WITH the memories of the bruising campaign still fresh in his mind, House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. took his oath of office on Thursday as representative of the Fourth District of Pangasinan.

He took his oath before the city and municipal mayors, vice mayors and councilors with whom he campaigned together in the district, held at Leisure Coast Resort in Bonuan Binloc.

With his wife Gina holding the microphone, de Venecia was sworn in for his seventh term of office in Congress by the mayoral candidates led by Dagupan City Mayor-elect Alipio Fernandez Jr.

The other mayors were Mojamito Libunao of San Fabian, Herminio Romero of Mangaldan, Rodolfo Columbres of San Jacinto and Napoleon Sales of Manaoag.

He said he dedicated his oath-taking to the Blessed Virgin of Manaoag, his daughter KC who passed away, and to the people of the Fourth District.

Prior to his oath-taking, de Venecia officiated the mass oath-taking of all elected mayors, vice mayors and councilors in his district, including Provincial Board Members Jeremy Rosario and Liberato Villegas.

In his speech, Speaker de Venecia called on the newly elected officials to put an end to the “dirty, divisive, poisonous and obstructionist election”, like what happened in the Fourth District and in some parts of the country in the May 14 polls.

Recalling what happened in the last election marred by massive vote-buying, de Venecia hit his challenger for using any and all dirty tactics in a bid to win.

“Normally, I’m very forgiving. Normally, I’d like to reach out. Normally I’d like to heal the wounds of war, the wounds of battle but I regret to say that our opponent in the last election used any and all dirty tricks in order to try to beat our campaign,” de Venecia told his audience.

He said that because of the massive vote buying resorted to by his opponent, there may not be any poor candidates running for public office anymore in the Fourth District.

Despite this, however, de Venecia scored a landside victory against his lone opponent, Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin Lim, in the elections held in Dagupan City, San Fabian, Mangaldan, San Jacinto and Manaoag.

“I condemn the criminal use of money to buy votes not only in Pangasinan but in other parts of the country,” de Venecia said.

Nevertheless, de Venecia extended the hands of friendship to all those who were defeated and fell along the way in the last election.

At the same time, de Venecia was pleased that all his local candidates aligned with his own party Lakas Christian Muslim-Democrats except for only a few, won in the election.

“With God’s grace and the blessing of the Lady of Manaoag, almost all our candidates won,” he said. — LM

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