Serve people before ourselves - lawmaker

By Raadee Sausa July 23, 2020 Gov. Jonvic Remulla of Cavite (Photo from Gov. Jonvic RemullaFB) IMUS, Cavite - A lawmaker urged fel...

By Raadee Sausa
July 23, 2020

Gov. Jonvic Remulla of Cavite (Photo from Gov. Jonvic RemullaFB)

IMUS, Cavite - A lawmaker urged fellow officials to "serve the people first before we serve ourselves" by focusing on containing the coronavirus pandemic instead of pushing for charter change (Cha-cha).

The government should "prioritize testing, contact tracing, and isolation" to curb the spread of COVID-19, and then unite the people "towards economic recovery," Gov. Jonvic Remulla of Cavite said on Thursday.





"We shouldn't be putting other things first. I hope we give singular attention to fighting and curbing the pandemic and all the problems it had caused," he said on his Facebook post.

"Charter change or the proposed amendments to the Constitution can wait. What is important should be first," Remulla added.





Home to some 3.7 million people, Cavite is the most populous province in the Calabarzon region, according to 2015 data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The Interior Department said over the weekend that 1,488 municipal mayors support two constitutional reforms, namely:

- the lifting of foreign restrictions in industries limited to Filipinos;
- and sourcing internal revenue allotments for local governments from all national taxes, and not only those collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.