Education and Environment, Agriculture, Livelihood and Jobs, Tourism, and Human Resources Development. He will continue to be guided by his vision which is the first district and the province of Bohol in general becoming the prime eco-cultural tourism destination in the country. As such, he will prioritize continuing the execution of his infrastructure projects that will pave way for the development of the New Bohol International Airport Project and others that will generate more jobs and livelihood opportunities for the people. (by Jill Christianae R. Robinson)