MP’s Rep Dominguez laid to rest in Baguio;thousands pay respects

BAGUIO CITY – The remains of Mountain Rep. Victor S. Dominguez, the longest serving official in the Cordillera, was laid to rest in the compound of his residence at Military Cutoff here yesterday as hundreds of his supporters, relatives and officials paid their last respects.

The veteran lawmaker succumbed to cardiac arrest with complications from diabetes at the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City last Feb. 8. He was 72.

Dominguez died on the eighth day of the eighth month of the 14th Congress which happens to be his eighth term as a public official of Mountain province.

During the wake, vehicles had to park on the road at Military Cut Off due to huge influx of mourners at the congressman’s compound.

Constituents from Mountain Province traveled to this city as buses didn’t charge them fare.

They acknowledged the accomplishments he had done for his province like infrastructure projects and for funding free tuition of students of the Mountain Province State Polytechnique College.

Constituents all over the Cordillera testified of being in the good graces of the congressman who helped them anyway he could.

They said the congressman’s house in Manila had been open over the years to anybody from the region who wanted to eat, sleep or rest when they traveled to the country’s capital.

Well-wishers and local officials here described the death of the veteran lawmaker as unfortunate since they lost a reliable, dedicated, sincere and trusted public servant who always sees to it that the concerns of his province mates are given due attention by concerned government agencies.

Dominguez is considered the longest serving politician in the region as he spent at least 38 years in politics.

In 1967, deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos appointed him as the vice-governor of Mountain province after the old Mountain province was divided into four political subdivisions namely, Mountain province, Benguet, Ifugao and Kalinga-Apayao.

In 1978, Dominguez was elected assemblyman to the Batasan Pambansa as an independent candidate.

When the election for assemblyman was done by province in 1984, he was again elected as the representative of the province under the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) of Marcos.

During the Aquino administration, he was elected as a member of the 8th, 9th and 10th Congress or from 1987-1998.

The solon chaired the powerful House committee on games and amusements in the 9th Congress where he strongly advocated for the legalization of all illegal numbers games in the country but was prevailed upon by party decisions.

Because of the three-term limit, his wife, Undersecretary Josephine de Castro-Dominguez of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, was elected to succeed him before his nephew, former Rep. Roy Pilando, took over from 2001-2004.

In the 2004 presidential elections, Dominguez was overwhelmingly voted upon by the electorate to reclaim power under the LAKAS-CMD coalition and won again in last year’s mid-term elections under the Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (KAMPI) where the chairman of the Cordillera chapter is.

Among the significant accomplishments of Dominguez is the establishment of the Mountain province State Polytechnic College, the conversion of the Luis Hora Memorial Hospital in Abatan, Bauko into a regional hospital, the full scholarship program of MPSPC, and various social programs in health, education, livelihood and infrastructure development of the province.

Congress earlier held necrological rites at the Batasan on Feb. 12 for the congressman who ruled Mountain Province for almost three decades after he died at the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City at 2 p.m. on Feb. 8 due to lingering sickness.

Born May 3, 1935, Dominguez finished in 1951 his elementary studies at the San Alfonso School in Sabangan, Mountain Province, his hometown.

A member of the Kankanaey tribe, Dominguez later graduated high school at St. Vincent’s School in the capital town of Bontoc in the province in 1955.

He later finished civil and geodetic engineering in the early 1960s at the St. Louis University in Baguio City.

He is survived by his wife Undersecretary Josephine De Castro Dominguez and children Juvic Dominguez Aluyen, Joy D. Ribaya, Bong and Honey.