The city hall of Mabalacat City. | PHOTO: INQUIRER.net/Jun A. Malig
MABALACAT CITY, Pampanga — Malacañang has declared Friday, July 21, as a special non-working holiday to commemorate this component city’s 11th cityhood anniversary.
Under Proclamation 269 signed recently by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, Malacañang said “it is but fitting and proper that the people of the City of Mabalacat be given full opportunity to participate in the occasion and enjoy the celebration.”
On May 15, 2012, the late President Benigno Aquino III signed Republic Act 10164, converting Mabalacat town into a component city of Pampanga, which elated then Mayor Marino Morales and other local officials.
On July 21 of the same year, this locality officially became a component city after its residents voted in favor of cityhood in a plebiscite conducted by the Commission on Elections.
The late Pampanga First District Rep. Carmelo Lazatin sponsored the cityhood bill in the House of Representatives, while President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., then chairman of the Senate committee on local government, sponsored the Senate version of the bill.
“Mabalacat has risen to become one of the most progressive municipalities in Pampanga. It is known as the industrial capital of Pampanga with the upsurge of different enterprises and services doing business in its locality,” then Senator Marcos said in a statement in May 2012.
Mayor Crisistomo Garbo has cited residents’ unity, hope, and perseverance as among the factors that contributed to the attainment of cityhood.
Right after Mabalacat became a city, it enjoyed a bigger share in the Internal Revenue Allotment, got one percent of the income shares from the Clark Freeport Zone, and had direct control and supervision of quarry activities within its territorial jurisdiction. INQ
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