The municipal government is seeking the conversion of the town into a component city.
Mayor Teddy Tumang has requested the office of Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Dong Gonzales to file a bill in Congress for the enactment of a Republic Act (RA) converting the municipality into a component city of the province.
A city can only be created by an act of Congress and subject to approval by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite to be conducted by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in the local government units (LGUs) directly affected.
The town which is administratively divided into 43 barangays has economic stability as observed in the past years.
The 1st income class municipality of Mexico is rapidly progressing with its annual income in the last two years in the total amount of ₱587,834,470.37 which is way above the PHP100-million income requirement under RA 9009, an act amending section 450 of the Local Government Code of 1991.
Tumang added the town has a total land area of 117.41 square kilometers which met the minimum land requirement of at least 100 sq. km. under the same provisions.
The municipality is also classified as one of the most urbanized and competitive local government units in the province and in
region 3 as well.
“The conversion of the municipality into a component city will enable the local government of Mexico to build more infrastructure such as a convention center, new public market, new LGU building and modern facilities for education, health, disaster management, environmental protection, and more efficient for the delivery of basic services to our ever-growing population and at the same time to be a more effective partner of the national government in promoting economic growth,” Tumang claimed.
There are a number of municipalities that may not be compliant with the population and income requirement of the Local Government Code but “have nevertheless unquestionable capacity to provide essential government facilities, social services to its inhabitants, comparable or even superior to that of existing cities.
Pampanga has two component cities — City of San Fernando and Mabalacat City.
Angeles City is the only independent chartered city in the province.
According to folk etymology, the original pre-Hispanic name of Mexico was purportedly Masicu or Maca-sicu, which the Spaniards spelled as “México”. It is claimed that this was a reference to an abundance of chico trees. However chico trees are not endemic to the Philippines and were introduced by the Spaniards. Another claim is that it is derived from siku (“elbow”) and was a reference to the elbow-shaped bends of the nearby Abacan and Pampanga rivers. But there are no records of the town ever being called Masicu. Instead, the origin of the latter name is believed to be simply a common mispronunciation by the locals.