Although the canvassing took longer than expected, the election results in Caloocan City— where 475,544 out of 719,447 voters took part—were as expected.
Some 30 hours after the start of the tallying of votes, the City Board of Canvassers proclaimed incumbent Mayor Oscar “Oca” Malapitan as the winner. He scored his third and last term in office by securing 428,954 votes against Emil Trinidad, who got only 4,364 votes.
Asked about his landslide victory, Malapitan told the Inquirer: “The opponents were actually nuisance candidates. Maybe, [I was unopposed] by seasoned politicians in Caloocan because they wanted me to continue [serving the people].”
Teammate Maca Asistio, who got 375,020 votes, was the lone candidate for vice mayor. The mayor’s son, Rep. Dale “Along” Malapitan, was reelected first district representative with 283,693 votes. He was also unopposed.
Another reelectionist, Rep. Egay Erice, won in the second district, receiving 124,223 votes. His opponent, Noel Cabuhat, got 13,349 votes.
Son also rises
Another son of the mayor, Enteng Malapitan, made his debut in local politics by topping the race for councilors in the first district. He finished with 253,180 votes.
“I’m thankful to the residents here that even though I did not have opponents, they went out and showed me that they trust me. I also want to give thanks that they didn’t just put their trust in me but in my two sons as well,” Mayor Malapitan said.
Asked if he was training Enteng to be the next mayor, Malapitan said it was not something he had thought of.
During his next term, he said he would focus on building a new hall of justice, a new city jail, and a public cemetery.
Malapitan also observed that this was the first time the elections in Caloocan were peaceful, with no untoward incidents happening and none of his supporters getting hurt.
At the start of the polls, the Philippine National Police had tagged the city as a “yellow area” or an “election hotspot.” It later downgraded the categorization, saying it was no longer an “area of concern.”