Douglas "Dodo" R.A. Cagas (December 3, 1943 – June 10, 2021) was a Filipino politician and a representative of the

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of the Philippine province of

Davao del Sur Davao del Sur ( ceb, Habagatang Dabaw; ), officially the Province of Davao del Sur, is a province in the Philippines located in the Davao Region in Mindanao. Its capital is Digos City. Davao City is the largest city in terms of area and populat ...

. He later served as governor of Davao del Sur from 2007 to 2013 and again from 2016 until his death.

Biography

A member of the well-known Cagas clan, Cagas was an important and controversial personality within the

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

political movement. He began his political career in the early 1980s as a member of the Regular National Assembly of his province, and then became a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

between 1998 and 2007. At the end of his term as representative, he was elected governor of Davao del Sur, a position he held until 2013 and again from 2016 until his death. Accused of being the instigator of the murder of journalist Nestor Bedolido in Digos in 2010, four years later, Cagas surrendered to law enforcement after an arrest warrant was issued against him. Released from prison in 2016, he was then accused by Senator Leila de Lima, along with her son and Arrel Olaño, of having appropriated approximately 9.3 million

pesos The peso is the monetary unit of several countries in the Americas, and the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries the peso uses the same sign, "$", as many currencies named "dollar" ...

through the pork barrel system during his mandate as representative.

Personal life and death

Cagas was married to Chinese-Filipino Mercedes Chan Cagas, with whom he had a son,

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. Both have in turn entered the politics. Cagas died from complications of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

on June 10, 2021, at the Digos Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized for three weeks. He was succeeded as Governor by his son Marc.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cagas, Douglas 1944 births 2021 deaths Governors of Davao del Sur Members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from Davao del Sur PDP–Laban politicians Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines Filipino politicians convicted of crimes