• RICHARD T. CABALLERO JR.
Cadiz Mayor Salvador Escalante Jr. vowed to represent the whole Negros Island region and will serve as its voice at the League of Cities in the Philippines (LCP), after being elected as the vice president for Visayas on Friday.
Escalante highlighted during an interview that his election is beneficial not just for the Visayas, but also for NIR, since it is a new and emerging administrative region.
“It is a huge thing not just for Visayas but also especially for NIR, because I will be representing the 19 mayors of the region and the region itself. NIR, being a neophyte region, is in need of representation and someone to voice at LCP,” Escalante said.
He also said that Mayor Francis Zamora of San Juan City, who was elected as the national president, tapped him to be his vice-president in Visayas.
“We have been friends for a long time, maybe because of our longevity in the league. When he decided to run as president of the league, he called me to ask for support as his VP, and I accepted the offer,” he said.
After his election, Escalante thanked all the city mayors in the Negros Island Region (NIR), Western Visayas, and the rest in the Visayas Region for trusting him to lead them and to be the voice at the LCP.
Escalante is also the newly installed president of the Association of Chief Executives (ACE) in Negros Occidental.
Meanwhile, Bacolod City Mayor Greg Gasataya was also elected as LCP’s focal mayor for mental health awareness, and Himamaylan City Mayor Raymund Tongson as the representative for NIR.*
