Already proclaimed by the provincial board of canvassers, led by acting Commission on Election provincial supervisor, lawyer Reddy Balarbar, were re-elected Reps. Arthur Celeste, Amado Espino Jr., Generoso Tulagan and Marcos Cojuangco of the first, second, third and fifth districts, respectively.
Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. of the fourth district and Conrado Estrella III of the sixth district have yet to be proclaimed as of press time. The two ran unopposed.
Espino told The STAR that he, too, broke the so-called "jinx" in his district since no congressman had won two consecutive terms there.
Espino won overwhelmingly with 101,892 votes or a margin of more than 35,000 over his opponent, former Rep. Teddy Cruz who garnered 66,165.
Meanwhile, it’s still the tandem of Gov. Victor Agbayani and Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino who both chalked up landslide margins over their respective opponents.
Agbayani got 840,689 votes against Marietta Primicias-Goco’s 64,109, while Lambino obtained 622,303 votes against former second district Rep. Chris Mendoza’s 163,780. Both Agbayani and Lambino are on their third and final terms.
In the provincial board, except for two, all 10 incumbent board members won re-election. They are Danilo Dizon with 83,575 for the first district; Nestor Reyes (71,033) and Von Mark Mendoza (70,980) for the second district; Romeo Dadacay (93,804) for the third district; John Agerico Rosario (50,560) and Manuel Ancheta (28,089) for the fourth district, Emmanuel Carancho (116,588) and Dionisio Villar Jr. (108,086) for the fifth district; and Marlyn Primicias-Agabas (119,852) and Robert Estrella (92,286) for the sixth district.
Carancho, Villar, Agabas and Estrella ran unopposed.
The new board members are Alice Pulido with 64,082 votes and Angel Baniqued with 130,775 votes, of the first and third districts, respectively. — Eva Visperas