Bam graces 119th Malolos Congress anniversary; Duterte sends message

MALOLOS CITY, Bulacan — People of Bulacan welcomed last Friday Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Assistant Secretary Ricojudge Janvier Echiverri as their honored guests at the celebration of the 119th Anniversary of the Malolos Congress at the historic Barasoain Church, here.

“What we face today is lack in education, poverty, violence, and loss of opportunity in our country. And so, we need to be heroes again. If there is an example we can draw from the Malolos Congress, that would be unity despite diversity in order to fight for the country,” Aquino said in Filipino.

Representing President Duterte at the event, Echiverri conveyed three things the President wants to achieve – first, is for people to be open to talks on federalism; second, is clarity in his real policy on addressing the illegal drugs problem; and third, answering questions pertaining the barangay elections.

On the first point, the DILG Assistant Secretary for External and Legislative Affairs said federalism should be discussed and studied, citing how one good thing about it is the much bigger fund allocation that will be given to local governments.

On the war on drugs, he said death and killings are not the policy of President Duterte.

And on the issue of barangay elections, Echiverri said that it is still on hold and pleaded, meanwhile, to all the barangay officials to step down if they are involved in drugs.

“Mayroon tayong 160,000 na kapulisan, 420,000 po ang barangay officials. Ako na po ang nakikiusap sa inyo, kung kayo po ay sangkot sa droga, mag-resign na po kayo, wala kayong puwang dito, pagbigyan n’yong maglingkod ang mga may puso talaga sa paglilingkod,” he said.

For his part, Gov. Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado underscored the importance of the Malolos Congress that gave birth to an independent and republican government and also emphasized the reasons why one should want to keep coming back to Bulacan.