Abalos lauds residents

Mandaluyong City Mayor Benhur Abalos lauded yesterday city residents, especially the students and youth, for the important role they played in the bloodless EDSA People Power 2 uprising last Jan. 20 that catapulted President Arroyo to power.

"No amount of money could buy the role we played in history," Abalos told residents during the city’s 56th Liberation Day and 7th Cityhood Anniversary held at Liwasang Katubusan, in Gen, Kalentong St.

The city was liberated from the Japanese forces in 1945 and was proclaimed a city in 1994.

Yesterday’s affair, whose theme "Mandaluyong: May panindigan noon, ngayon at bukas" was graced by Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., who cast a "yes" vote for the opening of the controversial second envelope in deposed President Estrada’s impeachment trial.

Other illustrious figures who attended the affair were former Senate President Neptali Gonzales Sr., Rep. Neptali Gonzales Jr., Vice Mayor Jessie Cruz, First Lady Menchie Abalos and Councilors Lito Espinosa, Cesar Bartolome, Lito Pillas, and Danny de Guzman and ABC president Arsenio Abalos.

The young mayor recalled that it was the 1986 EDSA People Power I that put Mandaluyong City at the center of the world map as the seat of a bloodless revolution.

At the height of the People Power uprising, Abalos mobilized a contingent from Mandaluyong City to the EDSA Shrine last Jan. 20 and subsequently to Mendiola. – Non Alquitran