Angeles City Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin Jr. headed the ceremonial opening of the academic year 2019-2020 of the City College of Angeles (CCA) on Monday at the CCA Campus, Brgy Pampang, Angeles City.
During his speech, Lazatin cited that the program on education is closest to his heart because it is one of the flagship programs of his administration and he will fulfill his campaign promise to provide free college education for the underprivileged students in the community.
“Education has been given emphasis under my 6-point agenda for Angeles City. No one should be denied education just because of poverty. That is why under my watch, we will provide free college education for the underprivileged students by giving full subsidy to tuition fees at the City College of Angeles.” The Mayor said.
Lazatin also stated that as a way of giving back to the efforts of public school teachers, his administration will grant a “non-wage” benefit in the form of free tertiary education to their dependents.
“Malaki po ang naiambag ng ating mga guro sa paghuhubog ng kaalaman ng ating mga estudyante kung kaya’t minarapat po natin na bigyan ng benepisyo an gating dakilang mga guro” Lazatin said.
Lazatin said his administration seeks the proper use of the City’s local school budget fund without increasing real property tax. He said that under his term, the city will maximize the school board budget by the purchase of additional school land, construction of new buildings, purchase of educational equipment, and acquisition of school furniture and fixtures.
Mayor Lazatin has put a stop to the construction of the new City Hall building and Sports Complex and said the P1.2 Billion loan set for the said projects will be reviewed and will be allocated to the CCA and the Ospital ning Angeles.
“We do not need a new sports complex while our poor students cannot go to school because there are no more classrooms to accommodate them. We need to construct new hospital rooms for our patients. We need to construct additional classrooms for our students! These are what we need,” said Lazatin. –Kim Tayag Photos (AC-CIO)