Jason Ortizo, a former Catholic priest and retired Philippine National Police (PNP) brigadier general, assumed office as mayor of San Francisco, a municipality in the central Philippines, on July 1.
In his inaugural address, Ortizo appealed to his constituents for unity and pledged to prioritize health care, water supply systems, and local tourism development.
“I am now ready to serve with love more than anything else,” he said in a social media post on the day he took his oath of office.
Ortizo will serve a three-year term as mayor of San Francisco in Southern Leyte, a province located nearly 1,000 kilometers southeast of Manila by land and sea. San Francisco, a coastal town, comprises 22 barangays (the smallest political units in the Philippines) and has a population of more than 13,400, according to the 2020 census.
The town is named after San Francisco Javier, though Saint Isidore is honored as its patron saint.
Under Philippine election law, a mayor may serve up to three consecutive three-year terms. Ortizo won the May 12 midterm elections by a slim margin of 19 votes, securing 4,669 votes against opponent Erasmo Damolo Jr., who garnered 4,650.
On March 3, Ortizo was stripped of his priestly status by Bishop Oscar Jaime Florencio of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines, after filing his certificate of candidacy in 2024.
He was originally ordained a priest for the Diocese of Maasin and served as a PNP chaplain for 25 years.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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