(DRAFT)

MY UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN CONGRESS

(Message of Rep. Cesar V. Sarmiento, Lone District Catanduanes
during the Oath-taking ceremony on June 30, 2013 in Virac)

(GREETINGS )
Foremost in me and my family on this special day for all of us, is to
express our heartfelt gratitude to the Divine Providence for making this day
possible, and to the people of Catanduanes for their continued, unbending faith in a
democratic process that
over generations, has always
guaranteed open
expression of our highest rights as a free people of this small island.
With this also, goes my grateful appreciation of the selfless efforts of our
public officers --the election officials, the law enforcement groups, and the public
school teachers especially who all rose to the challenge of the hour to make the
just-concluded election peaceful, and the outcome, credible and fair.
Today in your presence, from the bottom of my heart and without any
condition or reservation, I formally accept the decision our people made last May 13.
I cannot in conscience do otherwise, for what you have bestowed in me
was a level of confidence unprecedented in our electoral history, something that I
have to reckon with in my personal and public life as manifest of your extraordinary
interest in my person and your collective wish that I should go on with the mission
as your congressman.
May 13, no doubt, was a very stressful exercise for all of us. We have
gambled in it almost everything: our personal honor, our family honor and ties, our
friendship and brotherly bonds,
and even the humble ideals the pervade our
homes, including our dreams for the young.
The outcomes may not have approximated the expectations of a few but I
do consider political setbacks simply as impermanent as they have been in past,
the residual effects not enough to disrupt for long the peace and quiet of our homes.
I am quite disturbed though, and our people will bear me out in this, that
much remains to be desired in the manner we hold our elections. It seems we
have not broken away from the past nor derived lessons therefrom, to be able to cross
out the distortions that cast unkind impressions of pettiness on our people.

But by and large, to lay these matters behind, I believed that the May 13
exercise has fully satisfied our people as we have already deferred to the wishes
of majority so we can move forward with a new beginning.
More than 101,000 of you decided that that I should proceed with my second
term in the Congress of the Philippines. To me, and for any elective public servant
for that matter, the near unanimity in choice is the highest form of encouragement.
It endows me a solid foundation and a wide base of support with which I can go
back to the halls of the Congress with renewed energy and pride.
In 2010 when I won the congressional district by a mere margin of about 800
votes, I had spent a lot of time discerning the message. But under no circumstance
did it create doubts in me so as to diminish my enthusiasm to serve, even if I
was a congressman by a simple majority.
I saw the positive side rather, and was able to transform that into an
opportunity, along with a greater impulse to work harder. It has instilled in me
instead a high sense of duty and mission, for I know that that every Catandunganon,
regardless of political and apolitical persuasions, has the undeniable right to have
a voice in Congress, and where possible, the benefit of an assertive representation in
the legislature, no matter how small the Catanduanes constituency is.
For three years I did just that.
I find it no longer necessary to narrate to you my story in Congress and
how I struggled hard to ensure that we get our rightful share of the national bounty.
The traces of my efforts are there for all of us to see, more real than imagined. All I
can say is that in my first term as your congressman, never had I lost sight of the
fact that we are a constituency in abject need.
My efforts, and this I say with candidness, paid off and helped in creating a
momentum of change in the province that started with the timely delivery of the basics
of rural development. We have opened manifold opportunities for our people toward
better lives and as well, stimulated the entrepreneurial spirit among us. Had time
allowed me, I could have done more, especially in addressing bigger and critical needs
such as power and electricity and the major infrastructures.
But be that as it may, let us not grumble unreasonably over it. Pass it to me
instead for those are part of my unfinished business, as your servant in Congress.
Being a congressman is not an easy task. One has to balance the urgent
needs of the constituency with the exigencies of national legislation, which is
essentially the reason why he or she is in the legislature. In the use of congressional

benefits, a member of Congress remains torn between the options of addressing the
crying need of the people and of just simply using such benefits to keep oneself
comfortably in power, as what some unduly perceive about the role of a Congress
member.
Any error in the choice of priorities certainly can cause so much disgust
and discontent within the constituency
that can impair the covenant with the
people to whom, in the ultimate, we all are accountable.
But how did I respond to the crucial challenge? You yourselves are living
witnesses to my judgment. I did, without any element of hesitancy, chose the people
of Catanduanes above anything else.
The question of the day now is, what is in store for us in the next three
years?
Will Cesar Sarmiento continue with his Catanduanes muna priorities, or will
he, as a newly-ordained senior in Congress, prefer the loftier status with its
appended perks and prestige, of a senior member of the House of Representatives?
To both questions my answer is a big YES. I can see that too in your faces.
Yes, because I cannot just turn my back on our people who have invested in
me in no small terms their full trust and confidence.
There is much to be done in this island. We have now moved the province
closer to the threshold of domestically-driven economic transformation and change.
The province is now ripe to enter an era of entrepreneurship which we have attained
through the judicious, equitable and calculated application of national projects that
will support the industries destined for us.
The soft projects that I have strategized for the last three years were but
modest contributions, yet they were carried out where they are needed and precisely
to serve as stimulus for advance and growth.
I refer among others to the expansion of the 4 Ps which have brought in
millions into Catanduanes households, the numerous PDAF-funded livelihood projects
which have enlivened our otherwise boring communities, and the medium
infrastructures that have generated employment.
There is no question also, that our courage and daring to host major events
served as pump-priming experiments that have largely benefited domestic trade.

As it is now, what remains to be seen perhaps is our initiative, our courage to

gamble into local ventures, as we move to loosen the barrier of free and competitive
enterprise.
On the matter of whether as a maturing congressman I should dedicate more
time to national legislation, my reply is another big YES. Yes because,

Catanduanes is an exciting tourist destination just waiting to be

shaded in both the national the global maps.
The Catanduanes Circumferential Road is a national highway in the
making, hoping to be paved to the last kilometer by 2016.
Virac is a city in waiting; brimming with economic activities, with the
entrepreneurial spirit of Viracnons obviously reinvigorated.

All what is needed is legislative focus and the legislative muscle to draw
forth the needed national attention to support local initiatives, in the manner that we
followed when we won the university-hood for the Catanduanes State Colleges
despite national policy constraints.
These seemingly grand goals are by no means mere figments of imagination.
They are attainable because they are supposed to be our just and reasonable share.
And again I reiterate that these bigger prospects form part of my unfinished
mission in Congress, for Catanduanes.
I am now in the process of finalizing my legislative agenda for the 16 th
Congress with these higher objectives foremost in my mind. You have my total and
unshakeable vow that these projects will be realized in time.
But of course, not at the expense of the livelihood, scholarship, health
programs and small-scale socio-economic programs that are in equitable presence
now in the province and which I will continue with undiminished fervor. For without
these rudiments of rural progress, nothing can be attained.
In all humility I can do what can expected of me as a second-termer
congressman like what you prayed for when I was the neophyte Congressman
Sarmiento . The past three years have given me so much experience and the
necessary competence that I can extend to the limits of my ability, of course with your
prayers and support. My spirits are at its highest with the huge approval you have
just given me.
And so, as I embark on another three years in the House of Representatives,
armed with a fresh mandate from you, I call upon on all Catandunganons to be
optimistic of the future, not to be on the side of doubt or wasteful speculation.

Let us now put behind whatever differences were caused by the recent
election exercise. There is absolutely no reason for us to prolong the agony over
personal losses, political failures, political disunity and ruinous ands unproductive
partisanship. They will all come to pass, because we Catandunganons are a people
used to these aberrations.
We cannot allow our children and grandchildren to grow and mature under
the unhealthy atmosphere of Catanduanes politics. Very soon they would be in our
shoes and there can be no better way of raising them if in their raw minds and in
their youthful years, the appropriate socio-cultural values and standards of moral
rectitude are simply not there.
Therefore on this special day, as I prepare for a new chapter in my public life,
I am sincerely offering my hand of partnership and cooperation to Governor Araceli
Wong and to all those in the local bureaucracy. For I believe, only in being united in
our hearts and minds, can we live up to expectations of our people, and in the
truest sense, be considered as genuine advocates of productiveness and positivism.
The equilibrium of change and progress is now in our favor. Let us preserve,
sustain and not waste it, for Catanduanes is where the life-sustaining roots of our
big dreams and aspirations lie. Catanduanes is our home, no other place in this
world. Mabalos sa gabos .###