ANGAT, Bulacan–Hailed by Bulakenyos as a legendary Bulacan mayor, Leonardo “Narding” De Leon, former long time mayor of the town dies of heart attack on Sunday, Jan. 5.
De Leon, a mayoralty candidate in May elections died at about 1:00 pm at a hospital in City of Baliwag, Clemente Junio, former Barangay Captain of Sulucan and close ally of the mayor said on Monday.
Mayor Narding earned the branding as “alamat” for the people in this town and the rest of the province for spending nearly sixty years in government and public service and as thirty six years or four straight season local chief executive of Angat.
The mayor survived a heart operation in mid 2000 and since then continued to serve the people of Angat. He was also elected as president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Bulacan Chapter.
He started his government work and public service as an employee and as an elected leader in 1964 and ended in 2022, when he lost for the first time in local politics in the town.
De Leon ended his last term as mayor in 2022 and ran for vice mayoralty.
He had served as mayor of Angat for four seasons–1986-1995; 1998-2007; 2001-2010 and 2013-2022 from first being assigned as OIC Angat Mayor by former President Corazon Aquino in 1986.
The mayor was a son of poor farmer in Barangay Niugan, Angat who also lived and worked as a farmer in Ilocos region in his primary education.
A four year course graduate in Manuel L. Quezon University (MLAU) and a law graduate in University of the East, De Leon started his work in the government as an employee in the Provincial Government of Bulacan in 1964.
In Mid- 1965, he was appointed as a technical assistant employee in the Angat municipal government.
He was then elected as Angat municipal councilor from 1971-1980 and vice mayor from 1981-1986.
Despite losing the vice mayoralty post in 2022, De Leon did not stop serving and helping the people of Angat. He continued helping the residents who came for him in his house.
Junio said, it is the people who asked for the mayor to run again for the mayoralty in the May elections.
The mayor’s daughter, former municipal administrator, Claris De Leon, as of press time posted a picture of her father on her social media account with a message, “no words, just love”
