Pampanga city mayor named World Mayor award finalist

MANILA, Philippines – The mayor of Angeles City, Pampanga was chosen as one of the official finalists for the 2012 World Mayor award.

Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan was named by the international think tank City Mayors Foundation as one of its 25 finalists for this year’s award for the most outstanding city mayor in the world. He, along with the other finalists, were selected among 98 city mayors who were nominated through a search held from January to May.

“This is really an unexpected result. As what I have said, being long listed to receive this award is already a heart-warming acknowledgment. But being one of the 25 finalists to vie to be the next World Mayor is extremely overwhelming,” Pamintuan said in a statement.

He has served as vice mayor of Angeles City from 1988 to 1992 and mayor from 1992 to 1998. He has also served in various government agencies and even became a presidential adviser under the Arroyo administration. He is currently serving another term as mayor after winning in the 2010 local elections.

“I guess the reason why we were able to get this far is that people see what we have given in honor of the people of Angeles,” Pamintuan added.

He is the second Angeles City mayor to make it as a finalist in the award, after former mayor and now Pampanga representative Carmelo Lazatin became a finalist in 2006.

In this year’s list of finalists, Pamintuan is joined by four other city mayors from Asia, five from North America, four from Latin America, seven from Europe, two from Australasia, and two from Africa.

Davao City Mayor Sarah Duterte and Manila City Mayor Alfredo Lim were also shortlisted as nominees for the award, but they didn’t make it among the finalists.

Voting for the finalists is done by accomplising an online ballot form, in which a person has to state the reasons for voting for the finalist of his or her choice. The voting will close in October, and the City Mayors Foundation will declare a winner and runner-ups in December.

Since the establishment of the awards in 2004, five nominated city mayors from the Philippines made it among the finalists, with three of them ranking among the top 10:

• 2005: Oscar Rodriguez of San Fernando, Pampanga (still incumbent mayor) – ranked 4th
• 2006: Jejomar Binay of Makati City (now Philippine vice president) – ranked 4th
• 2006: Carmelo Lazatin of Angeles City, Pampanga (now Pampanga representative) – finalist
• 2008: Marides Fernando of Marikina City (former mayor) – ranked 7th
• 2010: Jesse Robredo of Naga City, Camarines Sur (now Interior and Local Government secretary) – finalist

Previous World Mayor awardees are:

• 2004: Edi Rama (Tirana, Albania)
• 2005: Dora Bakoyannis (Athens, Greece)
• 2006: John So (Melbourne, Australia)
• 2008: Helen Zille (Cape Town, South Africa)
• 2010: Marcelo Ebrard (Mexico City, Mexico)

The award “honors mayors with the vision, passion and skills to make their cities incredible places to live in, work in and visit,” and “aims to show what outstanding mayors can achieve and raise their profiles nationally and internationally.” – Rappler.com

Click on the linka below for related stories: 

• Lim joins 2 other Pinoy bets for World Mayor
• 2 Philippine mayors nominated in 2012 World Mayor award
• The Mayors Duterte

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