Yamsuan assures: Running for Parañaque House seat won’t affect duties
MANILA, Philippines — Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan has assured his constituents that gunning for Parañaque 2nd District’s congressional seat in the 2025 midterm elections would not affect his duty as an incumbent lawmaker.
In an interview after filing his certificate of candidacy (COC) on Tuesday morning, Yamsuan was asked how he would manage being Bicol Saro’s representative while campaigning for the congressional seat.
Yamsuan said that his bid for Parañaque’s 2nd District seat will not affect his performance as an incumbent lawmaker.
“They (Bicol Saro) will still participate; we will have a nominee, and we will file it in the next few days. We talked before, what the party leaders requested is that I finish my term, and I’ll be running as an incumbent party-list representative,” he said.
“But at the end of the day, my candidacy for Parañaque’s 2nd District would not affect my position as current congressman of Bicol Saro party list,” he added.
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Article continues after this advertisementAccording to Yamsuan, he got the idea of running for Parañaque’s congressional seat because residents from the city urged him to bring his services to the city too.
“By moving around Parañaque, because we have been living there for a long time, around 20 years na, of course in the course of campaigning, people have been convincing me to pay attention to this area, because they feel that we have contributed much to Bicol Region, maybe they felt it’s time that what we did as a congressman before, should be provided to them also,” he said.
“So we consulted with the leaders, our party-list, Bicol Saro, I talked to the leaders and since we have contributed well to our region, and many of the people here in Parañaque are Bicolanos too, maybe this is the time for us to bring our services and projects here,” he added.
In the running for the said congressional seat, Yamsuan will be squaring off against House of Representatives committee on legislative franchises chairperson and Parañaque 2nd District Rep. Gus Tambunting.
Despite Tambunting being an incumbent official, Yamsuan believes the endorsement of sectoral leaders, like those from the youth, senior citizens, transport groups, women, and the LGBTQIA community would help him.
“Hindi tayo pwedeng magbulag-bulagan sa maraming pagkukulang na nangyayari sa ating distrito kaya minarapat ko ng mag-file ng kandidatura bilang congressman ng second district,” he said.
(We cannot turn a blind eye to the shortcomings here in our district; that’s why I decided to file a certificate of candidacy as congressman of the second district.)
Aside from being a lawmaker, Yamsuan was an Interior undersecretary, before being a deputy secretary general of the House’s 18th Congress. He currently heads the House Committee on Aquaculture and Fisheries Resources.