Lanao Sur’s Adiong dies

Marawi City — Just three days after taking his oath of office, re-elected Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Sr. died of a heart attack early yesterday morning in a hospital in Iligan City, his family and doctors said. He was 66.

Akira Alonto, Adiong’s son-in-law and chief of the Lanao del Sur provincial security force, said the governor was rushed to the Mindanao Sanitarium and Hospital in Iligan City last Wednesday because of high fever.

Adiong’s remains were brought to his hometown in Ditsaan Ramain, Lanao del Sur for burial before sundown yesterday in traditional Muslim rites.

Adiong, an engineer by profession, won his second term by a landslide vote in the May 10 elections. He defeated Mahid Mutilan, who has since reas-sumed the position of vice governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Adiong served as a three-term congressman representing Lanao del Sur’s first district from 1992 to 2001.

He is remembered by his peers in Congress and by his constituents as "a man of action and an achiever" who brought remarkable changes to Lanao del Sur.

Besides his other infrastructure projects, Adiong is credited for the completion and beautification of the provincial Capitol and the Governor’s Palace, the renewed dynamism of local government officials and employees and their observance of a strict work ethic.

Adiong is survived by his wife Soraya, sons Mamintal "Bombit" Adiong Jr. and Ansa-ruddin Alonto Adiong, an ARMM assemblyman; daughter-in-law Raifa, daughter Velvet and son-in-law Akira Alonto and grandchildren. — With John Unson and AFP