ANGELES City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin Jr. led the ceremonial opening of the academic year 2019-2020 of the City College of Angeles (CCA) at the CCA Campus, Barangay Pampang, Angeles City on August 5.

In his speech, Lazatin said the program on education is closest to his heart because it was one of his administration's flagship programs. He said he will fulfill his campaign promise to provide free college education for the underprivileged students in the community.

“Education has been given emphasis under my six-point agenda for Angeles City. No one should be denied education just because of poverty. That is why under my watch, we will provide free college education for the underprivileged students by giving full subsidy to tuition fees at the City College of Angeles,” he said.

Lazatin also said that his administration would grant a “non-wage” benefit in the form of free tertiary education to their dependents as a way of giving back to the efforts of public school teachers.

“Malaki po ang naiambag ng ating mga guro sa paghuhubog ng kaalaman ng ating mga estudyante kung kaya’t minarapat po natin na bigyan ng benepisyo ang ating dakilang mga guro,” Lazatin said.

He said his administration seeks the proper use of the City’s local school budget fund without increasing real property tax.

He said that under his term, the city will maximize the school board budget by purchasing additional school land and educational equipment, constructing new buildings, and acquisition of school furniture and fixtures.

Lazatin also halted the construction of the new City Hall building and sports complex, and said the P1.2-billion loan set for the said projects will be reviewed and allocated to the CCA and the Ospital ning Angeles.

"We do not need a new sports complex while our poor students cannot go to school because there are no more classrooms to accommodate them. We need to construct new hospital rooms for our patients. We need to construct additional classrooms for our students! These are what we need,” he said.