With fresh mandate, Valenzuela’s Gatchalian promises ‘new chapter’

After getting a fresh mandate from the city’s voters in Monday’s elections, incumbent Valenzuela Mayor Rexlon Gatchalian has vowed to introduce a “new chapter” in the city’s history.

Gatchalian, who won his reelection bid, garnered 190,856 votes while his closest contender, Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo, got 65,375, according to the local Commission on Election’s final tally.

Gatchalian was proclaimed immediately at 2:49 a.m. on Tuesday at City Hall, despite the presence of around 500 Gunigundo supporters who called his victory questionable.

“People are angry now. There could be alleged cheating. We wonder why Gunigundo did not win even in his bailiwick in District 2,” Ramon Robina, Gunigundo’s media officer, told the Inquirer.

Arthur Ramos, Gunigundo’s campaigner,   alleged that there was massive cheating as he wondered why the congressman, who had 70,000 base votes when he ran for congressman in 2013, got less than 65,000 this year.

Ramos claimed that Gunigundo surprisingly lost in his own bailiwicks in Marulas, Gen. T. de Leon, Karuhatan and Parada.

According to the congressman’s camp, they were consolidating their evidence to determine if they could file a formal complaint against Gatchalian. “Last year, somebody came to us and offered to make us win for P60 million. We declined the offer. Now we’re looking for that person so we can prove our claims,” Ramos added.

Back at work on Wednesday, Gatchalian said that he was sad about the accusations. Valenzuela has 318,000 registered voters with 460 cluster polling precincts. The voter turnout was 83 percent.

Declared as the winner in the congressional race in the city’s first district was Wes Gatchalian with 92,541 votes, followed by Ritchie Cuadra with 22,246 votes and Victor Reponia with 336 votes.

Lorie Natividad-Borja was elected vice mayor after she garnered 162,131 votes. In second place was Marcelino Morelos with 79,885 votes. Eric Martinez, meanwhile, won the congressional seat in the second district, defeating Adel, Gunigundo’s wife.

Rexlon Gatchalian, meanwhile, said that he would focus next on improving tertiary education in the city, noting that he had been concentrating on primary and secondary education for this term.

Currently, construction of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela was ongoing, he said.  “What we want to do is to complete the whole spectrum. We started off with daycare, primary, secondary in my first term.  Now, we want to synergize our efforts all the way to the college level,” he added.

Another priority, Gatchalian said, was to make students of the city K-12 ready. With John Christian Alvariño