Mayor Gabi as he is fondly called celebrated his 60th birthday last September 18, 2021. A police report says Mayor Gabino Ganggangan collapsed while playing the gong at a wedding last January 29 and was rushed to Bontoc General Hospital, but efforts to revive him failed.
The attending doctor declared him dead at around 11:00 pm due to what was termed as “Sudden Cardiac Death.” His remains now lies in repose at his residence in Sitio Maatong, Poblacion, Sadanga. Burial will be in the afternoon of Thursday, February 3, 2022.
The 60-year-old Gagangan was a close associate of the late Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) leader Conrado Balweg. The CPLA earlier signed a peace accord with the late President Corazon Aquino shortly after the 1986 People Power deposed the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. He took part in the conclusion of the peace accord with the government in 2011 with Aquino’s son, the late President Benigno Aquino III.
During his term as a Mayor, he was able to source funding for socio-economic development projects, programs, and activities from both national and foreign government offices. Other than the infrastructure projects like multipurpose buildings, construction and improvement of communal irrigation systems, constructions of roads and major footbridges, he was also instrumental in the reorganization and professionalization of the LGU structure thru the creations of various plantilla positions and in settlement of various tribal conflicts thru peace pact negotiations.
It was also during his time that Sadanga was recognized as a “Living Museum” by the Mt. Province provincial committee on tourism. Ganggangan institutionalized the Fvegnash Festival as a municipal-wide celebration, a celebration based on local practices. In his words, the festival was more of a community celebration than a tourism activity to strengthen solidarity among the people of Sadanga.
He also established a sisterhood with Quezon City paving way for joint projects in the municipality and scholarship grants to chosen children of Sadanga.
Ganggangan is survived by his five siblings (Mayor Gabi is the second child), his four children – FitzGerald F. Ganggangan, Adolf Ganggangan (a civil engineer), Nancy F. Ganggangan (a nurse), and Huzein Ganggangan (a marine engineer/seaman), daughters-in-law and grandchildren. His wife, Lourdes Faguingas – Ganggangan, passed away more than a year ago.
