Zamboanga’s Celso Lobregat attempts political comeback

Former Zamboanga congressman and mayor Celso Lobregat, perhaps the most seasoned of Zamboanga’s oldest surviving politicians, filed his certificate of candidacy for mayor before the Commission on Elections on Friday, October 1.

The 72-year-old politician is a son of former mayor Maria Clara Lobregat, who was the first the announce a ticket against Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco’s Partido Prosperidad y Amor para na Zamboanga.

Lobregat had served as Zamboanga congressman for three terms, from 1998-2004, before being elected mayor in 2004. He was the city’s local chief executive until 2013, or for three consecutive terms, before being elected congressman again for two terms, from 2013-2019.

He suffered his first political defeat at the hands of Climaco who sought her third and final term as mayor in 2019.

The head of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan in Zamboanga, Lobregat organized a coalition ticket called Team Colorao against Climaco’s party. Lobregat is a scion of one of the oldest political families in Zamboanga. 

Besides serving as mayor, his mother was a delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention before serving as congresswoman for three consecutive terms after the 1986 EDSA Revolution. She became Zamboanga’s mayor during the Estrada administration and was reelected in 2001.

Lobregat is the grandson of Pablo Lorenzo, a delegate to the 1934 Constitutional Convention, who also subsequently served as Zamboanga mayor. Lorenzo was a member of the Quirino Cabinet. – Rappler.com