House brings President Marcos service caravan to Tacloban

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — An unprecedented 240 officials and members of the House of Representatives attended President Marcos’ Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (BPSF) here yesterday.

“This is the highest number we have achieved so far. We can hold sessions here now because we already have a quorum,” Speaker Martin Romualdez said in jest.

“I’m very happy that we have an overwhelming number of congressmen joining us in this super mega Serbisyo Fair here in Eastern Visayas. Through this, we assure you that funds are directly downloaded to you,” he said.

A statement from the Speaker’s office indicated that the BPSF caravan rolled out a total of P1.26 billion worth of government services and financial aid to 253,000 beneficiaries – the largest so far in the history of the service caravan.

House deputy secretary-general Sofonias Gabonada, one of the officials of the BPSF, said a total of 56 national government agencies participated in the region-wide service caravan offering over 328 services.

He added that P807-million cash assistance was doled out to beneficiaries during the caravan.

Gabonada said the Departments of Social Welfare and Development and Labor and Employment “have conducted and will continue to conduct cash aid payouts across the region, which is expected to reach over 140,000 individuals.”

Other region-wide activities include scholarship programs of the Commission on Higher Education and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, including livelihood assistance and opportunities for various sectors of pre-identified eligible clients across Eastern Visayas.