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AFTER Mayor Nepomuceno assumed office in July 2007, he briefed Pampanga media about his work agenda. He also revealed how his predecessor, Mayor Lazatin, left him with a gargantuan debt, namely:
1. San Nicolas Public Market, virtually a white elephant, with disorganized and displaced beneficiaries, in the amount of P309 million plus in principal and interest.
2. Slaughterhouse, also debt-ridden like the market; a white elephant, too, and totally unusable due to wrong designed, in the amount of P44 million plus.
The major proponents and cohorts of Lazatin in the approval of this indebtedness are the same personalities who are now loudly protesting against the proposed sports complex project of Nepomuceno.
They were indecently quiet when Lazatin put the city in heavy debt with bank loans.
That’s the ugly side of politics. Look at how the critics and enemies of President Arroyo torment her on the issue of expensive dining in New York, including a hamburger dinner for the world’s 44th most powerful woman.
Demonizing Nepomuceno for his futuristic project are the same people who helped create Tarzan Lazatin’s financial misadventures during his term. Blueboy, nevertheless, turned around the once failed Lazatin’s economic ventures and put them to good use.
He has started the full utilization of the potentials of the San Nicolas market and the slaughterhouse. The public market will be leased to a large mall chain to create much needed revenue to repay the loan and to provide downstream jobs after its full operations.
To amortize the other loan for the abattoir, the place was leased to a private firm, bringing several millions of pesos from monthly rentals and various fees.
After transforming these former “white elephants” into major economic enterprises, the city mayor, among other programs he already initiated, wanted a sports complex for Angeles City.
As an Angeleno, I am often embarrassed when I shamefully admit to visitors that we do not have a public facility for athletic activities or open sports competitions in our community.
While principal cities in Central Luzon have their athletic playground, with gymnasium, a track and field oval, Angeles City has neglected to build the necessary infrastructure for public sports.
Mayor Blueboy must equally feel inferior when his colleagues from the League of Cities proudly boast of their own sports complex and modern gymnasium. Tarlac City, Olongapo City, Cabanatuan City, Balanga City, and Iba City have thus become the venues of choice for national sports activities.
Angeles cannot claim the status of premier city when it lacks this basic infrastructure. It has been missing the opportunity of hosting major events in national competitions like the Prisaa, or even the Claraa.
Organizers prefer the City of San Fernando as principal venue because of the Pampanga sports complex there.
Angeles can not host out-of-town PBA games for lack of a decent and proper facility for national sports. Special events are held or accommodated in private school gyms which turn away the general public due to security and space limitations.
A sports complex is an urgent imperative in this progressive community. It will not only empower both students and out-of-school youth through sports development and regular competition, but it will also serve as an open, secured, and free venue for interminable barangay events and activities.
The critics are correct in citing the need for expanding health, education, even burial benefits for the residents. We also need a sports complex to serve as jogging oval for senior citizens who crowd cemeteries for their exercise.
An oval at Balibago near SM City is not conducive to exercising due to heavy motor vehicle pollution in the area.
To avoid violating human rights sensibilities of motorists and residents of Balibago during the tumultuous “Tigtigan Terakan,” the sports complex will easily accommodate thousands of drunken revelers and shabu-high participants in this tourism event.
A sports complex is as equally needed as a modern hospital, schools for higher learning, or a modern shopping center in any growing metropolis like Angeles.
It is a sad reality that Angeles City, with its record income, tourist facilities, and human resources, including the finest schools in Luzon, could not even stage or host the major Prisaa or Claraa events except basketball and volleyball competitions.
In recent years, Angeles City was known for producing champion boxers. Now is the time to revive that glory sports by including a training center for boxers at the sports complex.
Mayor Blueboy, go ahead and do your best. You are now in a situation as Mrs. Imelda Marcos was when she first proposed the construction of the Heart Center, the Cultural Center, and the Lung Center. Her worst critics called these capricious, expensive, and impractical for a poor country like the Philippines.
If you find amortizing the project a tad onerous, you can lease the open field, when no major events are scheduled, to a private firm like they did an open space inside Subic Freeport to a Go Kart operator who charges P400 per ten laps of ride around the race oval.
Boxing events can also be staged in this complex, but leave the sabung games to Tarzan’s Mabuhay arena and the Nepo coliseum.
Another future use of the sports complex is for “Paintungul Alkalde Tony Mamac or “future” Mayor Vicky V. Cabigting, whoever comes first, who can hold their inaugural/oath taking rites in this people’s venue at the appointed time. When the project is finished, give them the priority use, even in staging assaults against your administration.
Sir, madam, the project you condemned today may be the scene of your glorious days tomorrow.
 ANGELES CITY – Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno awarded Medals of Excellence to the members of Angeles City lawn bowl team who bagged the bronze medal in the recently-concluded 25th South East Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos.
Napomuceno gave an incentive amounting P20,000 cash to the team during the Monday flag raising ceremony.
The team members, who came from different villages in the city, competed in the Pentaque during the SEA games held on December 8-19, 2009.
“We congratulate and thank the team in bringing honor and prestige to the city”, Nepomuceno said.
The city mayor vowed to support the players in their efforts that will eventually lead them to the gold medals in the future.
City Sports Office Chief Paul Puri said the team members are: Michael Corporal, Marcelito Pancho, Aries Samia, Gilbert Dela Cruz, Mildred Vicente, Mildred Habluetzel, Gemma Casim, Violeta Dela Cruz, Mary Grace Monar and Head Secretary Joey Narciso.
Pentaque is a form of bowls where the goal is, while standing with the feet together in a small circle, to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a cochonnet (jack).
The game is normally played on hard dirt or gravel, but can also be played on grass or other surfaces. Soft sandy beaches are not suitable. Similar games are bocce and bowls.
The current form of the game originated in 1907 in La Ciotat in Provence in southern France. The English and French name pétanque comes from la petanca in the Provençal dialect of the Occitan language, deriving from the expression pès tancats, meaning “feet together” or more exactly “feet anchored”.
The casual form of the game of Pétanque is played by about 17 million people in France, mostly during their summer vacations. There are about 375,000 players licensed with the Fédération Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP) and some 3,000 in England.
Another 20,000 or so play in Québéc. Additionally, Pétanque clubs have arisen in cities throughout North America (Chicago, Milwaukee, Portland, OR, Minneapolis, etc.) as Pétanque is seen as hip by many newcomers, old and young alike. MAC/CIO
 ANGELES CITY – Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno leads the awarding of Certificate of Land Titles with officials from Local Urban Poor Affairs and Housing Office (LUPAHO) at the Mayor’s Office on January 27, 2010.
The beneficiaries were 15 indigent families from the villages of Malabanias, Pandan, Capaya and Ninoy Aquino.
In his message, Nepomuceno said, this award is part of the ongoing processing work to qualified housing beneficiaries being undertaken in the city through its housing arm, the LUPAHO.
According to LUPAHO Legal Head Richard Q. Rivera, the 15 identified beneficiaries have completed their payments under the City’s Socialized Housing Program.
“The awarded land titles were among the various parcels of public land intended for homeless families in the city” Rivera added.
Nepomuceno lauded the LUPAHO for working double time in delivering security shelters to Angeleños in response to a growing housing need.
LUPAHO Chief Atty. Venancio Q. Rivera III reminded the housing program recipients to continue paying their monthly amortization for securing the ownership of their home lots.
“These payments are very vital to the housing program of Mayor Blueboy Nepomuceno’s continued assistance to other homeless families” he said.
In related story, City Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno recently completed the payments of the 21, 146 square meters of privately owned land in Barangay Capaya intended for the City’s Socialized Housing Program.
The payment is amounting to Php 1,440,590.00 was part of the total selling price of Php 2,881,180.00. The land, now owned by the city government, will benefit 126 indigent families under the City’s Socialized Housing Program. MAC/CIO
THOUSANDS of residents, mostly in barangay Mining, Angeles City, as well as neighboring villages are quietly watching the unfolding drama regarding the proposed P600-million city sports center.
Identified as direct and immediate beneficiaries of the pet project of the City Government are the populace of Barangays Salapungan, Capaya, Tabun, and Pandan.
Undeniably residents in this area welcome the Sports complex project. They are indignant at local politicians who are obstructing its realization because it is according to them, untimely, unnecessary, and expensive.
They anticipate the infrastructure to generate employment during and after construction, stimulate economic activities even in micro scale, and bring about development in their neighborhood with the hike of real estate value in their area.
I have talked with many tricycle drivers-operators who agreed that with the year ‘round sports and cultural activities, including huge public programs and social activities at this site, they expected improved daily earnings through increased passenger volume in the route. Housewives can earn by the micro-enterprises in dining, lodging, and similar activities whenever an event is held there, they said.
The residents, of course, have been bombarded with toxic malice, naturally, from Nepomuceno’s political opponents. Their end game is to prevent the construction of what could be a blockbuster achievement for his administration, I was told.
It is the start of the political campaign and charges started flying fast and thick. All over the country the common allegation from the seated officials’ opponents is “overpricing.”
When President Marcos began building his famous infrastructures the opposition cried “overpricing!”
When Mrs. Imelda Marcos started the construction of the Philippine Cultural Center, the detractors opposed it on the same ground.
When the Philippine Heart Center was being implemented, Marcos’s rivals denounced it as “untimely, expensive, and unnecessary.”
So it was with the Kidney Center which went under severe protest.
The Pampanga Convention Center and Sports Complex was subjected to the same negative inquisition, but damn the torpedoes, Governor Guiao stood his ground and went to finish a vital provincial infrastructure.
The people of Barangay Balibago were critical and at first opposed to the expensive P14-million barangay hall that village chief Rodelio Mamac had envisioned. Today, the same residents and detractors of the former cop share in the pride of the project, being the largest in of its kind in Region 3.
Mamac’s critics said the hall was not a priority, citing the need of a firefighting station, a social hygiene clinic for thousands of hospitality workers, and a vast drainage system to prevent recurring floods.
Mayor Nepo, I have read, has stated that while there is actual need for improved services and equipment in the city hospital, more school rooms, a permanent solution to the garbage problem , these can be solved to in due time along with numerous urgent demands.
The Mayor looks ahead to the future when a first class and vaunted prosperous city as Angeles will not be embarrassed and humiliated for lack of a basic necessity as a sports complex. Makarine tamu!
Angeleños take great pride in their place as a center of culture, education, commerce, industry. It has the finest hotels, colleges and universities, and hospitals in the region.
Does it have a sports complex, which is a necessary infrastructure in a growing metropolis? No. Susmariosep! The city cannot even host a PBA out-of-town game or host a championship fights in boxing. Nakakahiya!
While Tarlac City, City of San Fernando, Balanga City, Cabanatuan City, Iba, Zambales, and Malolos, Bulacan can boast of their sports complexes our very own Lungsod ng Angeles has not even a decent public playground it can call its own. E dapat makanyan!
Detractors of the sports complex, like the oppositors to the NorthRail Expressway project shouted “overpriced!” These people are the new enemies of progress. We will benefit from the realization of such great undertakings in time, regardless of political costs.
Balibago residents only today realize that the P14-million cost of their imposing barangay hall is well worth it. Why can’t Angeleños stand as one and tell their mayor, “Go on, Mayor Blueboy, build that sports center and never fear for your decision!”
This was how Angeleños reacted when Mayor Lazatin got loans of over P400-million for the reconstruction of the San Nicolas Public market and the city’s slaughterhouse: “Sige, Mayor tapusin mo na yan, overprice kung overpriced na.”
This is the desire of the residents of Mining, Tabun, Salapungan, Pandan and Capaya. They are concerned over the future benefits that the sports complex will bring to their communities. At large the people believe the Center will make the city a regional sports venue as well as tourist destination.
It’s time for mayor’s other rival, Edgardo Pamintuan, to make known his position on the matter. He cannot dilly-dally on this challenge to come out in the open
Upon this premise, Nepomuceno should bring the issue directly to the people NOW and during the campaign. Why should ten or so politicians hold the project hostage to their ambition?
The city is diminished in stature- and less of a distinguished community it is known- without it. Is it necessary? Yes.
Will it be beneficial to the residents of the area? Yes. Will it bring income opportunities to them? Yes. Will it add to the things that make Angeles a great place? Yes. Is it bad for the politics of Mamac and Pamintuan. It sure does.
Is it an investment for the future? Yes.
ANGELES CITY – Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno delivers a message to the barangay officials and members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Teams (BPATs) during the Launching and Mass Oath Taking of (BPATs) sponsored by the Angeles City Police Office (ACPO) held at Barangay Cutcut People’s Gym on January 22, 2010. JJS/CIO
 ANGELES CITY – Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno (left) handed the cheque of Php250,000.00 donation to the officials and members of the Federation of Tricycle Operators & Drivers Association (FEDTODA) at the awarding of the 2nd Mayor’s Cup FEDTODA Basketball Championship on January 20, 2010 at Cutcut People’s Gym. Included in the picture are Team Friendship led by Dr. Ric Zalamea, ACADAC Raf Del Rosario, Councilor Ares Yabut. JJS/CIO
 ANGELES CITY — Mayor Francis Nepomuceno has recognized the hard works of 21 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) for contributing to the increases of amusement tax collection last year.
PWD’s have proven once again that they stand out despite their physical limitations, Nepomuceno said.
The mayor announced his appreciation during his recent visit at the Angeles City Sub-Committee for the Welfare of Disabled Persons (ACWDP) office in Barangay Santa Teresita here.
The ACWDP was created by the city mayor through Executive Order No. 43 series of 2007 to serve as a forum wherein issues, problems and other concerns related to persons with disabilities in the city. It also serves as an advocacy for the development and implementation of programs and services for PWDs.
Nepomuceno said the city was able to collect 24,653,788 representing amusement tax for 2009 and P22,816,187 for amusement tax in 2008 with the help of the PWDs. A remarkable 3.87% increases was noted.
Cris Capulong, president of Kapisanan ng may Kapansanan Sa Angeles (Kamasa) representing 1,035 members, sent his gratitude to the mayor and the city government for assisting the PWDs with their programs.
The Magna Carta for Disabled Persons mandates local governments to have specific programs for people with disabilities.
“Disabilities should never be a hindrance to one’s chosen field. By being asset in society, many PWDs are breaking barriers and changing the impression that they are a burden liability to the nation” the mayor added.
The PWDs are the hearing impaired, orthopedically impaired, visually impaired and mentally challenged. MAC/CIO
ANGELES CITY – Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno issued Executive Order No. 01 series of 2010 “Creating the Angeles City Advisory Committee (ACAC) for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P)” this, to ensure the effective implementation of the 4P’s.
According to Nepomuceno, 4Ps is a poverty reduction strategy that provides grant to the extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14.
Nepomuceno added “that the program addresses the millennium development goals of the government such as improving maternal health, reducing child mortality, reducing extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education and promoting gender equality and empowering women.”
ACAC for the 4P’s is led by the City Mayor as the chairman, vice-chairperson Lourdes L. Naguiat of City Information Officer and Gender Development Officer, Councilor Rudy Simeon, Liga ng mga Barangay President Robin Nepomuceno, City Social Welfare and Development Officer Heide A. Patio, City Planning and Development Coordinator David D. David, DILG City Director Myrvi M. Apostol-Fabia and DepEd Schools Superintendent Victoria Aguas
The ACAC functions are to ensure the availability of the supply side on health and education at program areas; provide necessary technical assistance to program implementation; coordinate various concerned government agencies; ensure the effectiveness implementation of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4P’s and to prepare reports with issues and concerns to submit to the Regional Advisory Committee.
The City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) is the responsible for the documentation and preparation of report to the committee.
Relative to this, the DSWD Region III conducted an orientation to the Local Chief Executives, Provincial Governors and members of the Regional Advisory Committee, Regional Grievance Committee and Provincial Grievance Committee and City or Municipal Advisory Committee.
The activity was aimed to orient the Provincial Governors and City/ Municipal Mayors and partner agencies on 4Ps program and supply side assessment tools for health and education and be aware on the respective roles and responsibilities of each member agency. MAC/CIO
 ANGELES CITY- Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno officiates the oath-taking of newly appointed Angeles City Water District Director Bernardo “Bernie” Cruz held at the Mayor’s Office on January 11, 2010.Also in photo is Angeles City Water District Chairman Atty. Edgar Ocampo. JJS/CIO
 ANGELES CITY – Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno talks to the residents of barangay Lourdes Nortwest during the Medical and Dental Mission of Chee Kung Tong Chinese Free Mason-Central Luzon Chapter at the Lourdes Northwest Elementary School on January 10, 2010. Included in the photo is Barangay Kagawad William David. JJS/CIO
 ANGELES CITY – Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno looks in as Dr. Alfie Bonifacio performs tooth extinction during his free dental mission held at Purok San Roque in Barangay Cutcut Chapel on January 9, 2009. Included in the photo is City Councilor Dan Lacson. JJS/CIO
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