Speaker Lord Allan Jay Velasco has been re-elected unopposed as representative of the lone legislative district of Marinduque province for a third consecutive term.
The Marinduque Provincial Board of Canvassers on Tuesday proclaimed Velasco as the winner in the congressional polls after the tabulation of all election returns.
Velasco obtained 100,794 votes in the final tally. Marinduque has 161,538 registered voters, but only 140,674 voted.
The Speaker’s parents, retired Supreme Court Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. and Lorna Quinto Velasco, were also reelected as governor and mayor of Torrijos town, respectively.
“I am deeply honored and humbled by my re-election to the House of Representatives. I am extremely grateful to the people of my beloved province of Marinduque for putting their trust and faith in me to represent them in Congress for another three years,” Velasco said.
He also congratulated his colleagues in the 18th Congress who have been re-elected to the House.
“I look forward to seeing all my fellow House members as we and our Senate counterparts convene in two weeks’ time as the National Board of Canvassers which will canvass the votes cast, and proclaim the newly-elected President and Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines,” he added.
Hailing from Torrijos town, Velasco was first elected Marinduque representative in 2010. He tried to get re-elected in 2013 but lost to the late Regina Reyes-Mandanas, whose COC was later canceled by the Comelec after she was found to be naturalized American citizen.
After almost three years of battling it out at the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal and the Supreme Court, Velasco took his oath of office as congressman in February 2016 or three months before that year’s general elections. He ran again for the same post in 2016 and 2019, winning both instances.
In October 2020, Velasco assumed the speakership in the middle of a raging global pandemic. Undaunted, he was able to lead the “bigger house of Congress” in producing desperately needed legislation aimed at mitigating the impacts of COVID-19.
To pull this off, Velasco prioritized the health and safety of House members and employees in order to keep the legislative mill running so that the chamber could continue to pass critical emergency pandemic response measures.
The House under Velasco’s leadership has put in place strict health and safety protocols, including regular COVID-19 testing and mass vaccination.
This resulted in the passage of urgently needed legislation, foremost of which is Republic Act 11525 or the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act. Despite initial supply challenges worldwide, Congress nevertheless supported the complete rollout of the country’s inoculation program through this law, expediting the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines and the establishment of a P500-million indemnity fund.
For two years in a row, Velasco oversaw the passage of the national budget that contained programs and projects designed to address the pandemic, making the spending plan the government’s “single most powerful tool” to fight COVID-19.
Even as he became Speaker, Velasco would always keep a close watch on Marinduque, ensuring that his constituents are provided with basic government services and that they benefit from the programs and projects he specifically made for them.
