ANGELES CITY MAYOR TO RUN FOR CONGRESSMAN IN 2025

BY KEVIN GALANG

ANGELES City Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin Jr. will declare his candidacy as Pampanga’s  first district representative on June 28 at the Magalang Plaza in Magalang, Pampanga.

The date of Lazatin’s announcement coincides with the 90th birthday of his late father, former Pampanga First district Representative and three-time Angeles City Mayor Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin.

“This is a momentous event for me as this marks the beginning of yet another journey in my political career,” Lazatin said.

Under his administration, Angeles City has received numerous awards and citations, including the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) awarded by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in 2023.

Recently, the city was also ranked 5th among nine Philippine cities with the largest urban economies in the Oxford Economics Global Cities Index and has been included in the national finalists for the Walang Gutom Awards 2024 for the ‘Walang Plastikan: Plastic Palit Bigas’ Program.

In 2023, Lazatin was given the Most Outstanding Kapampangan Award in Government Service.

During the pandemic, Angeles City was cited by the Department of Interior and Local Government among 23 HUCs to first achieve “herd immunity” against COVID-19.

Angeles City is the first LGU to establish Ronda Bakuna, bringing COVID-19 vaccine to all Angeleño households, and the only local government unit to establish Sundo Bakuna, deploying PUVs and Philippine Rabbit buses to take residents to vaccine sites.

Lazatin began his political career in 2013 when he ran as Angeles City councilor, during which he authored landmark ordinances, including City Ordinance No. 364 (Regulating the Use of Plastic Bags and Styrofoam in Angeles City) and City Ordinance No. 456 (Requiring Business Establishments to Conduct a Greening Program).

When he was re-elected for a second term in 2022, Lazatin became the first mayor in Angeles City’s history to have been elected with more than 100,000 votes — winning in all clustered precincts in all 33 barangays of the city, and obtaining a total of 112,953 votes.