Lucy speaks before the Rotary Club of Ormoc Bay.
REP. LUCY Torres-Gomez did not mince words when she told a gathering of Rotarians in the city that she describes the job of a congresswoman as a “professional beggar”.
“I have no ego. I’ll beg if I have to”, she said, saying that her first 40 working days were a “begging sessions” or a series of meetings with department secretaries, writing letters to them and lobbying with senators for fund releases, so that projects in the 4th district of Leyte would get funding.
She said, “I have been doing the rounds, visiting and touching base with the different secretaries of various agencies. I have also visited Senators and presented them with programs of work and plans. We have made it our mission to sent out letters ever week so that no day is ever wasted. Patience, persistence, begging — nicely and in an educated manner — I have made them my new best friends”.
Lucy, who was guest speaker of the Rotary Club of Ormoc Bay at its meeting place at Hotel Don Felipe on Friday evening, said that she was delivering to the club a report on her first 40 days. Also in attendance were officers and members of the Rotary Club of Ormoc, who also wanted to hear what the “accidental congresswoman” had to say.
In her report, Lucy said that on June 29, three days after Congress opened for the season, she has already filed one resolution and three house bills, aside from co-authoring 11 other bills filed by colleagues.
Two of these, she said, were in keeping of her campaign promise to seek for preferential power rates, especially in host communities like the province of Leyte where the 4th district is located.
She said she was happy to report that she filed Resolution No. 118 urging the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) to defer the bidding of the remaining geothermal plants in Tongonan, so that a review on the effect of privatization to power consumers can be done.
As of now, she added, the sale of the remaining power plants have been deferred.
This, she said, was followed by her filing HB No. 1937 which she aims to amend the EPIRA law.
Another HB she has filed is seeking for the provision of a toilet for every five classrooms built, saying that her UP professor on her crash course on legislation told her that there is a direct correlation between the lack of toilets with the rise of sexual molestation of children.
Her law will also ease up pressure on parents of poor communities, on whose shoulders fall the construction of these toilets through PTA projects and contributions.
As for tangible accomplishments during her first 40 days, she said that she and her team have already identified 23 dilapidated classrooms in Ormoc “to the point of being useless”. These have already been fully rehabilitated even with limited funds.
Her ongoing feeding program has already covered 16 barangays in various towns of the district, including Ormoc City, and has fed approximately 8,000 children.
She added she’s been told that Ormoc City has also embarked on its own feeding program. “I don’t mind. The more the better for our people. The more people, the more groups who put up feeding programs, the more hungry mouths we feed”, she pointed out, adding “that’s the beauty of competition. It brings out the best of everybody”.
As for her husband’s active role in implementing her programs, Lucy said “Like I promised during the campaign, you only had to vote for one Gomez, but two Gomez will serve you in the district”.
“I thank my husband, for his generous spirit. He has rallied behind me in full support. I need that. I rely on that a lot. We have always worked well as a team and that will be evident now more than ever.”
She added, “If you wish to fault me for that, then so be it, but I will not apologize for nor den y the fact that I need him working closely beside me. Let us not conveniently forget that he was the one who started this all. Time will tell that two of us will be more beneficial to the district. Together, we are working relentlessly at making our dreams for the district come true”.
In closing, she urged the Rotarians for cooperation and support. She also asked them to be vigilant as citizens and “that you do not become fence sitters, indifferent to what is happening and what needs to be done.”
She also reminded the members to do what they can do to improve the city. “No help is too little or too much. Take an active role. Ormoc is our home, Ormoc is where the heart is. Together, we can make it beautiful again.”
