MANILA -- Quezon City mayor-elect Joy G. Belmonte, who is succeeding outgoing Mayor Herbert M. Bautista on June 30, is the second woman to assume the city’s highest post in eight decades.
Belmonte, who is the outgoing vice mayor of the country’s erstwhile capital city, is a daughter of former QC mayor and House of Representatives Speaker Feliciano C. Belmonte Jr.
The post she will vacate will be taken over by vice mayor-elect Gian Sotto, son of Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III.
The elder Sotto was also a former QC vice mayor before he was elected to the Senate.
The first woman mayor of the city was Mrs. Adelina S. Rodriguez, who served for a decade from 1976 to February 1986, when the Edsa People Power Revolution took place. She was replaced by Brigido “Jun” Simon.
Rodriguez succeeded the late Norberto S. Amoranto, who held office for more than 22 years from 1954 to 1976.
The younger Belmonte will be the 11th mayor of QC, which was founded on Oct. 1, 1939 by then Philippine Commonwealth president Manuel L. Quezon.
Her immediate predecessor is Mayor Bautista, better known by his moniker “Bistek”, who was also a vice mayor before his elevation to the city’s top post in 2010.
According to the QC government’s website, the former mayors of the city prior to Bautista were: Tomas B. Morato (1939-1942); Ponciano A. Bernardo (1947-1949); Nicanor A. Roxas (1949-1950); Ignacio Santos Diaz (1950-1953); Norberto S. Amoranto (1954-1976); Adelina S. Rodriguez (1976-1986); Brigido R. Simon Jr. (1986-1992); Ismael A. Mathay Jr. (1992-2001); and Feliciano R. Belmonte Jr. (2001-2010). (PNA)
