MANILA, Philippines - The incumbent mayors of the cities of Mandaluyong and San Juan retained their posts, while Pasig City has a new mayor.
Mayors Benjamin “Benhur†Abalos Jr. of Mandaluyong, Guia Gomez of San Juan City and Del de Guzman of Marikina City posted large margins against their opponents while Pasig City mayoral bet Maribel Eusebio won by a landslide.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) board of canvassers has already declared Abalos, Gomez and Eusebio as winners while De Guzman’s proclamation was delayed because of a minor glitch in four compact flash cards (CF) of the precinct count optical scan machines.
Abalos of Lakas-NUCD bested his closest rival, Danny de Guzman (Aksiyon Demokratiko), by almost 40,000 votes.
Edward Bartolome, of the Liberal Party won over Doki Pe (Independent) as Abalos’ vice mayor.
In the congressional race, incumbent Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales Jr., the House majority speaker, won hands down against Frank Reyes of Kapatiran.
In San Juan City, Gomez of the Magdiwang party won by a mile against Glenn Angeles of Kapatiran. Incumbent Vice Mayor Francis Zamora retained his post as he ran unopposed.
For the city’s lone congressional district, former congressman Ronaldo Zamora (Magdiwang) won by a slim margin against Jannah Ejercito of the National People’s Coalition (NPC).
Rep. Zamora is the vice mayor-elect’s father while Ejercito is a cousin of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.
Wife takes over
In Pasig City, Maribel Eusebio of the Nationalista Party won handidly against Wainwright Rivera, an Independent.
However, Eusebio’s vice mayoral bet former chairman of Barangay Pinagbuhatan Rodrigo Asilo lost by a slim margin against Iyo Christian Bernardo, an Independent.
Eusebio replaced her husband incumbent Pasig City Mayor Robert Eusebio, who opted not to seek his third and last term to wait for a showdown against incumbent Rep. Roman Romulo for the city’s top post in the coming 2016 elections.
Romulo of the Liberal Party got his third term by winning against Jun Salatandre of UNA.
CF card problem
In Marikina City, De Guzman of the LP got 107,283 votes against his closest opponent, Independent Felipe Evangelista, with 2,504 votes.
However, the Comelec would only declare him as winner until the replacements of the CF cards arrive and the PCOS machines read the results of voting in four clustered precincts.
Incumbent Marikina City Vice Mayor Jose Fabian Cadiz is leading his opponent, Marion Andres.
In the congressional race, Marcy Teodoro is running unopposed in the city’s first district, while Miro Quimbo, House prosecutor during the impeachment of Justice Renato Corona is way ahead of his rival, Albert Bocobo, in the second district.