By Edwin Iyo
Correspondent
THE health condition of former Misamis Oriental Governor Ruthie de Lara is now stable but still remains admitted at a hospital in Metro Manila, this was according to her close personal aid based in Gingoog City.
Marie Guingona, former Gingoog mayor posted on her Facebook account earlier this month asking for prayers for the fast recovery of her mother who suffered a stroke last Thursday morning.
The city’s incumbent mayor Erick Cañosa also called for prayers for the full recovery of the former city mayor.
“As our former mayor, mother of our beloved Gingoog for nine years, a mother who had my utmost respect and someone who’s close to my heart way back, we are sincerely one in praying for her fast healing and full recovery. All the best for Ma’am Ruthie’s health,” Cañosa said in a text message to Gold Star Daily.
Cañosa was a city councilor for three years and vice mayor for three years also from 2007 to 2013 under then-Mayor Guingona’s administration.
Cañosa said he and the former mayor were very close.
“She treated me like her son,” he said.
Sources close to the family said Guingona was brought to Saint Luke’s Hospital after suffering a mild stroke at their residence in Tagaytay. She is supposed to be scheduled to return to Gingoog City last Saturday as an advance party for her daughter’s group filing of Certificates of Candidacy, tentatively scheduled this Wednesday.
It can be remembered that Guingona survived an ambushed by the New People’s Army somewhere in a hinterland barangay of Gingoog City in April 2013. She suffered bullet wounds to her arm and leg.
She served as Gingoog mayor for nine years (2004 to 2013) and as governor of Misamis Oriental in 1998.
“Kabalo na man mo na si Mama, my mother is a strong woman, whose love and service for Gingoognons is unparalleled,” the younger Guingona said in her Facebook post.
