Aquino proclaimed

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — City Mayor Rey Aquino was proclaimed as the newly elected congressman of the third district of Pampanga, the other day.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) provincial officer Temy Lambino declared Aquino the winner in the three-cornered congressional fight at 6:30 p.m. on Monday. Aquino, however, was proclaimed in absentia as he was out-of-town at the time.

His campaign manager, Raul Ronquillo, received the certificate of votes from Lambino and thanked the mayor’s supporters for the huge victory.

Aquino was credited with more than 84,000 votes and won over his two rivals, board member Ferdinand Labung and former Health Assistant Secretary Eric Domingo, by over 30,000 votes each.

Aquino, a multi-awarded local executive and chosen one of the country’s outstanding mayors last year, is the first mayor of San Fernando to be elected as the district’s representative in Congress.

He was also the last municipal and first city mayor of San Fernando when it became a component city in 2000.

Aquino was elected mayor of San Fernando in 1995 and went undefeated for three consecutive terms.

Under his stead, he was able to turn around the local government’s perennial budget deficit into a surplus and transformed San Fernando into one of the most competitive localities nationwide.

During the campaign, he vowed to push for economic growth, business expansion and more jobs in the third district.