Jack Enrile’s wife leads in Cagayan House race

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines – While Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile is not faring well in the Senate race, his wife, Sally, enjoys an insurmountable lead to succeed her husband for the province’s first congressional district seat.

As of the latest tally as of press time yesterday, Sally, who also once occupied the post, obtained a huge margin of 75,531 votes as against Ignacio Taruc’s 30,282. She was to be proclaimed winner anytime yesterday.

Sally ran under the Nationalist People’s Coalition, one of the political parties allied with Team Cagayan of re-electionist Gov. Alvaro Antonio, while Taruc, son of former Buguey town mayor Ignacio Taruc Sr., is allied with the Liberal Party (LP).

The elder Taruc himself also lost the Buguey mayoral race to come-backing mayor Lloyd Antiporda, also of Team Cagayan.

The Team Cagayan, whose founders include the Enriles led by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, also dominated the provincial and municipal races against LP bets.

Third-term-seeking Antonio handily bested three-term Tuao town Mayor William Mamba in the gubernatorial race.

Mamba is the younger brother of former three-term congressman Manuel Mamba of Cagayan’s third district. The former lawmaker is now the head of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office and is the LP chairman for Cagayan Valley.

Meanwhile, Antonio denied allegations linking his group to the shooting of Manuel Mamba’s four-vehicle convoy along the national highway in Alcala town’s Centro 1 on election day.  

Mamba claimed that his convoy was fired at by Alvaro’s men in Alcala, the governor’s hometown. He even alleged seeing the governor with an AK 47 in front of the town hall when they were fired at.

Mamba said he immediately called up Cagayan Valley police director Chief Superintendent Rodrigo de Gracia, who, in turn, advised him to report the incident to the police in adjoining Gattaran town.

Mamba’s group was reportedly monitoring the conduct of elections, including reports of alleged last-minute vote buying by their rival camp, when they were fired at. – Charlie Lagasca, Raymund Catindig