TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan —Mayor Francisco Mamba Jr. of Tuao town was voted president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Cagayan chapter in Lal-lo on September 22.
Mamba won 13 of the 24 votes against the incumbent LMP president, Lal-lo town Mayor Florante Pascual who got 11 votes.
In an interview, Mamba said his administration will be a working LMP and will try to reach a consensus on every issue. He added that he has supported the LMP for many years.
“The position of LMP president is not a one of power and not for personal interest but rather for the development of every municipality. The LMP of Cagayan will serve as the voice of the municipality,” he vowed.
“The LMP will bring the provincial government closer to the local government units,” Mamba said.
“Let us be partners with Gov. Manuel Mamba in developing our respective localities and the entire province, he added. The Tuguegarao mayor is the brother of the Cagayan governor and can easily relay to him the concerns of the local officials.
“We have a governor who has priorities for the development of the barangays and towns in the province and under the Cagayan Development Agenda 2025, no. 3: No Barangay, No Town Left Behind, we need to take advantage of this as this will steer development in our respective municipalities,” Mamba explained.
A better and productive future is in the offing for the municipalities of the province of Cagayan, he stressed.
The provincial government has allocated P500,000 a year to every barangay and P3 million yearly for each municipality on a bottom-up budgeting scheme.
The mayors of Claveria, Baggao and Pamplona were absent. Former Rizal mayor Joel Ruma was not allowed to cast his vote in behalf of his wife who is the incumbent mayor.
Gonzaga Mayor Marilyn Pentecostes, Penablanca Mayor Washington Taguinod and Iguig Mayor Ferdinand Trinidad volunteered as election committee chairman during the election.
The election was witnessed by Mayor Ferdinand Abesamis, LMP national representative and DILG official Luis Udanga.
Mamba Jr. started as the private secretary of the former governor when he was congressman of the third district for a year. He worked as an agent at the National Bureau of Investigation and was promoted six times in his five-year stint when he was sent around the country for training. He was in the 26th batch of the NBI Academy.
In 1995, he won 98 percent of votes for Tuao mayor. In his second term he ran unopposed and in his last term he got 99.9 Percent of the votes. He was Presidential Adviser for Cagayan Valley Region in from mid-2004 to 2010 under the former President Gloria Arroyo. He ran as Representative for the 3rd Legislative district of Cagayan in 2010 but lost. He was reelected the town’s chief in 2013 with 88 percent of the votes.
Among his notable achievement was the Task Force Lingkod Bayan that mandates LGU employees to take immediate action on any request for assistance, especially in emergencies.
The TLFB is modeled on 911 of the US. The Office of the Mayor is open 24 hours everyday.
Now on its 23rd year of operation, Task Force Lingkod Bayan is a by-word not only in the municipality of Tuao, but in neighboring towns. The program was continued in the three terms of Mayor William Mamba now the vice mayor of Tuao. It is now replicated in other municipalities and is operational across the province of Cagayan.