LAWYER Henry Jabiguero Bacal, the city vice mayor of Cagayan de Oro at the height of Marcos dictatorship, from 1984 to 1988, passed away April 19. He was 73.
Bacal, then a political neophyte, topped the race for the seven-seat city council in 1980 elections, the first electoral exercise eight years after martial law was declared.
He was with a hastily formed Mindanao Alliance opposition slate that gave the ruling Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party a nine-zero sweep, included that of the mayoral and vice-mayoral posts.
The unprecedented victory gave birth to the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP) which, in later years, had an alliance with the Luzon-based Lakas ng Bayan (Laban).
In 1984, then-mayor Aquilino Pimentel Jr. ran and won a seat in the Batasang Pambansa, thus giving way for his vice mayor, Pablo Magtajas, to assume. Being the number one councilor, the 38-year old Bacal became the city council’s presiding officer.
Bacal became PDP’s ideologue and the trainors’ trainor in the nationwide party membership recruitment until the merger with Laban.
In the 1988 elections, he failed to recapture the city’s second-highest post and the rest was history. He returned to private law practice and watched from the sidelines how PDP-Laban became today’s most powerful political party.
Ten days ago, he was brought to a hospital due to gastrointestinal bleeding, but the attending physician declared him dead on arrival. The immediate cause of his death was septicemia. He has long been a diabetic.
He is survived by his spouse, retired regional judge Josefina Gentiles-Bacal, sons Clemens and Noel, daughter Christie Joy, son-in-law Boris Mayencourt, daughter-in-law Jadie Pabellan, grandchildren Noella Mireia and Sofina Alexa. (Uriel C. Quilinguing)
Disclaimer
Mindanao Gold Star Daily holds the copyrights of all articles and photos in perpetuity. Any unauthorized reproduction in any platform, electronic and hardcopy, shall be liable for copyright infringement under the Intellectual Property Rights Law of the Philippines.
