Ex-Zambo mayor Agan dies

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Former Zamboanga City mayor Vitaliano Agan died on Tuesday after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 74. Agan, who was mayor from 1987-1998, died at the Zamboanga Doctors Hospital. He assumed office on June 2, 1987, when Mayor Rini Climaco, then the appointive mayor under the Interim Revolutionary Government of Pres. Corazon Aquino, resigned to begin his campaign for congressional seat. On January 18, 1988, Agan ran against former Mayor Manuel Dalipe, who in 1986 was removed from office following the Edsa revolution. During his reign, Agan pursued programs for poverty alleviation and implemented a policy of human resource development program in government. Under his administration, he made it a policy to bring education to the barangays. It became his priority program to construct high schools in the major barangays of the city. His other projects included the completion of the concreting of all major roads, street lighting and traffic lights. Agan was re-elected in 1992, and then again in 1995. He had served as chairman of the Regional Peace and Order Council and Regional Development Council. He headed the local Lakas NUCD chapter and the City Reconciliation and Development Council. He became the Vice-President for the Confederation of Mindanao Leaders, the Mindanao League of Mayors of the Philippines Agan had always said that he wanted the people of Zamboanga to remember him as the only orphan who became a mayor. He would always stay true to his favorite maxim, “Think global, act local for global excellence." - Al Jacinto, GMANews.TV