ANGELES CITY – Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan remained unperturbed amid talks this early that Senator Lito Lapid will challenge him in the 2016 mayoral elections.
Pamintuan dismissed Lapid’s pretentions to his mayoralty post as “still too early” in a text message last Wednesday.
“Dahil masyado pa maaga para pag-usapan ang pulitika o ang eleksyon sa 2016 ang payo ko ay ayusin muna ang problema niya sa Senado at sa pagkakasangkot niya sa Nabcor (Because it is still too early to talk about politics or the elections in 2016, my advice to him is to resolve his problems in the Senate first and explain his involvement in the Nabcor (National Agri-business Corp.),” Pamintuan said in an interview after news stories recently came out with Lapid’s political plans in 2016.
Pamintuan also said Lapid should explain why his wife was caught, tried and convicted of dollar salting in the USA.
A press release from the mayor’s office said, “as of this time, Mayor EdPam is not even thinking about politics.
He thought it’s too early to talk about it. Right now he is more focused on the infrastructure projects like the Plaza Anghel construction and widening of roads in the city while maintaining high level of basic services to the Angelenos.”
“But like what he showed in the previous election, he welcomes any true Angeleno who wishes to run for office. He always tells people that we are in a democracy and if someone wants to run for a position as long as he or she is eligible, he welcomes the idea,” the release added.
It can be recalled that Lapid was reported to have bought a mansion worth P16 million in Barangay Pampang here in preparation for his plan to run for mayor in 2016. Former Pampanga 1st District Rep. Carmelo “Tarzan” F. Lazatin whom Pamintuan defeated in 2013, said the senator personally sought his support during the house’s blessing ceremony on April 5.
Lazatin’s chief of staff, Irish Calaguas, said Lapid bought the three-story house located at Friendship Plaza Subdivision for P16 million. “The property could be no less than 1,000 square meters,” Calaguas said.
