Dagupan vice mayor named Con-com member

DAGUPAN CITY — Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez of this city was appointed by President Arroyo as a member of the Consultative Commission (Con-com) which will propose revisions to the 1987 Constitution.

Presidential Management Staff chief Rigoberto Tiglao informed Fernandez of his appointment in a faxed letter the other day.

"I welcome my appointment and I thank President Arroyo for the trust and confidence," said Fernandez, who was nominated by the Vice Mayors’ League of the Philippines (VMLP).

Fernandez, son of Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr., is the only vice mayor in the 50-member commission, which is composed of prominent businessmen, constitutional experts, academicians, incumbent and former local officials, and newspaper columnists.

The commission, created by Executive Order 453, is tasked to propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution to make it "more responsive, relevant, and competitive to inward and global changes."

Fernandez, who ran unopposed for his second term as vice mayor in the 2004 elections, is the VMLP’s national executive vice president and president of the VMLP’s Pangasinan chapter.

He also sits as a member of the national executive council of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, the umbrella organization of all local government leagues.

Fernandez is also a ranking officer of Biskeg na Pangasinan, a group of powerful political leaders in the province.

An active civic and youth leader, Fernandez is the president of the Rotary Club of Dagupan.