Benhur Abalos

Benjamin “Benhur” de Castro Abalos Jr. was the former secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, appointed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose campaign he managed in 2022.

Before joining the Marcos presidential campaign, Abalos had served as chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority for a year under then-president Rodrigo Duterte. The MMDA post was something his father, Benjamin Sr., also held 20 years earlier.

Benhur, a graduate of the Ateneo de Manila law school, passed the bar in 1988. He began his political career in 1995 as a councilor of Mandaluyong City’s 1st District while his father was the mayor. He succeeded Benjamin Sr. as local chief executive in the following election in 1998. In all, served as Mandaluyong mayor for four terms, from 1998 to 2016, broken only by a three-year term as the city’s congressman from 2004 to 2007. He was elected president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, the umbrella organization of all local government leagues, in 2010.

He is married to a former beauty queen from Cavite, Carmelita “Menchie” Aguilar, who would go on to succeed him as mayor in 2016 and serve for two terms. She is currently vice mayor to Benhur’s father. Benhur and Carmelita have six children (one of them deceased).

In July 2023, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos gave a toast to Abalos, whom she called an ever-loyal friend whose family stuck it out with the Marcoses when they were “down and out” after Ferdinand Jr. lost the vice presidential election in 2016. (RAPPLER)