Gwendolyn Garcia

Personal life

Gwendolyn Garcia was born on October 12, 1955. She is the eldest daughter of former Cebu Governor and House Deputy Speaker Pablo P. Garcia (b. 1925) and Judge Esperanza “Inday” Fiel-Garcia (b. 1931, d. 2016). Her youngest brother, Pablo John Garcia is a lawyer-congressman. Her brother Byron has been a security consultant for the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), which caught global attention in 2007 for its rendition of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" featuring the its inmates. Her brother Winston Garcia is the former General Manager of the Government Service Insurance System (Philippines).

Education and career

Garcia was a consistent honor student in elementary and high school at Cebu's St. Theresa's College. She previously earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Communication from the University of the Philippines Diliman and studied Law at the same university. She was awarded with the honorary degrees of Doctor of Humanities from the Cebu Normal University (CNU) and Doctor of Philosophy in Technology Management from the Cebu State College of Science and Technology (CSCST).

Prior to being elected as governor, she was responsible for instituting various reforms at the Cebu Provincial Capitol as a Consultant on Systems Promotion and Development for three years. Earlier, she was Consultant on Financial Affairs and assisted her father in expanding the province's resources.

She was active in the private sector as chairperson of the Leyte Cooperative Bank from 1996 to 1998. She is, since 1998, the president and CEO of the GGC Group, Inc.

She is the head of the Regional Development Council, the Regional Peace and Order Council, and chairman of the Visayas RDCom (comprising RDC 6, RDC 7 and RDC 8), the Deputy Secretary General for Visayas of the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), Chairman of the Board of the Mactan Cebu Bridge Management Board (MCBMB), and Member of the Board of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA).

Political career

Garcia first entered politics in 2004, when she was elected as governor by 7,000 votes to succeed her father. Three years later, in 2007, she was reelected overwhelmingly, obtaining a lead of 500,000 votes. In 2010, she defeated Hilario Davide III, son of former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr., for a third and final term by more than 90,000 votes.

During her three terms, Gov. Garcia aggressively pursued a 12-point agenda for her administration, implementing economically viable development programs that effectively responded to the needs of the Cebuano constituency – in infrastructure, water, power, health, education, agriculture and food production, women and children, business, tourism and the environment. This later on became her 12-point plus 2 agenda of government, with the inclusion of an enhanced information and communication portfolio that showcase the Province of Cebu and strong international relations aimed at creating beneficial linkages with the global community.

She was the first and only Governor to publicly declare an all out war against communist insurgency, and proceeded to put in place measures to achieve such end, resulting in the declaration of Cebu as an insurgency-free zone. The anti-criminality task forces of the Province bring to justice perpetrators of illegal fishing, those involved in the illegal drug trade and in human trafficking.

Garcia was elected as the representative of the third congressional district on May 13, 2013, over Pinamungahan Mayor Geraldine Yapha. She was the first woman Representative of the 3rd Congressional District of the Province of Cebu. Her election as Congresswoman followed on the heels of a historical three terms as the first woman Governor of the 442-year-old Province of Cebu, a political three-peat, her mandates delivered with solid and unprecedented margins by the Cebuano people.