CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—A woman will head, for the first time, Northern Mindanao’s regional development council (RDC) after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed Lanao del Norte Gov. Imelda Dimaporo as chair of the body.
The RDC is the highest policy making body in every region.
Engr. Elpidio M. Paras, president of Promote NorMin Foundation, Inc., was also appointed Dimaporo’s co-chair.
Dimaporo is a veteran local official. Apart from the gubernatorial seat, she was also Lanao del Norte’s representative in Congress.
In the Davao region, another woman, Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon will be its RDC chair, with Arturo Milan of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as co-chair.
Like Dimaporo, Malanyaon has come back to her old post. Prior to this, she was Davao Oriental’s representative to Congress.
Still another woman, Cotabato Gov. Lala Mendoza, will chair the RDC in the Soccsksargen region with Richlie Lyndon Magtulis, of the Conrado & Ladislawa Alcantara Foundation, Inc., as co-chair.
Mendoza was governor from 2010 to 2019, then vice governor from 2019 to 2022.
The RDC in the Zamboanga Peninsula will be chaired by Zamboanga City Mayor John Dalipe. According to a statement from City Hall, Dalipe will be the first chief executive from the city to lead the regional body after the late mayor Maria Clara Lobregat held it a long time ago.
The RDC chair and co-chair are chosen by the president from a list of nominees drawn by the body’s members.