Incumbents still win in Caloocan

MANILA, Philippines - Incumbent Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri and the two seating representatives retained their respective posts in Caloocan City elections.

Echiverri won by a wide margin of more than 100,000 votes against three-term Rep. Luis Asistio.

Echiverri garnered a total of 240,144 votes while Asistio has 137,128 votes.

Election officer Dina Valencia and city prosecutor Ed Valbuena officially proclaimed Echiverri winner at around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. “I would like to thank all those who supported my third and last term as mayor of Caloocan. Rest assured that I will work harder for more projects that would benefit the city residents,” Echiverri said in a statement.

Rep. Oscar Malapitan of the city’s first district got a total vote of 153,059 while Rep. Mitch Cajayon of the second district garnered a total of 77,364 votes. They were also proclaimed winners over their respective rivals. Former congressman Edgar Erice won the vice mayoralty post by gaining 180,379 votes.

Winners for the council seats were yet to be proclaimed as of press time yesterday after the Commission on Elections was still to account the remaining five percent of the votes cast.

Memory cards for some precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines malfunctioned.

In Navotas City, incumbent Mayor Toby Tiangco won unopposed in the city’s lone congressional seat while John Reynald Tiangco took over the mayoralty seat from his elder brother. He was also unchallenged.

Winners for the council seats in Navotas City were yet to be proclaimed yesterday.