Region 7 lawmakers are all praises for Presidential appointee and newly-installed Regional Development Council (RDC) Chair Gov. Edgar M. Chatto of Bohol for pushing for an advisory committee within the council in a meeting in Cebu Friday. Bohol Reps. Rene Relampagos, Aris Aumentado and Art Yap rallied Central Visayas lawmakers in supporting Chatto's move. RDCs having advisory committees are not a foreign matter for the lawmakers, so to speak, for Section 8 of Executive Order (EO) 325 as amended on April 12, 1996, has already provided for the creation of an Advisory Council. The rationale behind this is for the council to assist, advise and support the RDC in discharging its functions and to strengthen the coordinative and consultative mechanisms in the region.

Comprising the Committee are the members of the RDC Execom and the region's congressmen who signify their intention to become members. Officers of the committee would then be the RDC Chairman, Co-Chair, Vice-Chair and the secretary. Known for his advocacy for participative governance and shared leadership, it is not surprising that Bohol's governor would strongly endorse such a move. Chatto has already received local and national awards for his kind of governance which catapulted Bohol to fame, even bagging the country's Best-Governed Province Award for two consecutive years from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), feats which earned the trust of the national leadership. As a respected leader, the Bohol governor readily endorsed the Central Visayas Core Investment Program, a public investment program of big-ticket projects for 2014-2016, during his very first meeting with the RDC as its Council Chair. He also pushed for the council's priority sector agenda for 2014-2016 which includes a legislative agenda during same meeting.

Right before his appointment to RDC post, Chatto was one of the driving forces in the council who endorsed the 2015 budget proposals of national government agencies. During the meeting, Yap and Rep. Wilfredo Caminero of Cebu earned much support not only from fellow lawmakers but also from other sector representatives in the likes of RDC-7's infrastructure development committee head Manny Rabacal, Robert Go of the RDC-EDC, Charles Sy of the construction sector, Abundio Gultiano, Jr. and several others when they elaborated on their concerns as regards to proper analysis and handling of projects in their districts and how they could be assured of their prompt implementation by the national government. District representatives said they are more than glad to have a separate Advisory Committee for the RDC for here, they could fully discuss issues in a more intimate and exhaustive manner where solutions to problems could not be far off. Though advisory committee meetings would only be twice a year, still, members could opt to meet more often when necessary when pertinent and more pressing issues need to be threshed out. (JLV)