Salimbangon’s camp assails Martinezes’ claim of victory
The camp of fourth district congressional aspirant Benhur Salimbangon yesterday denounced the claims of victory from the camp of his opponent Celestino “Tining” Martinez III.
Tining’s father, Celestino “Junnie” Martinez Jr. won by a landslide against Valeriano Hortelano and had been proclaimed as mayor-elect of Bogo.
The
Salimbangon’s spokesman Greg Senining disputed this however describing it as untrue and “a sweeping conclusion.”
In the weekly Kapihan ni Ate Glo yesterday, Senining hit the
Senining cited at least three towns in the fourth district —Tabuelan, Sta. Fe, and
Salimbangon raked in a good number of votes from these towns, which when added to eight other towns, except Bogo where the election returns are still contested, resulted in his lead of at least 13,000 votes against Tining.
Junnie’s wide margin of 19,000 votes against Hortelano in Bogo was expected but then it could not be equated with the case of Tining. There is no question on Junnie’s victory, but it is not the same with Tining’s outcome, said Senining.
The entire Bogo votes have not been resolved so far considering the contested 15 election returns sent to the Comelec central office for authenticity. This also put the congressional race in the district still unclear albeit a close one.
The entire fourth district has a total registered voters of 237,480 and those who actually voted totaled 155,924.
At the time the canvassing was stopped, or except for the contested 15 ERs, the Comelec tally showed Salimbangon had 67,308 votes while Tining had 64,990.
The 2,318 votes between the two is a slim margin and whatever the outcome of the 15 ERs, which have an estimated 3,000 votes, will be crucial to any of them. — Gregg M. Rubio/RAE
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