The Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (PBSF) Eastern Visayas that Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez will spearhead Friday morning is the biggest and grandest staging of the service caravan in terms of the total value of services to be delivered but also in the number of lawmakers attending the event.
This was bared by House Deputy Secretary General and Lead of BPSF National Secretariat Sofonias Gabonada Jr. and Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre during a joint press conference held Thursday afternoon at the Guest House of the Leyte Normal University in Tacloban City.
According to Gabonada, the 21st staging of the Eastern Visayas BPSF will give out over P1.2 billion worth of services to the people of Region VIII, of which over P800 million is in the form of cash assistance.
“Nandito ang mga congressman, 241 House members who will be visiting tomorrow to witness the Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair at gusto nilang makita na yung inilaan nilang pondo sa mga ahensya ng gobyerno at mga program nito ay naparating talaga sa mga tao,” Gabonada said.
Acidre said the presence of the lawmakers in the service caravan also manifests the solid support of the members of the House for the initiatives of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to bring positive change not only in Leyte and Eastern Visayas but also in the entire country.
“Consistent po ang ating Speaker (Romualdez) at ang ating Presidente Marcos na ilapit ang serbisyo sa taong bayan. So let’s take advantage of it,” said Acidre.
According to Gabonada, this also marks the first time BPSF will be held region-wide with Speaker Romualdez leading the rollout of the service caravan in Tacloban City while other “mini-BPSF” will be held simultaneously in other provinces in Eastern Visayas.
He said the BSPF can accomplish faster its goal of delivering needed services to all the 82 provinces of the country if implemented region-wide, aside from improving the efficiency in the utilization of manpower and resources.
“If successful, we would replicate it (in other areas of the country),” Gabonada said, as he noted that Leyte was among the first four provinces where BPSF was officially launched.
Despite the regional implementation of the Marcos administration’s service caravan, he assured that the quality of the services in the BSPF provided in the main and satellite venues would remain the same -- “substantive, essential, and responsive” to the needs of the people.
Meanwhile, Acidre said the start of the deliberation next week of the House of Representatives on the proposed 6.352 trillion 2025 national budget would not likely affect the implementation of the BPSF.
He noted that the BPSF is usually conducted towards the weekends when there are usually no scheduled sessions or hearings.
Besides, he said the attendance of the lawmakers in BPSF could provide them valuable insights in approving proposed funding for government agencies and programs as the occasion provides an opportunity for the solons to assess the actual impact on people’s lives.
“With the momentum established by President Marcos and Speaker Romualdez, talagang kailangan doble kayod kami. Siguro kung ganyan kasipag ang Speaker, we (lawmakers) can do nothing less,” he said.
Speaker is one of the key movers behind the BPSF, meant to bring the services of the government closer to the people, which is one of the key campaign promises of President Marcos.
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