"Loving your COUNTRY is loving your CHILDREN
for it is they that will inherit it when you're gone."
Many Filipinos only look at him as the son the late president. Being the namesake of his father, it is quite impossible to detach himself from the shadows of his old man. For a political leader and a public manager who has served our country with integrity for nearly two decades, it is unfair not to see him as his own person.
At age 54, he has achieved a remarkable record of accomplishments. He started public service when he was elected vice-governor of Ilocos Norte in 1980. After a forced exile abroad, he came back to the Philippines in 1991 and was elected to Congress as representative for the second district of his home province the following year. During his three-consecutive term as governor to his hometown, he transformed Ilocos Norte into a first-class province through cultural tourism. In 2007, he was elected back to the House of Representatives where he served for a time as Deputy Minority Leader - Republic Act No. 9522 or the "Philippine Archipelagic Baselines Law" is one of the important legislation he successfully authored. He placed seventh overall in the 2010 senatorial elections and presently chairs the Senate Committee on Local Government and the Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlements.
