FORMER three-term City of San Fernando mayor Rey B. Aquino, also a one-term congressman, has appealed to Fernandinos to give the new city mayor time and opportunity to prove herself following the election of the city’s first woman mayor in the May 2022 polls.
“People may have doubts on whether the new city mayor, the first woman at that, will be up to the challenge of the position, but she deserves the chance to prove her worth at the very least,” Aquino said in a press statement.
Businesswoman Vilma Caluag, barangay chairman of Dolores and Association of Barangay Captains chairman, won the city mayoralty race after losing her first attempt at the post in 2019 by beating three rivals, namely, former board member Rosve Henson, former city vice mayor Jimmy Lazatin and former city mayor and congressman Oscar Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, like Aquino, supported Caluag’s candidacy in 2019 and lost to incumbent Mayor Edwin Santiago, whose term ends this June.
This time, Rodriguez tried to regain the old post and, at the same time, rallied the Kapampangans to support the presidential candidacy of Vice President Leni Robredo, a former partymate in the Liberal Party.
“Caluag has had substantial experience in the private sector in terms of corporate governance and financial management and this should prove valuable to her in leading and governing the city towards certain strategic directions and goals,” Aquino said.
Aquino said the new city mayor should manage the expectation of the people of the City of San Fernando by telling them the true state of the city.
“Exactly how good or bad the city is, Caluag should be able to cite both facts and figures to support either, and from there, she should disclose her own programs and plans to meet the challenge in front of her,” Aquino said.
"By her advisers, her intentions or capability to achieve them will be made clear," Aquino added.
“She should be surrounded by credible and competent people who can help her do her job best,” he said.
Aquino said Caluag would be facing the continuing challenge of the Covid threat, financial capability in light of the city hall’s huge debt, growing need for social and health services in a modern city and other issues.
“Regardless of your gender as a city mayor for the first time, the challenges are no respecter of who holds the position,” said Aquino, who is credited for skillfully steering San Fernando into cityhood under his watch amidst the devastating threat of lahar inundation in the 90s. He also led the city in winning the much-coveted Galing Pook Award under the category of breaking financial barrier, the second local government in Pampanga to bag the award, in 1997.
Aquino was town and then city mayor from 1995 to 2004.He was elected congressman of the province’s Third District from 2004 to 2007 on the strength of his public initiatives and achievements as city mayor. (PR)