New House Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe of Zamboanga City’s 2nd District is one of two brothers in a pro-Marcos political circle that clobbered that city’s Climaco and Lobregat political dynasties in the May 2022 elections.
Dalipe, 48, campaigned for his third term in the May 2022 polls under the Lakas-CMD party led by Vice President Sara Duterte.
His brother, John, the city’s youngest mayor, was only 37 when he thwarted outgoing mayor Maria Isabelle “Beng” Climaco’s efforts to maintain control of the city through a hand-picked successor.
John ran under the People’s Reform Party, identified with the late senator Miriam Santiago, who was standard bearer to Marcos in the 2016 elections.
On his Facbeook page, Mannix is identified as a member of the Lakas-CMD executive committee.
He won the congressional race despite his failure to get the endorsement of Sara Duterte, who surprisingly endorsed only then-mayor Climaco, a supporter of Robredo.
Climaco ran for the 1st district congressional seat but lost by more than 17,000 votes to Kymer Adan Olaso of the Lobregat Team Colorao.
Marcos ties
The family patriarch, Manuel is a former mayor of Zamboanga City. Before entering politics, he served as a helicopter pilot of the President’s father and namesake.
A member of the deposed dictator’s political party, the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), Manuel was mayor of the city when the 1986 EDSA People Power uprising ousted Marcos.
He was vice mayor when then-mayor Cesar Climaco was assassinated on November 14, 1984 and served out Climaco’s term.
A New York Times article in May 1986 reported that Manuel refused to vacate his post as then-president Corazon Aquino tried to consolidate her new government by appointing officers-in-charge of local government units. He would later step down that month.
The older Manuel is alive and hale, and enthusiastically campaigned for his children, and for President Marcos and Vice President Duterte in the 2022 polls.
In one of his Facebook posts, he shared a graphic of Marcos defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile, who is quoted as saying he wants to correct the country’s “deceitful history” as he promised the late dictator. Manuel’s intro note said, “Politics is deceitful but the truth will always come out.”
Experienced politician
Before running for Congress in 2016, Mannix served as city councilor from 1998 to 2007, and vice mayor from 2007 to 2010.
The House majority leader is a savvy social media user and posted a vlog on his Facebook page in Malacañang Palace during the June 30 inaugural dinner of President Marcos.
John, on the other hand, was a first-term councilor of Zamboanga’s 2nd District when he ran against the 72-year-old former three-term congressman and three-term mayor Celso Lobregat, the son of another former mayor, Maria Clara Lobregat.
He won with 129,140 votes over Lobregat’s 91,905 votes, despite Marcos’ endorsement of the veteran politician.
Then-mayor Climaco’s chosen successor, then-1st district representative Cesar “Jawo” Jimenez Jr. was a distant third, with only 55,808 votes.
John issued his first executive order on June 30, mandating the implementation of the Freedom of Information and adoption of the Open Governance Policy in the city. – Rappler.com
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