I was there, and the applause for Gilbert Remulla exceeded, in volume and duration, the applause of the other politicians introduced. He has a heck of a lot of backers. Very good for a candidate.

Leaders of the Partido Magdalo were there, pushing hard for Gilbert Remulla’s reelection. This man’s service, incorruptibility, and fortitude have been demonstrated to his constituents.

Infrastructure projects and socio-economic programs are all there, put in place by Remulla and others serious about improving the lives of Caviteños. There’s his program for continuing medical and dental missions, getting poor children back to school, and support for deserving students in high school and college. There’s the construction of school buildings. Remulla solicited computer units with internet service now in use in Cavite public schools.

Through Remulla-pushed road improvement projects and assistance to farm improvement, farmers are now enjoying better harvest; more dependable farm to market transportation. All these bring about Industrial peace and economic prosperity for the Remulla’s locality.

Rep. Remulla was at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for a week-long seminar sponsored by the School’s Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health.

Legislators from several nations were provided training and leadership on a range of development issues, including HIV, population growth and human rights.

The Filipino delegation believes that new legislation is the key to slowing the nation’s population growth. Laws are needed to codify health policies for educating the public and for providing resources and access to reproductive health services. Proper legislation would institutionalize hopefully, population policies.

As of the moment, population policies really vary from administration to administration.

Remulla believes that the parliamentarians seminar, as well as learning about the concerns of delegates from other countries, provided him with fresh insights to his own country’s problems.

"For me, it was a way to re-analyze the whole problem and for us to be given new ways to look at, to tackle and attack the problem. There is the importance of ‘framing’ the issues and discussions for the constituents back home and to develop new ways to get message across more effectively."

Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio: "If we can find ways to provide couples or families with services in order for them to stay within their desired number of children, then you can address a lot of the population growth and a lot of the social problems that come with a family you can’t feed."

The Philippines is world’s leading suppliers of labor, which means that many Filipino children are left in the care of others while their parents seek work abroad.

Since the late 1980s, Congress has tried unsuccessfully to enact reproductive health legislation but for stiff political opposition, particularly from the leadership of the Catholic Church.