Luna Mayor Garde calls for unified public service during Inaugural address

Luna, Apayao - On 7th day of July 2025, Luna Mayor Januario Garde delivered his inaugural address during the Inaugural session of the 12th Sangguniang Assembly, urging the members of the council to exemplify unity towards the delivery of better public service to the townspeople.

Here is the full message of the LCE before the new sets of Sangguniang Bayan members at the Legislative Building.

''People have always looked at the different branches of government in terms of checks and balances, and that has shaped our attitude towards each other. On one hand, it implies that one should not be trusted and that the other is there to make sure that they work as they should.

I personally believe that we are not weights at the end of a scale, carefully maneuvering to make sure that one is not going to tip one end in their favor. We are all stewards of the collective dreams and aspirations of the people of Luna; heading not in opposite directions but traveling alongside each other.

Going towards a singular goal.

With that being said, I am honored to be addressing the new set of the legislative body that is ready to tackle what seems to be a monumental task: to take the municipality of Luna to greater heights and to help guide her people towards a brighter future.

As your chief implementor, I am excited and hopeful about what your collective efforts shall generate in terms of policymaking. I am confident that you will not waste the mandate given to you and that you will legislate local laws that will become the foundations of a cultural identity. A tapestry of local history that is woven and embedded with resilience against adversity, with moral strength, with altruism towards the people, with enough foresight to welcome and prepare for the future, with enough wisdom to blaze new paths and with enough kindness to promote unity amidst diversity.

I have said a while ago that we should not be weights balancing each other out, but forces pushing and pulling each other much like the forces inside an engine. Without the other, one will never generate enough power to move. Alone, I might be able to inch my way slowly towards minuscule changes.

I know that.

But with you by my side, complementing my humble aspirations and desire to serve the people, we will travel far and wide. Let us set aside our political differences and recognize each other's importance; each other's role in this very short window of opportunity given to us by God and the people. Granted that we have our own way of thinking and of doing things, I believe that we have more things in common. Let us not allow our differences to dictate the way we treat each other, but I implore you to search inside your heart and recognize that one common similarity that binds us: we were blessed with the opportunity to do good.. to leave a legacy of hope. As much as we choose to be here, we were also chosen to be here. Entrusted with a responsibility so big that it dwarfs our individual desires.

Ladies and gentlemen, as of this moment, we are no longer individuals working for ourselves. We are ONE FORCE entrusted with a sacred task.

We say 'LUNA, UMUNA. ' In other words, I see a challenge. In order to be number one, to lead, to be the first in anything, we must be prepared to work as one.

That is the only thing I ask of you. When we work together, everything else follows.''

In response, the Office of the Sangguniang Bayan led by Vice Mayor Zaira Erika Caluya, has affirmed its commitment to work with genuine accountability and offer unified support to the new administration's development plans.