DAGUPAN City lost a father and a statesman when former Mayor Alipio F. Fernandez Jr. died early morning of August 9 after a lingering illness. He was 75.

Fernandez, who served as mayor of Dagupan City for 12 long years, from 1992 to 2001 and from 2007 to 2010, succumbed to complications at his residence in Quezon City at about 3:00 a.m.

Former Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, who also served as city administrator, said his father was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer last year.

Mayor Al is best remembered being instrumental in building a new Dagupan from the rubble after the city was hit by 7.8 intensity earthquake on July 16, 1990.

He first served in the national government as undersecretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government from September 2001 to December 2003.

He next served as chairman of the board of commissioners of the Bureau of Immigration from 2004 till he resigned in March 2007 to enable him to reclaim his old post as Dagupan City mayor and served for another term.

Fernandez last held the position of director of the Clark International Airport Corporation.

Before Fernandez became city mayor in 2001, he first served as number one councilor of Dagupan and after martial law, he ran for vice mayor and won.

The late mayor was elected president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines in 2001, when he ended his term as national president of the League of Cities of the Philippines, a position he held from 1998.

In 1995, he was elected national president of JCI Senate Philippines.

Mayor Ama, as he was fondly called by his constituents, was a graduate in Liberal Arts from Don Bosco Technical College in 1976, a graduate in Masters of Public Administration in 2003 at Lyceum Northwestern University, and earned the degree of Doctor of Humanities from LNU in 2004.

The remains of Mayor Al now lay in state at the Fernandez family’s residence at Ciudad Elmina. (Leonardo Micua.)

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