Reelected Baguio City mayor calls for post-election healing process, pardons detractors

Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong (file photo)

BAGUIO CITY —  Reelected Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Monday said that he has forgiven all his detractors and called for the start of the post-election healing process.

Magalong said the 2022 campaign was beset by lies and manufactured stories that “made people  hate other people,” and “groups to hate other groups.”

He did not elaborate. His major rival in the mayoral polls was his predecessor, lawyer Mauricio Domogan. Former Vice Mayor Edison Bilog also lost the mayoral race.

“I forgive them,” the mayor said, adding, “Let us heal once again.”

Magalong, a retired police general, said he ran on the platform of good governance and public service.

Magalong is known for concluding that the late former president Benigno Aquino III and other police officials were liable for the botched Mamasapano massacre that killed 44 police officers when he led a fact finding investigation.

He was recently condemned online by an anti-communist government official after he promised activists that they would be safe from harassments and bullying in the summer capital.

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