Second-termer City Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” G. Lazatin Jr. and his LALAV Team has bared to the Angeleños the list of programs that will be pursued in the next three years long before the campaign period for the May 9 elections kicked off a week ago.
The shared vision is crystal clear. The Lazatin Team would like Angeles City to further develop, improve and be a livable, vibrant and resilient city, where business and industry shall flourish under a climate of peace and fair competition. Innovative, inclusive and sustainable, where the government serves its people responsibly and compassionately.
The said vision, is not a campaign battlecry, but in fact has been already realized and is “essentially still a continuing program to fight against the Covid-19 “new variants” pandemic aligned with the city’s “dreams and aspirations to recover that past and to revive the local economy, strengthen the healthcare system, normalize the educational system that is adaptable to learners and educators, other middle-of-the-road issues and unifying the city.
It is anchored on the continuity strategy programs for Health (COVID response, frontliners protection and welfare, expansion and modernization of the Ospital Ning Angeles, Puso Center); Education (improvement of the City College of Angeles, construction of new public school buildings); Social Services (solo parents support, senior citizens, PWDs, Bale Puso); Economy (investment promotions, job generation, livelihood, support to MSMEs, Kapebaluan’s coffee and cacao growers); Environmental Protection and Management (palit plastik-bigas program, solid waste disposal); Infrastructural Development, Disaster Mitigation and Management, Traffic Decongestion, Tourism Promotions, Transparency and Accountability Framework of the city government as a solid pledge of providing genuine public service to the Angeleños.
Meanwhile, several published polls show a widening lead of Lazatin far ahead of his lone opponent. It guarantees to win the vote on May 9th and marks political continuity for Angeles City. He gained 92.4 percent or 9,586 votes while contender councilor Amos Rivera got 2.2 percent or 229 votes and 5.4 percent or 560 votes in the iDARE latest poll conducted from March 4 to 8 with 10,368 respondents.
Lazatin emerged as the most preferred candidate in the combined opinion surveys from multiple pollsters since October which gave him well over 95 percent of the total vote. On October 5, 2021 the Bantay Kandidato 2022 Online Independent Survey showed 637 respondents preferred Lazatin with 616 votes, Rivera 21 votes; from December 27-31, 2021 to January 3-7, 2022, the DARE pollster posted that Lazatin garnered 92 percent, Rivera 8 percent with 16,344 respondents; and the Voice Newsweekly Online survey from February 25 to March 5, 2022, Lazatin obtained 94.73 percent, Rivera 5.27 percent.
The iDARE (Interactive Data Analysis and Research for Elections 2022) however assumes a voter turnout of 82 percent or 169,000 registered Angeleńos in the upcoming elections.
OPPONENT RESORTING TO SMEAR CAMPAIGN, NARROWS CHANCE TO WIN
With a little over one month left before the elections, be observant and vigilant. Anticipate all the worst imaginable fake news, utterly lies, smear campaigns on social media platforms and threats against Lazatin. As election day draws near, groundswell of desperation from the other fence is dismaying. But the disparity is crystal clear. Lazatin’s lead is insurmountable and sustainable at this stage until election day.
In an effort to damage Lazatin’s reputation, his opponents have resorted with baseless charges, concocted slander and other smear campaigns. Wittingly or unwittingly however these boomerang effects are devastating to the trust rating of councilor Amos Rivera in the mayoral race. It dips deeper and deeper as the voting day approaches.