{"id":268739,"date":"2020-09-15T06:30:26","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T10:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=268739"},"modified":"2020-09-15T06:30:26","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T10:30:26","slug":"first-filipina-mayor-in-england-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/15\/first-filipina-mayor-in-england-passes-away\/","title":{"rendered":"First Filipina mayor in England passes away"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script async=\"1\" defer=\"1\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v8.0\" nonce=\"RMWlNcsK\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-post\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=10221167693094552&amp;set=a.1945075919209&amp;type=3\" data-width=\"750\">\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=10221167693094552&amp;set=a.1945075919209&amp;type=3\" class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\">\n<p>FAREWELL TO MAYOR CLLR CYNTHIA ALCANTARA BARKERIt is with extreme sadness that we announce the passing of The&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Posted by <a href=\"#\" role=\"button\">Gene Alcantara<\/a> on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=10221167693094552&amp;set=a.1945075919209&amp;type=3\">Monday, September 14, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Cynthia Alcantara-Barker, the first Filipina mayor in England, has passed away.<\/p>\n<p>Alcantara-Barker was elected as the mayor of Hertsmere District in Hertfordshire, England last June 2020. Her passing was confirmed by her family in a Facebook post dated Sept. 14.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is with extreme sadness that we announce the passing of The Worshipful Hertsmere Mayor Councillor Cynthia Barker following a bout of serious illness,&#8221; the family statement read.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will be issuing further information in due course, but may we ask please to respect the family&#8217;s privacy at this very difficult time. Your prayers for the repose of her soul would however be welcome,&#8221; it added.<\/p>\n<p>As Hertsmere mayor, Alcantara-Barker was described as &#8220;extremely proud of her heritage&#8221; and a committed politician who was &#8220;committed to doing her utmost to champion equality and diversity&#8221; for all the communities in the town.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to the news, Hertsmere Borough Council leader, Councillor Morris Bright MBE, said: \u201cI knew Cynthia as both a colleague and friend. Nothing was ever too much for her. She thrived at being a local councillor, always wanting to help residents with their issues. She left a lasting impression on the council and Borehamwood.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are all struggling to take in the sad news at the moment but I am sure we will all remember Cynthia as a kind, wonderful person who was a hardworking community representative,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>The council&#8217;s managing director, Sajida Bijle, also sent sympathies to the family and friends of the late Filipina.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know how honored she was to be appointed to Deputy Mayor last year and then as Mayor, and how much she enjoyed undertaking a whole host of duties across our communities. She will be greatly missed by us all,\u201d Bijle said.<\/p>\n<p>Councillor Jeremy Newmark, leader of the Labour group, meanwhile, remembered Alcantara-Barker as a &#8220;trailblazer&#8221; and a &#8220;role model for women and minorities in local government&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Cynthia was kind and supportive to me personally when I was first elected as a councillor, despite being on opposite sides of the political divide,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe brought grace and dignity to the office of Mayor but was always approachable and down to earth, particularly when engaging with children and young people,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to being elected as mayor this year, Alcantara-Barker served as deputy mayor in 2019 and had been a borough councillor for Borehamwood\u2019s Kenilworth ward since 2015.<\/p>\n<p>She was the first Philippines-born elected representative in the borough and was also chosen as one of the 100 most influential Filipinas by the Filipina Women\u2019s Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FAREWELL TO MAYOR CLLR CYNTHIA ALCANTARA BARKERIt is with extreme sadness that we announce the passing of The&#8230; Posted by &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":268740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268742,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268739\/revisions\/268742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}