FORMER vice mayor John Rey Tabujara has officially succeeded his late father Jerry as mayor of the municipality of Cauayan.
The younger Tabujara took his oath before Cauayan Municipal Trial Court in Cities Judge Conrad Estreller at about 2 p.m. yesterday, a day after his father died due to liver ailment.
On the same day, the mayor’s cousin Rico James Tabujara, the number one councilor, also took his oath as vice mayor.
“As to the succession in the Municipal Council, it will be resolved after my father’s burial,” Tabujara said.
Before he was elected vice mayor this year, the younger Tabujara was the town mayor while his father was the vice mayor.
They swapped positions for the May 2016 elections.
The 68-year-old Tabujara’s condition deteriorated in December last year, after his bile operation and heart bypass surgery.
The late mayor’s remains are still at Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, where he was confined.
Instead of today, his body will be brought back to the province on Saturday instead. It is expected to arrive at the Bacolod-Silay Airport at about 5 a.m. tomorrow and will be immediately transported to Cauayan.
The wake will be held at their residence in Barangay Poblacion, the younger Tabujara said.
A day before the interment at the municipal cemetery on October 16, a necrological service will be held at the town’s auditorium.
The elder Tabujara was elected for the mayoral post in the May 9 elections even if he was not able to campaign.
Several residents raised issue on his failure to show up in public events since he filed his certificate of candidacy in October last year. He was also absent when he was proclaimed the winning mayoralty candidate.
The younger Tabujara expressed dismay over the speculations on his father’s physical state during the election period. There were reports that the elder Tabujara had already died.
"We cannot stop them from hitting our family especially my father, what we can do now is to grieve and move on from this loss,” he added.
Tabujara is the second mayor in Negros Occidental who died this year.
In May, reelected San Enrique Mayor Mario Magno succumbed to multiple organ failure.
