Tarlac town vice mayor defeats reelectionist mayor

CAPAS, Tarlac—The vice mayor of this town has defeated the mayor in the mayoral race, the total but unofficial data from the Commission on Elections’ transparency server showed.

Based on the election returns from the 121 clustered precincts (100%) as of 11:02 a.m. on Tuesday, May 10, Vice Mayor Roseller “Boots” Rodriguez obtained 34,592 votes to win the mayoral contest against reelectionist Mayor Reynaldo “Reycat” Catacutan, who got 29,312 votes.

Rodriguez first became vice mayor in this town in 2013 after defeating his rival by more than 8,000 votes.

He ran for re-election in 2016 under the same political party and won by a margin of more than 13,000 votes against his closest rival.

In the 2019 elections, Rodriguez teamed up with Catacutan for their re-election bids. Both won decisively in the mayoral and vice mayoral contests.

Catacutan won by almost 8,000 votes against a former mayor, while Rodriguez won by a margin of more than 28,000 votes over his closest opponent.

In this year’s elections, Rodriguez challenged reelectionist Catacutan and won, as shown in the total but unofficial results.

Another mayoral candidate, former Mayor Antonio “TJ” Rodriguez Jr., was last in the race with 7,829 votes.

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