Op­po­si­tion Leader and PNM Po­lit­i­cal Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is re­mem­ber­ing for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning on the ninth an­niver­sary of his death.

In a Face­book post on Wednes­day, Beck­les de­scribed Man­ning as a “vi­sion­ary leader” and re­flect­ed on the role he played in shap­ing her po­lit­i­cal jour­ney.

“Mr. Man­ning wel­comed me in­to pol­i­tics some thir­ty years ago,” she wrote. “He be­lieved in me. He gave me the op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve as a coun­cil­lor in the Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion in 1992. He first ap­point­ed me as an Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor in 1995.”

Beck­les said Man­ning lat­er led the screen­ing team that se­lect­ed her as a gen­er­al elec­tion can­di­date and sup­port­ed her through var­i­ous se­nior po­si­tions in gov­ern­ment.

“In 2000, he led the screen­ing team that se­lect­ed me as a can­di­date turned Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, and even­tu­al­ly as Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Tourism and Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties and the En­vi­ron­ment,” she re­called.

“He fur­ther en­trust­ed me with the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of act­ing in sev­er­al key min­istries, in­clud­ing Fi­nance, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, and the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al. He al­so ap­point­ed me as the first fe­male Deputy Speak­er of the House in 2007.”

Beck­les said she re­mains deeply grate­ful for his men­tor­ship, sup­port, and ex­am­ple.

“For his men­tor­ship, his un­wa­ver­ing sup­port, and the ex­am­ple that he set as a leader of vi­sion and in­tegri­ty, I will al­ways be grate­ful. His lega­cy lives on in the prin­ci­ples and pur­pose that con­tin­ue to guide our great par­ty to­day.”

She ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to Man­ning’s fam­i­ly: his wife Hazel Man­ning, a for­mer MP and min­is­ter, and his son Bri­an Man­ning, who cur­rent­ly serves in Par­lia­ment.

“May our beloved Mr. Man­ning con­tin­ue to rest peace­ful­ly, watch­ing over us from above.”