Francis Zamora, who has been proclaimed as San Juan mayor, flashes a thumbs-up sign at the San Juan Knights Gymnasium. (Photo by EDWIN BACASMAS / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines—New and returning government officials in Metro Manila lead the cast of early winners of the May midterm elections. They were proclaimed just hours after voting ended Monday evening.
In San Juan City, Francis Zamora scored one of the biggest victories of this year’s elections, beating Janella Ejercito Estrada with a margin of 10,247 votes to end the five-decade reign of the Estrada-Ejercito clan in the city.
Results from the City Board of Canvassers showed that Zamora, running under the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), led the mayoralty race with 35,060 votes, while his opponent, Ejercito Estrada, running under the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), garnered 24,813 votes.
At 12:20 a.m. Tuesday, Mayor Rexlon Gatchalian earned a fresh mandate to lead Valenzuela City after a landslide victory.Gatchalian garnered a whopping 249,508 votes or 96.69 percent of the total number of votes for his third term as the chief executive of Valenzuela.
Reelectionist Makati Mayor Abigail Binay gets a kiss from husband Luis Campos shortly after casting their votes on Monday, May 13, 2019. (Photo from Binay’s Facebook account)
Meanwhile, Abby Binay emerged victorious for a second term as Makati City Mayor following her victory against four other candidates, including her brother Junjun Binay.
Abby received 179,522 votes, with Junjun coming in at far second with 98,653 votes.
The Binay patriarch, former Vice President Jejomar Binay, however, failed to replicate the success of Abby after losing to Liberal Party (LP) candidate Romulo “Kid” Peña in their congressional derby.
In a fairly close vote, Peña won Makati City’s first district congressional seat by receiving 71,035 votes compared to Binay’s 65,229 votes.
READ: History in Makati: Kid Peña beats Jejomar Binay in congressional race
In Las Piñas, Camille Villar, daughter of Senator Cynthia Villar and businessman Manny Villar, won as congresswoman of the city’s lone congressional district in a runaway fashion.
She garnered 173,917 votes, while her lone rival Jerry delos Reyes only got 19,791 votes.
READ: Camille Villar proclaimed Las Piñas congresswoman
Meanwhile, the City of Stars has a new mayor in Joy Belmonte after beating 1st Dist. Rep. Vincent “Bingbong” Crisologo of PDP-Laban.
Belmonte cornered 469,480 votes against Crisologo’s 366,215 votes to become the local chief executive of Quezon City.
READ: Joy Belmonte is new Quezon City mayor