Running on what he is known for the past 18 years of his public service, “Serbisyong may Puso (Service with a heart) and Good Governance… Incumbent Vice Mayor Jimmy Lazatin aims to lead the City of San Fernando towards his vision of being an economic power in the region.
Speaking before the members of Rotary Club Cluster 4A during their cluster meeting held at Greenville, Barangay San Jose last week, Mayoralty Candidate, the City’s Vice Mayor Jaime “Jimmy” Lazatin presented his platform of government.
Lazatin details his plans on his vision to establish the City of San Fernando as an “economic power and economic might”. “Hindi lang natin palalakasin ang ekonomiya ng City of San Fernando, mas pagagandahin pa natin ang pamamalakad ng ating gobyerno para mas maging kaakit akit tayo at top of mind sa mga investors”.
He added his 18 years of “giving service from the heart coupled with good governance” is the key factor to this.
Lazatin noted, “a lot of aspirants for the Mayoralty position forget the people of San Fernando Pampanga are smart voters. Coming up with fake information, fake surveys and fake news releases across all media platforms are a waste of effort and resources and done by individuals who have been in office for years but have yet to show concrete vision on how they will steer the city to the right direction. Especially after a crippling pandemic. We need a strong leader that will tow the line and be consistent and predictable, something big businesses and big and small entrepreneurs are looking for.”
Lazatin believes, “the real survey of the people’s will is on election day. The true result is what comes out day of the elections, the day when our people, the Fernandinos, are free to choose who their true leader is.”
He went on to delve on his platform of government in the next three years. Since the country will be coming off from a more than 2 year economic pause because of the pandemic, he gives importance on the city’s social services – making it readily available and accessible down to the barangay level.
Investing on our people’s health is crucial to our goal of creating a strong economic and business atmosphere in the city. Prioritizing sustainable health care and prevention system makes it more feasible “We invest in keeping people (Fernandinos) healthy rather than waiting for people to get sick, and then treating them” Lazatin said.
To this, he plans to strengthen the capabilities of rural health centers and barangay health care centers. He will provide doctors and other medical front liners in the barangay level for Fernandinos to have easy access to medical treatment – where medicine and health care trainings will also be available.
He explained, we need to bring health services to the people. With that in mind, he also plans to allocate resources and partner with government and private hospitals for Fernandinos who needs immediate medical attention “instead of putting up a hospital which will cost 200million pesos for a level one – 50 bed capacity aside from the operating expenses and this hospital will cater only basic health services like minor illnesses, injuries and surgeries”.
Similar partnerships are eyed with dialysis centers from north to south, so Fernandinos who need dialysis don’t have to travel far, Lazatin added.
Attention to Education, something close to his heart since he joined public service in 2004, will be institutionalized. Lazatin and his Team Lugud Fernandino committed to “institutionalization of scholarships and educational assistance. This will be available both for formal and skilled education. Enacting into law something so basic like a scholarship program creates security for our smart and intelligent citizens with skill and abilities to prevent our city’s scholarship program to be politicized. This move creates an automatic budget allocation for scholarships, eliminating long lines and follow ups for a privilege Fernandinos want for our youth. This should have been done years ago”.
He added, his plan for education is “holistic and will include the development of teachers, instructors and improvement of facilities”.
Speaking of infrastructure, Lazatin mentioned “smart infrastructure” for public works and construction will be “carefully planned and properly monitored.” “I will see to it infrastructures built are of high quality and will be useful for many years.” Lazatin said.
Lazatin reiterated his commitment to businesses, both big and small. “the city will remain a business-friendly city. We will create programs for the business community – from big businesses to micro-entrepreneurs. Our aim is to revive the city’s business environment and re-create jobs. We need to pump prime the economy and help our entrepreneurs and businessmen (who helped our city so much during the pandemic). We need to help them recover from the effects of the pandemic and bring back much needed jobs for our beloved Fernandinos.”
Lazatin also detailed his 8-point agenda including sustainable environment and environmental protection, peace and order, traffic management and tourism and heritage preservation.
Jimmy Lazatin is running for mayor of the City of San Fernando Pampanga together with his running mate former councilor Noel Tulabut for vice mayor.
