ALMOST a month after the demise of Benguet Representative Nestor Fongwan Sr., lawmakers in the province are calling for the conduct of a special election.
The province's board members sent a resolution addressed to the House of Representatives, led by House Speaker Allan Peter Cayetano, informing the Lower House of the vacancy of the seat of the lone district representative of the province, and they asked for a special election.
The resolution asked the House to initiate the call or conduct a special election to fill up the vacancy and for the winning candidate to serve the unexpired term of the former congressman.
"The winner in the special election enjoys a fresh mandate from the people to govern and implement programs, projects and activities that redound to the utmost benefit of the province and its people," Resolution 2020 stated.
The approved measure was also forwarded to the respective offices of the different representatives of the Cordillera Administrative Region.
Vice Governor Johnny Waguis said the Provincial Board will wait for the response of Cayetano and the House of Representatives.
"A caretaker is not enough. A caretaker has to defend first his district's budget before Benguet," he added.
Before 2019 ends, news broke in the province with the untimely death of Fongwan Sr. on December 18 due to acute respiratory failure, underlying cause upper gastrointestinal bleeding peptic ulcer renal cell cancer with mestasis.
Fongwan Sr., 68, is survived by his wife Priscilla and five children.
In his short stint in Congress, Fongwan Sr. authored 21 bills. He was a public servant for more than 30 years, being a councilor, vice mayor, a three-term mayor of La Trinidad and governor of Benguet. In 2019, he was elected as the lone district representative of the province.