Ex-ship captain overthrows Bohol’s political dynasty and wins mayoral race

A SENIOR citizen with no political advantages, both in name and experience, overthrew a dynasty that held Dauis, Bohol for the past nine years.

Ship’s captain Roman “Amoi” Bullen won the mayoral race with 14,380 votes to Josever Sumaylo’s 11,701 votes. Sumaylo is the president of Liga ng Mga Barangay in Dauis City and the husband of outgoing mayor Marietta Sumaylo. The latter ran and won the post of vice-mayor.

In an interview, Bullen revealed that he had no prior experience in public governance as he had just retired from the Navy in March 2021.

“I started sailing in 1978 and have been sailing for 43 years, 21 of which being the captain of the ship. I have had no incidents of grounding and collision or any accident since,” he explained. .

Bullen said his experiences at sea prepared him for the challenges of governance.

“You will encounter all kinds of pressures when you are a ship’s captain. You will be managing a multi-million dollar ship whose operations cost thousands of dollars per hour. And then you will be managing people of different nationalities, cultures and languages” , did he declare.

“I really know how to handle people. I’m trained for it. I’ll apply everything I’ve learned on the ships,” he said. After more than four decades of sailing, Bullen initially wanted to retire and rest with his family. What he saw while touring his hometown, however, changed his mind. several weeks some of our young people are being killed because of illegal drugs, there was no due process, they were just killed like a dog.

“And what has our local government prioritized despite this? Basketball courts, tennis courts, indoor courts. What will we do with all of this if our people are crying with loss and going hungry?

“When I decided to run for office, I told these people not to hesitate to come to me, that their problems are also mine. Since then, I know that I am spiritually, morally and financially ready. I am prepared and I am always with them,” he said.

Bullen’s main goal as mayor is to stabilize the city’s water supply and provide job opportunities for his constituents.

“I also intend to solve the problem of illegal drugs here within a year. Many of our fellow citizens have already died because of this. Some of them are young, taken to another town to be summarily executed. There’s no justice to that,” he added. he said.

Bullen also intends to increase the elderly pension from P500 to P1,000.

“And then we will strengthen the city scholarship program, we will make it pro-poor. Even those with a grade of 75 can benefit from the scholarship, so there will be no reason for young people not to out of school. This aid covers everyone.”

“Another axis of development is tourism. We will value our tourist destinations because it is a way to move our city forward.

“I may not have the name or the experience and yet I won. I can feel that our people wanted a change so badly, that they are fed up with the current system. I won’t let them be abused or threatened. I will end the dynasty here,” Bullen said in an interview a few months before the election.