Conrada Almagro

Mayor of the Municipality of Dalaguete Conrada Osorio Almagro. Born on February 19, 1916, she is the eighth child of Crispin Almagro and Paula Osorio. She was a History teacher at the Dalaguete Provincial High School when she ran and was elected Municipal Vice Mayor in 1964 under Mayor Guillermo Legaspi, the husband of her youngest sister, Milagros. Having been re-elected to the position in 1968, she rose to become the Municipal Mayor a year later when Mayor Legaspi filed his certificate of candidacy to run for Congress. It was during this term that the Provincial Board of Cebu ratified Provincial Resolution No. 565, which created Barangay Lanao to comprise Sitios Kambarko, Buli, Dao, Upper Magay and Biasong, (Municipal Resolution No. 58 s. 1971 dated June 9, 1971). The November 8, 1971 mayoralty election pitted her against her second-degree cousin Francisco Salvador, arguably one of the highlights in the consanguinity war between the Almagro and the Salvador clans, both of whom are descendants of the semi-legendary gobernadorcillo of Dalaguete, Capitan Juancho Osorio. Mayor Almagro eventually lost this crucial fight. This political setback, however, did not prevent her yet to be silent in the local political scene. A staunch oppositionist, President Ferdinand Marcos personally traveled all the way to her ancestral house at Poblacion, Dalaguete to personally reprimand her. She ran for Municipal Vice-Mayor in tandem with former Mayor Guillermo Legaspi in the January 30, 1980 election but then again lost, this time against Franklin Salvador.

Circumstantial events indicated that “Ma’am Dading”, as she is fondly called, would had left politics for good as the next six years would see her travelling abroad and had it not for the constant prodding of Emilio “Lito” Osmeña, she could have refused her appointment by then President Corazon Aquino as the OIC Municipal Mayor effective May 1, 1986 – at the ripe, retirable age of 70.

Her term of office was up for a rough start. Exactly a week after on May 8, 1986, her alter ego former Poblacion Brgy Captain and by then OIC Vice-Mayor Christopher Ligan was killed in the line of duty in Barangay Mantalongon. By September 10 of that same year, Rural Bank of Dalaguete, Inc., one of the prominent businesses in town, closed its business doors for good. Undaunted, she firmly held the proverbial rein of governance by the hand and stood by the challenge head on, earning along the way the accolade of being an Outstanding Mayor (OIC) of the Year, given in 1987 by the Reformist Unity Movement for Better Philippines (RUM-Phil). Meanwhile, presumably to establish a municipal identity, the Sangguniang Bayan ratified on July 17, 1987 Municipal Resolution 78-87 which declared, among others, that the dalakit tree shall henceforth be the municipal tree, the mirasol (sunflower) shall be the municipal flower and the galansiyang shall be the municipal bird. The mayoralty election of January 18, 1988 was a three-cornered fight among OIC Almagro, Marcelino Erediano, Jr., and Asuncion Buenconsejo, to which the incumbent handily won. Thirteen months after the elections, a plebiscite to separate Sitio Tabon from Barangay Langkas was being held on February 19, 1989 which eventually paved the way for the creation of Barangay Tabon. Mayor Almagro was re-elected in the May 11, 1992 elections against Dr. Estanisla Almagro and Atty. Roseller Amazona. In 1994, Dalaguete Provincial High School was renamed Dalaguete National High School via RA 6655, nationalizing all existing public secondary schools in the Philippines by then. She ran unopposed in her third and final mayoralty term in the May 8, 1995 elections, a year after of which the Sangguniang Bayan enacted Municipal Ordinance 96-20, creating the Dalaguete Municipal Scholarship Program.

Having completed the maximum three consecutive elective terms for the same office, she slid down and won the Municipal Vice-Mayoralty race against Municipal Councilor Gabriel Entera in the May 11, 1998 elections. During the annual fiesta celebration in 2000, the Sangguniang Bayan unanimously accorded their presiding officer, Vice-Mayor Almagro, her much-deserved Hiyas sa Dalaguete Award (Dalaguete Hall of Fame) for her great contribution to the betterment of the people of the municipality, an honor she shared with ten other Dalaguete personalities, two of whom are Don Crispin Almagro and Doña Paula Osorio-Almagro, her own parents. She was re-elected as Municipal Vice-Mayor in the May 14, 2001 elections against former Provincial Board Member Amando Amazona, Jr. A public servant to the end, old age and frail health did not prevent her to run and earn the top spot of the Municipal Council in the May 10, 2004 elections, her last elective office of a colorful political career that spanned a little over than four decades.

An anecdote was told that in the latter part of her final year in office, she was heard to have complained, after seeing her name among the members of the Municipal Council, why she was only a Municipal Councilor. After being explained that she was indeed only a Municipal Councilor, she was said to have remarked, “Nagkaubos lagi akong ranggo. Inig sunod eleksiyon, barangay tanod na lang siguro ko ani, (My rank keeps getting demoted. I may end up a barangay tanod in the next election.)”

From: http://www.dalaguete.gov.ph/history/goverment/they-who-lead-us