FRESH MANDATE. Angeles City RTC Executive Judge Omar Viola administers the oath-taking of first Mabalacat City Mayor Marino Morales held at City Hall. Joining him are wife Nina and children.
Photo courtesy of Deng Pangilinan
MABALACAT CITY – Amid pomp and pageantry on Monday, the first set of elected city officials of this new component city took their oath of office.
Angeles City Executive Judge Omar Viola administered the oath of office first on reelected City Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales, who was accompanied by his family, inside the City Mayor’s Office at City Hall at the Xevera Housing Complex in Barangay Tabun here.
This was followed by the oath-taking of the first elected City Vice Mayor Christian Halili inside his office. Halili’s wife and children as well as his mother and siblings were also present during the ceremony.
The newly refurbished sangguniang panglunsod hall was the venue of the oath-taking of the first elected 10 city councilors who also came with their families in tow. Shortly after, the SP hall was formally inaugurated.
The oath-taking rites were preceded with a Holy Mass celebrated by Our Lady of Divine Grace Parish priest Msgr. Felicito Sison at the SP hall.
As the solemn ceremony unfolded inside the city hall, hundreds gathered at the nearby Xevera covered court where the Power Mabalacat City Center for the Arts performed their number in a fiesta like atmosphere.
Students, teachers, city hall employees, city department heads, senior citizens’ groups, women’s organizations as well as ordinary folk crowded the jampacked covered court. Nearby, tables were set for a feast.
Meanwhile, Morales said his three-year term in office will be centered in making this city the new Makati North of Manila or Manoma by luring big industries, manufacturers as well as the establishment of tourism infrastructures and a central business district in this barangay that will rival Makati City.
By accident of geography, Mablacat City lies in the center and the most accessible from all direction north of Manila making it ideal for trade and commerce, the city mayor said.
