NEW LCP CHAIR. Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella delivers his acceptance speech after his peers in League of Cities of the Phillippines (LCP) elected him as their new national chairman during the organization's 68th General Assembly and Election of Board Members at the Edsa Shangri-La in Manila on Friday (July 19, 2019). Labella described his election as a 'pleasant surprise'. (Screengrab from a video posted on Mayor Edgardo Labella's Facebook page)
CEBU CITY -- Mayor Edgar Labella of this city has been elected on Friday as the national chairman of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP).
In a video message posted on his social media page, Labella said his election during the group’s 68th General Assembly and Election of Board Members at the Edsa Shangri-La in Manila was a “pleasant surprise.”
“I am just an ordinary who ran against a political royalty in the May 2013 elections,” he noted, adding that he is “honored, at the same time humbled.”
He, however, told his fellow city mayors that he is not new to public service, enumerating his positions in various government entities, including his stint as an anti-graft investigator before he became director of the Ombudsman-Visayas.
Labella also served as a member of the Sangguniang Panglungsod and vice mayor, before his election as local chief executive in May this year.
The new chair of the city mayors’ organization in the country told his colleagues that there are many areas where local chief executives can brainstorm and work collectively.
“There are items of the local government that we, city mayors, should work together so that we can come out with what is best for our respective constituencies,” he said.
The LCP has a total membership of 145 city mayors.
“As public officials, we are not masters but servants of the people,” Labella reminded his fellow mayors. (PNA)
