BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – A little over two months after winning the May 9 elections, Mayor Lorenzo Eduardo Suatengco of Pulupandan, Negros Occidental resigned.
Suatengco formally submitted his resignation to Negros Occidental governor Eugenio Jose Lacson three weeks after assuming his post.
The governor approved the resignation.
Suatengco cited health issues for his decision to resign.
Part of his letter to Lacson read: “After much consideration, I have decided to vacate my position as the newly-elected municipal mayor of Pulupandan due to unforeseen health reasons.”
His health condition, he added, would “affect my capacity to carry out the responsibilities as the local chief executive.”
Suatengco, however, gave no specifics about his health.
Vice Mayor Miguel Peña thus became the new mayor of Pulupandan, and the No. 1 Sangguniang Bayan member, Anthony Gerard Suatengco, replaced Peña as new vice mayor.
Peña formally took his oath of office as mayor before Lacson at the provincial capitol yesterday morning.
He served as mayor of Pulupandan for three terms – 2013 to 2016, 2016 to 2019 and 2019 to 2022 and ran for vice mayor in this year’s polls.
Before his election as mayor, Suatengco was a barangay captain and Liga ng mga Barangay –
Pulupandan federation president and as such sat as ex-officio member in the Pulupandan Sangguniang Bayan,
It was his father, Antonio “Tony” Esteban Suatengco, 72, who originally ran for mayor in the May 9 elections but the elder Suatengco died on Feb. 27 due to renal failure and other complications.
The younger Suatengco substituted his father in the race for mayor./PN
