In the past eight years, Pateros Mayor Miguel “Ike” Ponce III has worked to improve the lives of his constituents. Ponce won as mayor in the past three consecutive elections and is now in his third and last term. Despite the challenges that the Municipality Pateros is facing, including being the smallest local government unit in Metro …
In the past eight years, Pateros Mayor Miguel “Ike” Ponce III has worked to improve the lives of his constituents.
Ponce won as mayor in the past three consecutive elections and is now in his third and last term.
Despite the challenges that the Municipality Pateros is facing, including being the smallest local government unit in Metro Manila, Ponce believes that he has made life better for the people.
“Overall, I believe that for the past eight years or during my term as Mayor of Pateros, I have made the lives of my people better, meaning safer and easier for them to live in Pateros. More than any time, I am sure that they are proud to be called people of Pateros,” he said.
One key component of Ponce’s main programs is to widen and clear roads to make it easier for motorists and the people.
“We have made life convenient for them by undertaking several road widening projects and road clearing programs. The ingress and egress to our public roads has never been as convenient and taxi and Grab drivers are more eager to pick up and bring passengers in our town,” he said.
Ponce added, “Thru the continuous road clearing and cleaning of our road and sidewalks people are more disciplined than before. Pateros community, I believe, is one of the cleanest and orderly local governments in the National Capital Region.”
In addition, Pateros municipal government under Ponce developed parks and established the Museo de Pateros, which houses the municipality’s rich history.
“We have also developed several parks and the latest of which is the Museo de Pateros, a public museum that highlights the rich history of the town and its leaders and people and the equally rich religious tradition particularly our devotion to our Patron Saints Sta. Martha and San Roque. We take pride in knowing that we are only one of the few local governments in the National Capital Region that have constructed and set up a local museum,” he said.
‘We have made life convenient’
The mayor also said the people of Pateros “feel a lot safer today than before.”
“They don’t experience floods anymore. This is due to the rehabilitation and improvement of almost all of our drainage and road network. The worries of possible flooding is a forgotten matter,” he said.
According to him, the widening, clearing and rehabilitation of roads “expectedly resulted to more investors and businesses and, of course, more jobs generated for our people.”
“As a matter of fact, in 2023, we were acknowledged to have obtained the highest local revenue growth in the National Capital Region and one of the six local governments in the NCR with zero debt,” he said.
For peace and order, Ponce said they have started installing solar street lamp posts and high-resolution CCTV cameras in time for the launch of the municipality’s own Command Center.
“We have also started putting up solar lamp posts in the different Municipal Roads to illuminate our roads and have similarly started installing high resolution CCTV cameras in preparation for the much-anticipated inauguration of our Command Center that we are setting up for the town. With these we intend to scare away criminals so our people will feel safer to live in our town,” he said.
In education, new school buildings were built under Ponce’s administration.
“Our school buildings are mostly new and we doubled the number of scholars and have also increased incentives for honor students and those graduating in college with Latin honors. Most of our students at the Pateros Technological College are scholars, courtesy of the Unifast Program of CHED [Commission on Higher Education],” he said.
In health, the mayor said Pateros’ five health centers “are either new or substantially renovated to cater to the health concerns of our constituents.”
“In partnership with PhilHealth [Philippine Health Insurance Corp.], we have practically subsidized the expenses of our dialysis patients for their long-term treatment. For the last three years, we are giving out free laboratory and/or diagnostic test/examinations to our indigent citizens over and above the free maintenance medicines that they are receiving,” he said.
He added, “Also, we have computerized our system where our constituents can now transact business with the local government and pay their taxes online. Application for building and business permits can be done online and more than anytime, access to government services is at its easiest and best.”Last month, Ponce submitted his certificate of candidacy (COC) as the second nominee of the Ahon Mahirap party-list, which is seeking to win a seat in the House of Representatives in the May 12, 2025 local and national elections.
(Photo) Pateros Mayor Miguel “Ike” Ponce III (Photo from IsangPateros/Facebook)
Join the Club
Like this story? You’ll love our monthly newsletter.
