Muntinlupa City marks today its 26th cityhood anniversary with Mayor Jaime Fresnedi leading the celebration.
From a municipality, Muntinlupa was converted into a highly urbanized city on March 1, 1995 when then President Fidel Ramos signed Republic Act 7926, the Charter of the City of Muntinlupa.
The people of Muntinlupa approved and ratified the cityhood in a plebiscite held simultaneously with the elections on May 8, 1995. With this, Muntinlupa became the eighth city in the National Capital Region and 65th in the country.
“This is truly a historic commemoration of our cityhood anniversary amid the ongoing pandemic. Muntinlupa’s progress is a result of the perseverance and unity of our local leaders and Muntinlupeños,” said Fresnedi.
A simple program will mark today’s occasion starting with a Thanksgiving Mass at the Muntinlupa City Hall quadrangle followed by the inauguration of the Cupang Health Center and simultaneous distribution of food packs in different communities.
March 1 is a special non-working holiday in Muntinlupa with the enactment of Republic Act 9191, the Muntinlupa City of Charter Day, in 2003.
Fresnedi emphasized that it is important that everyone should unite to overcome the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic with the city government pouring its resources to implement health and safety measures.
He thanked Muntinlupa’s development partners and taxpayers who continue to help and support the city.
“Our projects and projects would not be done without your trust. I know that the pandemic has affected you in the past months but I assure you that your contribution has helped our countrymen to bounce back,” he said.
He also thanked the city council led by Vice Mayor Artemio Simundac and Rep. Ruffy Biazon for their efforts.
According to the mayor, the Muntinlupa City government’s Recovery Program from the pandemic focuses on four areas: vaccination, economy, education, and infrastructure.
Fresnedi said the city has already ordered 400,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca. The city’s target is to inoculate 8,200 people per day in 35 vaccination centers. The city’s 82 vaccination teams from the City Health Office and medical personnel are ready to take on the challenge.
He is encouraging residents to get vaccinated for their own protection. According to the city’s own COVID-19 vaccine survey, 69 percent or 16,000 out of 23,000 respondents said they are willing to be vaccinated and the mayor wants this number to further increase.
“In order to increase the confidence of our townmates, our city councilors and I are ready to get the first COVID-19 vaccines in Muntinlupa. We will do this in order to encourage everyone to be vaccinated,” he said.
The mayor said the city government continues to help businessmen and workers who have been affected by the community quarantine to get back on their feet. Among these projects are the distribution of relief packs to various sectors, providing zero-interest loans, and job fairs.
In education, the city government has distributed mobile tablets to students and laptops to teachers to help them in distance learning. The Muntinlupa Scholarship Program also continues to give allowance to 72,628 city scholars.
As to infrastructure projects, the city inaugurated last week the extension of the Muntinlupa Student Center for Life Skills in Bgy. Tunasan, the covered court at the Muntinlupa National High School Tunasan Annex, and Phase 1 of the development of the Alabang viaduct.
Fresnedi appealed to the people to continue following health and safety protocols including the wearing of face masks and face shields, physical distancing, frequent hand-washing, and cooperating with the contact tracing effort through the Staysafe.PH application.
“There are still a lot of tasks to do for Muntinlupa to rise up again but I believe that we are strong. Through our determination and guidance of the Almighty, I know that we can overcome this dark chapter of our history. We will get through this together,’ he said.