Sablayan SB First 100 Days: Pioneers & Incumbents*

With the opening of our Photo Exhibition a while ago and the gallery walk, we are going to observe and commemorate the first 100 days of office of each Sangguniang Bayan. With this historical-cultural-political lookback using photo gallery as medium, we at the Office of the Vice-Mayor and the Sangguniang Bayan are optimistic that this would serve the purpose of commending and acknowledging the past and present local legislators and vice-mayors of Sablayan.

My assignment today is to give you a foreword for this activity.

We call this Pioneers and Incumbents: A Photo Exhibition of Historical Reminiscences of Past and Present Legislators and State of First 100 Days’ of Local Legislation Address of Vice-Mayor Walter B. Marquez.

But before everything else, please be reminded that the 100-days concept is believed to have its roots in France, where the concept of “Cent Jours” (Hundred Days) refers to the period of 1815 when King Louis XVIII regained the throne.

Later in America, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s extraordinary productivity translated into enormous popularity, and he set a first 100-day standard against which all future U.S. presidents would be measured. This tradition extends in US allied countries like the Philippines and it transcends down to its local governments, and the rest is history, so to speak.

This event coincidentally falls in the celebration of the 28th Local Government Code anniversary as per Presidential Proclamation No. 63, series of 1992 declaring October as the Local Government Month, the second week of October as the Local Government Week and the 10th day of October as the Local Government Day.

In our teaser and in the opening banner it is written:

This project is in no way a finished business.

This Photo Exhibit is a continuous historical search and requires a more thorough investigation in the future, specifically the part where we try our best to honor the pioneering legislators and vice-mayors of our beloved town of Sablayan.

The days from October 14, 2019 onwards, we will have thankful days of remembrance. We will be presenting you photographs and documents to recapture the moments of legislation and dedicated labor of our past and present legislators.

The long gone pioneer legislators and those who are still living lost every bit of their temporal comforts but never let their zeal to serve the people, through authoring local legislation, go in vain. We have moved a long way and have arrived at a time where we have been called to cultivate the qualities of gratitude and service and possess the gentle spirit of determination to hasten the work of Lawmaking.

The Spirit of the People of Sablayan is larger than Life, thus, the Theme: “Look Back as We Look Forward for Quality Policy Rules”.

The journey of this town leading to quality legislation may be long and hard, but we will never be alone.”

But this was more than a photo exhibition and bestowing of recognition to the “surviving”, living past vice-mayors of Sablayan. It has been a major awareness campaign to remember the life and works of our forebears in local legislation. Today we honor their achievements, their drive to succeed and their contributions to our town’s development and productivity. It is our aim to highlight the ability of these lawmakers who made both their public and private lives productive, relevant and meaningful.

But bear with us in our inconsistencies,-historically, grammatically, or otherwise. The typo errors, the overlooking of some details are ours alone. We will rectify them the soonest possible time.

We all should empowering our constituents beyond our first 100 days of office and beyond and give them importance. We should abide by this culture. This is a way of capacitating them and empowering the people. Our constituents cannot be outsiders forever. They are part and parcel of governance.

Their participation is what we all celebrate. Let us give them a warm round of applause.

These are the things that cannot be captured in any photo of whatever size and be accommodated in any show room or exhibition space, as we have stressed in our opening banner.

Thank you very much and we wish this exhibition be a complete success.

Magandang araw po sa inyong lahat!

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(Introduction to the Activity Speech during A Photo Exhibition of Historical Reminiscences of Past and Present Legislators and State of First 100 Days’ of Local Legislation Address of Vice-Mayor Walter B. Marquez, 14 October 2019; 2nd Floor Legislative Building, Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro)