Alvarez humbles Mitra in Palawan

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY – Jose C. Alvarez’s proclamation as the next governor of Palawan snuffed incumbent Abraham Kahlil Mitra’s (LP) bid for a second term and underscored an almost total wipeout of the ruling party’s local bets in the province.

Even with votes from three more towns still to be received by the central computer at the Capitol’s session hall, but with Mitra lagging behind Alvarez by nearly 70,000 votes, the provincial election body ruled to proclaim Alvarez last Wednesday.

A businessman and former logging concessionaire in the province, Alvarez headed a local party allied with the Nationalist People’s Coalition to sweep nearly all major provincial posts, including majority of the Provincial Board seats.

“I’m simply glad it is all over and we can hit the road running,” lawyer Victorino Socrates, Alvarez’s running mate who trounced LP bet and board member Rolando Bonoan for the vice governorship, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Lawyer Nesario Awat, an election lawyer for some LP candidates who was observing the provincial canvassing, described the defeat of the LP lineup in Palawan “an unexpected total annihilation.”

Alvarez’s local party, the Partido Pagbabago ng Palawan (PPP), also won the majority of seats on the Provincial Board and the mayoralty of most large municipalities. The PPP also swept the three congressional seats in the province, with the victories of Eric Abueg (2nd district), Franz Joseph Alvarez (1st district) and Douglas Hagedorn (3rd district).

“I was expecting that the turnout would be close, at least for the governorship, considering that Mitra was an incumbent and Alvarez already lost to him in 2010. This was quite surprising,” Awat told the Inquirer.

Mitra was a no-show in the provincial canvassing and did not concede defeat, prompting the Comelec to wait two days to establish an irreversible margin in favor of Alvarez before ruling to proclaim Alvarez.

Mitra, son of the late former Speaker Ramon V. Mitra, won over Alvarez in the 2010 elections but was since hounded by allegations of corruption related to the misuse of Malampaya royalty funds in Palawan.

In Puerto Princesa City, Ellen Hagedorn (NPC), the wife of incumbent city mayor and senatorial candidate Edward S. Hagedorn (IND), failed in her bid to take on the torch held by the popular clan for the past two decades, bowing to current vice mayor Lucilo Bayron in the mayoral race.