Pampanga mayor vies for international award

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — This city’s mayor, Oscar Rodriguez, has made it to the short list of 65 out of more than 550 city mayors from Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe and the Americas who were nominated for the World Mayor Award.

Rodriguez is the only Filipino city mayor and one of the nine Asian nominees for the award.

The World Mayor project, organized by the City Mayors, an independent and non-commercial Internet platform, aims to "raise the profile of mayors worldwide, as well as to honor those who have served their communities well and who have made contributions to the well-being of cities nationally and internationally."

"At the close of nominations, which stretched from January 2005 to the end of May, the City Mayors editorial board drew up a short list of 65 mayors to compete for this year’s World Mayor Award. The winner will be announced in early December," the organizers said in their website (worldmayor.com).

Last year, the World Mayor Award went to Edi Rama of Tirana City in Albania, while Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez of Mexico City was the runner-up.

Rodriguez was elected mayor in 2004 after having served three consecutive terms as congressman representing the third district of Pampanga.

He was one of the prosecutors in the impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada.

Since he became mayor, Rodriguez has boosted the city’s economy through more efficient tax collections.

He has also initiated projects to reduce the pollution of local waterways and to curb perennial flooding.

The World Mayor Award organizers said the selection of the 65 finalists "is based equally on the number of nominations received by each mayor and on the quality and conviction of supporting statements."

"When setting up the rules of the competition, City Mayors emphasized that the strength of (the) arguments was as important as the number of nominations."

Those in the short list include three mayors from Africa, two from Australia, 19 from the Americas and 32 from Europe.

Organizers urged all readers of the City Mayors and World Mayor websites to take part in the selection of the World Mayor Award recipient and to support their vote "with a supporting comment, describing the qualities of their chosen mayors." — Ding Cervantes