The Marcos campaign said Friday that Benhur Abalos, the campaign manager of presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos Jr, will lead the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) portfolio.
“I would like to announce that chairman Benhur Abalos has been nominated to lead the Department of the Interior, and he has accepted the challenge to lead the Department of the Interior and Local Government,” Marcos spokesman Atty. Vic Rodriguez said in a press briefing.
Under departing President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, Abalos was the chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
It will be recalled that Abalos, a lawyer, took over when former MMDA Chairman Danilo Lim passed away in January 2021.
During his term, Benhur Abalos carried the slogan “MMDA At Your Service.”
His vital projects are flood control mitigating measures, traffic reduction initiatives, sanitation, and beautification.
From 1995 until 1998, Abalos was a councilor in Mandaluyong’s 1st district. He chaired the Committee on Laws, Peace and Order, and Public Safety and sat on the Committee on Angara Affairs, Livelihood and Cooperatives.
Benhur Abalos named Bongbong Marcos’ DILG chief
Abalos was elected mayor for the first time in 1998. In his one term in office, he was credited with transforming Mandaluyong into the “Tiger City of the Philippines.” Until 2004, he was the local chief executive.
In the 2004 elections, he exchanged seats with Rep. Neptali Gonzales II, a longstanding political friend, to become the city’s lone representative to the Philippine Congress’ House of Representatives. Abalos held this position until 2007.
He wrote 25 House measures and co-authored 54 others during his time in the lower house. In addition, he sponsored the Philippine Sports Commission’s most significant budget in its history. Abalos was also the primary author of Republic Act No. 9397, the 1992 Amended Urban Development Housing Act.
Benhur Abalos was re-elected mayor of Mandaluyong in 2007. Abalos established new milestones in his second term as mayor after being elected president of two national organizations. The Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) was the first organization, consisting of all 1.2 million elected/appointed local officials and their umbrella organizations.
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