MANILA— Pateros Mayor Miguel “Ike” Ponce III on Wednesday filed his certificate of candidacy for a third and final term as chief executive of Metro Manila’s lone municipality.

Ponce was joined at the local Commission on Elections (Comelec) office on Wednesday by his slate of 12 councilors for the Sangguniang Bayan, among them 6 incumbents.

Peter Marzan, current village chairman of Bgy. Magtanggol, will be Ponce’s running mate for vice mayor.

Ponce said he would push to continue social services and projects derailed by the pandemic if given another term.

“Lalo na ang mga infrastructure projects, mga nabinbin ito dahil nga inuna natin— lahat halos ng pondo natin ay nai-divert natin to address— 'yong mga programs natin to fight the COVID-19 virus,” he told ABS-CBN News.

(Especially infrastructure projects because almost all our funds were diverted to programs designed to fight the COVID-19 virus.)

“Ngayon nakikita natin na maaaring lumuwag ito sa 2022, dito natin itutuloy lahat ito, pati ‘yong pagpapaganda nang todo para sa ating bayan at pagbibigay ng trabaho para sa ating mamamayan.”

(Now we can see that there could be some leeway in 2022, we can continue these to beautify our town and give jobs to our people.)

He added they would also continue the thrust to gain city-hood for Pateros, an issue currently in court.

Allan Cerafica, who was defeated in 2019 by incumbent Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, will make another bid for congress.

The group is running under the Aksyon Demokratiko party chaired by presidential aspirant Isko Moreno.

They were among 50 officials sworn into the party on September 27.

• Membership up 300 pct: Aksyon Demokratiko to field over 500 candidates for Halalan 2022

Pateros Mayor Miguel “Ike”Ponce III files COC for reelection to a 3rd term, joined by local council aspirants under Aksyon Demokratiko. Ponce’s running mate will be current Bgy. Magtanggol chair Peter Marzan. pic.twitter.com/1AYjwqLTYR

— Anjo Bagaoisan (@anjo_bagaoisan) October 6, 2021

After a failed bid for the mayoralty in 2001, Ponce ran under the Liberal Party in 2013 when he again lost, and in 2016 when he won his first term.

He later sought reelection in 2019 as part of the ruling PDP-Laban.

Asked about their party switch, Ponce said they believed in its advocacies.

“Actually sa amin sa local government ay hindi naman masyadong importante ‘yong partido dahil depende ito kung ano’ng ginawa mo noong ika’y manungkulan, especially sa aming mga incumbent,” he said.

(Parties are not that important in the local government level as it mostly depends on what you did during your term, especially for us incumbents.)

“Kami ay nasa Aksyon Demokratiko ngayon dahil naniniwala kami sa programang pinaglalaban at tingin namin maganda ang kanilang hangarin sa bayan.”

(We're with Aksyon Demokratiko right now because we believe in their advocacies.)

Before Ponce’s slate, only 3 people had filed their candidacies at the Pateros election office since October 1— all for councilor.

Pateros election officer Armando Mallorca said they expected other candidates to file on Wednesday and Thursday.

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