Aurelio Gonzales Jr.

Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales used to represent 3rd District of Pampanga. He was the senior deputy speaker of the House of Representatives during the 19th Congress.

Gonzales earned his degrees in civil engineering and in environmental and sanitary engineering from the Mapua Institute of Technology, and passed the civil engineering board exam in 1987. He was the first Filipino civil engineer to be given an honorary membership by the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines.

His political career started in 2001, when he served as vice governor of Pampanga until 2004. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2007, representing the 3rd District of the province for two consecutive terms until 2013. He took a break when he reached his term limit, and was elected to the post again in 2016.

He was behind the passage of Republic Act No. 11684, which recognizes Mt. Arayat as a protected area. He was also involved in the latest push to amend the 1987 Constitution.

Gonzales has been implicated in several controversies, including an alleged involvement in the misuse of his office’s Priority Development Assistance Fund, which he has denied. He is a respondent to a graft complaint filed with the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged irregularities in P612 million worth of flood control projects.

A former party mate of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte, he resigned from PDP-Laban after Duterte called the lower chamber the “most rotten” government institution. He has since joined Lakas-CMD, which counts Speaker Martin Romualdez as one of its top officials.