Trinidad, Aguilar, Villar pace South Metro bets

Relectionists led the way in the just-concluded electoral exercise in southern Metro Manila.

In Pasay, latest data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) canvassing of votes at the Cuneta Astrodome as of 1 p.m. yesterday, showed incumbent Mayor Wenceslao "Peewee" Trinidad was leading the mayoral fight with 55,126 votes as against the 32,340 votes garnered by Ricardo "Ding" Santos of PDP-Laban and the 30,155 votes earned by Vice Mayor Greg Alcera of the Lakas-NUCD.

In Las Piñas, the Aguilar-Villar family again showed their supremacy with incumbent Mayor Vergel "Nene" Aguilar on his way to an imminent landslide victory.

Partial and unofficial Comelec results gathered as of 2 p.m. showed that Aguilar garnered 55,597 with his nearest rival, Cesar Gonzales getting a measly 1,409 votes.

His sister, Cynthia Aguillar-Villar, the wife of senatorial candidate, former Speaker Manny Villar, was also leading in the race for the city’s lone congressional district.

Initial canvassing results showed that Villar had garnered 33,417 votes as against her closest opponent, television personality and educator Tony Tamayo who got 19,568.

Aguilar’s running mate Louie Bustamante, the incumbent vice-mayor, was also leading movie actor Tirso Cruz III, in the vice mayoralty race; so far, garnering 39,706 votes to Cruz’s 15,795 votes.

Incumbent Mayor Jaime Fresnedi was also leading in Muntinlupa City according to the Namfrel Quick Count as of 1:30 p.m. yesterday.

According to the quick count, Fresnedi led the race with 26,601 votes as against the 19,048 votes garnered by Elizabeth Aguilar-Masangkay, the sister of Las Piñas Mayor Aguilar and Cynthia Villar, who ran under the banner of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino.

Masangkay’s running mate, incumbent Vice Mayor Vicente Chua, on the other hand, was leading in his race versus Councilor Jojay Alcaraz, Fresnedi’s running mate, both of whom are members of the Lakas-NUCD-People’s Power Coalition.

Th Namfrel Quick Count showed Chua has so far garnered 32,749 votes as against Alcaraz’s 21,659 votes.

In the race for the city’s lone Congress seat, Rufino "Ruffy" Biazon, son of the Senator Rodolfo Biazon, was neck to neck with incumbent Rep. Ignacio "Toting" Bunye.

As of the latest count, Biazon had garnered 20,843 votes to the 20,169 votes of Bunye of Lakas-NUCD. – Rainier Allan Ronda