Wong to run for vice mayor

SAN SIMON - Incumbent and three-termer Mayor Leonora Wong of this town on Monday officially announced that she will seek the vice-mayoralty post in the coming May 2019 elections.

In the sidelines of the distribution of scholarship grants and Taekwondo equipment in Sta. Monica High School here, Wong confirmed to mediamen that she wanted to continue serving Simonians, thus her plan to seek another public office in the coming polls.

“I am decided and I want to make it public, I will run for vice mayor of San Simon in the coming elections and I don’t see any reason to withdraw unless it is God’s will,” Wong announced.

Wong, who was first elected in a public office in 2010 as the local chief executive of San Simon and successively elected in 2013 and 2016, is set to step down in June 2019 after exhausting the three consecutive terms mandated by law.

Despite her current health status which forbids her to move and walk freely, Wong said that she would still want to continue uplifting the lives of her fellow Simonians by sustaining the town’s development, this time through local legislative measures.

Wong, meanwhile, reiterated that she wishes to “pass back the torch” and “return the favor” to her predecessor, former three-termer Rodrigo “Digos” Canlas who introduced and endorsed her to Simonians in 2010.

Canlas has long been pushed to come back from his nine-year political hiatus by allies and supporters, and succeed the local chief executive post but veteran politician is yet to confirm his plans.

Meanwhile, at least 320 marginalized yet deserving high school students of Sta. Monica High School received their annual scholarship grants from the local government during the said distribution which was led by Wong.

Aside from this, the local government here also donated P70,000-worth of taekwondo equipments to the school which will be used by 12 studentathletes that are set to represent San Simon in the public school’s cluster meet for the said sport.