The City Government under the leadership of Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin Jr. was currently moving heaven and earth to break the chain of new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections. The local chief executive was resolute working 24/7 just to put everything in order.
From Day One, Mayor Lazatin was at the forefront coordinating efforts vs the new coronavirus with officials of the Clark International Airport where the first batch of the Wuhan-based Filipino workers arrived on their way to the Athletes’ Village of the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac.
That was early February when the pandemic was ravaging Wuhan in China’s Hubei province. Two months ago, it was improbable to think the strain of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) now called SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the new coronavirus or COVID-19 will ever make landfall in the Philippines. But it did.
Whether the pandemic was imported via Chinese tourists or returning OFWs is no longer the question as we scramble to prevent the spread of the pandemic that now infected more than 2,300 Filipinos and killed another 88.
As early as February, Mayor Pogi put into motion precautionary measures to contain the entry of the pandemic in Angeles City with the City Government checking on the entry of foreigners who came from COVID-19 affected countries such as China, South Korea Japan and Italy. The Clark airport serves as the entry point of the new coronavirus but Clark airport authorities had already decided to suspend commercial passenger flights starting tomorrow, April 3. It came a little too late.
No other local chief executive in Pampanga province was more active in the fight vs COVID-19 than Mayor Pogi. He was the first to suspend classes; directed the 4-day work week; closed of non-essential establishments like KTVs, bars, nightclubs, spas, massage parlors, etc; stopped the operation of bus firm plying within the city; requested services providers to suspend bills payment; designated COVID-19 hospitals; ordered city-wide disinfection which is still ongoing; declared Angeles City under a state of calamity; provided shuttle services for frontliners; limited purchase of essential goods; continued operations of ‘Puso Center’ which gives free medical and dental care at the City Hall; and launched relief packages distributions to 50,000 households on Wednesday night, April 1. Soon, Mayor Pogi will also provide Vitamin C to senior citizens and cash assistance to low-income families as they await the Social Amelioration Program of the national government.
Mayor Pogi was simply untiring. He reports at the City Hall early in the morning until almost all of the skeletal employees now manning the City Hall had gone home.
Pasig City has Mayor Vico Sotto; Manila has Isko Moreno; Gapan, Nueva Ecija has Mayor Emeng Pascual; and in Angeles City, we have Mayor Pogi. The pressures of public service did not deter these new breed of leaders from threading the road less travelled as we face the new normal in our lives. Mayor Pogi is indeed a chip off the old block with the long-hackneyed “Ditac a salita, Dacal a gawa” being played out in his no-nonsense governance.