AFTER 56 years (1963 to 2019), outgoing Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo G. Maranon, Jr. will retire from public office at noontime of June 30, 2019.
But he wears a big smile as he faces his final days in public office.
The Governor who rose from the ranks as councilor, vice mayor, mayor, assemblyman, congressman and governor only experienced a lone defeat when he ran for vice governor against the late Vice Governor Roy Gamboa in 1992.
But to sum it all, he felt a sense of fulfillment because he did so many things for the people. But despite doing his best for the people, he still considered that his best was not enough as there are so many things needed to be done.
He entered politics by accident. He was an Engineering graduate when his group of young blood came home to Sagay and they saw very little improvement of their place. So they decided to join politics and he ran for councilor and he won. It was during the time of former Mayor Jose B. Puey, his party mate.
As to the boon and bane of politics, Marañon said, as long as the issues hurdled against him are untrue, it did not affect him because he always believed that the truth will always come out.
His biggest achievement was his pro-environment initiatives, scholarships for the people of Negros and the Negros Occidental Comprehensive Heath Insurance which has helped more than 300,000 Negrenses who were able to avail of the program.
The province scholars were already successful and the scholarship continues to help the residents.
After he retires, he says he will never stop learning because life has to have a continuous learning as long as there is life.
“We need to continue acquiring knowledge. I will never get bored. I have so many things to do. Enjoy my family and maybe travel to places with promo plane tickets,” he said.
Politically, he hopes that the unification of the United Negros Alliance and Love Negros will continue.
A political system is the basic foundation of democracy and politics should only dwell on issues. And after the political season, politics is also parked because everybody has to work together for the betterment of the province, local government units and the country.
But politics is very divisive more so if the political rivals involved families that sometimes lead to politics of violence.
The governor is leaving his position to Governor-elect Eugenio Jose Lacson who promised to continue his programs. He also urged the people to support and cooperate with the incoming leadership because it is for the good of the province.
He urged the incoming leaders that, “We should improve our educational system and as much as possible to revise our curriculum and to look forward for the future because the advancement of technology now is very fast. The Information Technology runs fast. On June 3, we will have a ground breaking of our new Negros Occidental Global Institute of Technology in Talisay City,” he said.
The building with offices, classrooms and site development initially costs P150 million was built in a 3-hectare property. They will hire new teachers and there will be courses on different foreign languages as there are big demands for workers in Japan.
Furthermore, the governor said that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel as he attended recently the annual International Food Exposition. There he saw that Negros products were very saleable with good product presentation.
“With that we can already compete with the world. We have so many products that are being sought after by international market such as the banana chips, sticks, balls and seafood,” he said.
The province needs more post-harvest facilities such as cold storage so that vegetables, meat and marine products will be preserved well.