BY CARLA P. GOMEZ
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri sponsored Senate Resolution No. 544 on Tuesday, honoring the life of former Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr.
“He was a visionary who changed Negros,” said Zubiri, whose family has roots in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental.
“His agricultural and environmental initiatives for the province were groundbreaking,” the senator added.
Marañon Jr., 84, who passed away at the Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod City on October 1, was governor of Negros Occidental from 2010 to 2019.
Marañon began his career in government service as a councilor of Sagay in 1964, and then went on to become vice mayor and mayor of the city.
He also served as assemblyman of Negros Occidental and congressman of the second district of the province. “
“As a young environmentalist, I really looked up to him,” Zubiri said. “I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to work with him in our time as congressmen in the Eleventh Congress”, he added.
Marañon and Zubiri both served in the Eleventh Congress as representatives of the second district of Negros Occidental and the third district of Bukidnon, respectively. “And of course he was a brilliant governor, and he was really able to unite Negros, which was the key to the development of the province.”
Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Senators Cynthia Villar, Sonny Angara, Joel Villanueva, RisaHontiveros, Imee Marcos, Ramon Bong Revilla, Kiko Pangilinan, Richard Gordon, and Grace Poe also shared fond remembrances and admiration for the former governor, as they manifested their support for the resolution.
The senators praised his agricultural and environmental initiatives, as well as his move to unite the two provinces of Negros into the singular Negros Island Region. All senators were made co-authors of the resolution.*
