“MY administration recognizes the importance of reaching out, the need for cooperation, coordination and teamwork. Exclusion is never an option.”

Thus said comebacking City Mayor Alipio Fernandez, Jr. as he stressed the need to have the best practices in governance continue and introduce new adjustments in fiscal management that will sustain Dagupan City’s economic transformation.

Fernandez said the centerpiece of his administration is to provide “social programs, social order and good strong financial management.”

For the next three years of his administration, Fernandez also pledged full support and recognition to education for all age groups including the elderly whom he dubbed “seasoned citizens.”
“No child shall be left behind,” he declared, underlining one of the first steps in his administration’s vision to make education accessible to all.

Wielding a fresh mandate, Fernandez vowed to put the whole weight of the city government towards transforming Dagupan into a “healthy city”.

“I believe the people of Dagupan have the capacity to hold on together, to overcome challenges, to accept changes and to achieve measures of success and measures of fulfillment,” he said.

Fernandez returned as mayor of Dagupan City after serving as undersecretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government and later immigration commissioner until the recent election campaign when he was tapped by Speaker Jose de Venecia to run as Lakas candidate against Brian Lim, son of defeated mayor Benjamin S. Lim.

He and Lakas vice mayoralty candidate Belen L. Fernandez, who is not his relative, handily won.

With nearly four decades in public office behind him, Fernandez said he still believes Dagupan City remains a city of limitless opportunities and growth because its people have “limitless capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder.” (CIO/RR)