Bautista leads by wide margin in QC; canvassing to resume Wednesday

Herbert Bautista FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—With more than half of election results canvassed in Quezon City, incumbent Herbert Bautista led the mayoral race by a wide margin over his rivals.

The canvassing was delayed in the locality with the largest voting population at 1,083, 912 as polling precincts were hounded by precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine breakdowns on Election Day.

Local Comelec officials said that only 12 of 216 PCOS machines actually conked out.

As of 5:45 a.m. Tuesday the local board of canvassers released partial official election results, accounting for at least 50 percent, before it called a recess. The canvassing was scheduled to resume at 11 a.m.

Bautista received 558,276 votes against 54,312 for  John Chang and 24,722 for Henry Samonte.

Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte also enjoyed a sizeable lead over Rolando Jota with 562,582 votes against 39,345.

In the congressional race, Boy Calalay led the first district with 62,710 over Rita Crisologo, who got 57,642, and Gary Jamile with 2,132.

In the second district Winston Castelo led with 81,645 against Ismael Mathay III who got 46,521.

In the third district incumbent Rep. Jorge Banal got 49,731 votes, edging Mat Defensor who received 39,513 votes.

In the fourth district House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr gained a commanding lead over Hans Palacios with 96,682 votes against 9,762.

Actor Alfred Vargas edged out Annie Rosa Susano with 67,753 votes against 26,267 for the fifth district seat in the House of Representatives, also thumping Dante Liban, who got 11,053 votes, and broadcaster Isagani Oro who got 4,724.

The unopposed candidate for representative of the sixth district Kit Belmonte got 77,982 votes.