Ex-NBI Cordillera chief wins Sadanga mayoralty race

SADANGA, Mountain Province -- The Commission on Elections board of canvassers proclaimed former National Bureau of Investigation regional director, Atty. Jose Limmayog, Jr. as mayor-elect of this remote town.

Limmayog, an independent candidate, won the mayoralty race with 2,360 votes, dethroning incumbent mayor and Liberal Party candidate engineer Gabino Ganggangan, who got 2110 votes.

He was proclaimed winner during the early hours of May 10.

Earlier reports said intense political rivalry was expected in Sadanga as Limmayog challenged the re-election bid of Ganggangan, a former secretary general of the defunct Cordillera Executive Board (CEB) and former aide of slain rebel priest Conrado Balweg.

During election day, voting was reportedly stopped for a while in some precincts due to defective or overheating machines.

Meanwhile, the other elected officials of Sadanga are: Joseph Apopot, vice mayor; and Godaliva Gamonnac, Napoleon Sarangey, Jonathan Gayyaman, Caesar Agcarao, Allonzo Fattit, Filemon Fomakchong, Juliet Chinalpan and Mathew Fanao- councilors.

Limmayog, a 1971 graduate of the Philippine College of Criminology (PCCR), earned his LLB from the University of the Cordilleras in 1980 and became a member of the Philippine bar on the same year. He was a police investigator at the Baguio City Police Office from 1974-1982, before joining the NBI where he would serve as regional director at the Cordillera region.

He is also a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Academy at Quantico, in Virginia, U.S.A., and was hired by the United Nations (UN) as investigations team leader of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1994-1998) based at The Hague, Netherlands. He is first Filipino who became team leader of an international crime tribunal and is also first Filipino recipient of the special Physical Achievement conferred by the FBI.

Upon his return to the country, he was again appointed NBI director in the Cordilleras (1999), and later at regions 10, 2, 7, and ARMM.

After 31 years of service, Limmayog retired from the NBI in 2013 and was later hired by Lepanto Mines as legal/security consultant.