By: Ven rebo Arigo

WHILE many seem intrigued by what resilient stuff Boholanos are made of, vice mayors across the country believe that after-quake Bohol is more exciting to host in July their national convention. Tagbilaran City Vice Mayor Jose Antonio Veloso said the Vice Mayors' League of the Philippines (VMLP) is finalizing this month Bohol's first-ever hosting of its national assembly, which can boost the province's aggressive tourism promotion. Veloso sits in the VMLP national executive board as the league's national auditor while also serving as regional vice chair and Bohol chapter adviser. VMLP-Bohol president and Batuan Vice Mayor Antonino Jumawid is the national legal officer for Central Visayas. The convention is expected this early to gather at least a thousand delegates composed of city and municipal vice mayors nationwide.

Vice mayors are local chief legislators as presiding officers of their respective sanggunians or lawmaking councils. Keeping visitors and guests to come to Bohol can help stimulate the tourism-driven economy and contribute to the massive recovery effort following the most powerful earthquake to ever batter the island-province. Gov. Edgar Chatto has presented to Malacañang the appealing new tag of Bohol as a learning center for restoration and preservation where ruins define and document a more glorious rise. While restoration of partially damaged and reconstruction of totally destroyed structures---including heritage sites--- will now go, the governor said “hopeless” leftovers of earthquake still get preserved as they can become an imperishable tourism and objects of evolving learning.

Veloso said the months of preparation for the national convention, which is tentatively set on July 23-25, can make the delegates impressed by how Bohol has moved on after the great disaster. Manila City Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso is the VMLP national president while Region 7 chairperson and Balamban, Cebu Vice Mayor Rosario Veloso-Binghay, who is an aunt of the Tagbilaran City vice mayor, is the national vice president for the Visayas. The vice mayor of Manila, which mayor is former Pres. Joseph Estrada, had personally turned over to Chatto here his city's P2 million aid to Bohol weeks after the destructive, killer quake. Coincidentally, meanwhile, the Manila mayor and the Bohol governor, who is a brother-in-law of Veloso, have been named by former Senate Pres. Ernesto Maceda among the country's top 10 Personalities of the Year for 2013. In his Philippine Star column, Maceda also listed, among others, COA Chairperson Grace Pulido Tan, Miss World 2013 Megan Young, Miss International 2013 Bea Rose Santiago, Zamboanga City Mayor Beng Climaco, boxing icon Manny Pacquiao and Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, who was named last year among the potential pope successors.