Kin of longtime officials top polls on resort island

BORACAY ISLAND, AKLAN — Reeling from years of poor governance, residents of Boracay Island have chosen younger officials to head the island’s three villages during the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections here.

While most winners in the village elections belong to large clans who have traditionally dominated the island’s politics, the results were seen by many as a preview of the 2019 local elections, when Malay Mayor Ciceron Cawaling would likely face off with Vice Mayor Abram Sualog.

At Barangay Manoc Manoc, which has the biggest voting population among the island’s three villages, the vice mayor’s nephew, village councilor Nixon Sualog, beat former barangay captain Joel Gelito.

Biggest barangay

Sualog got 4,416 votes against his grand uncle Gelito’s 2,716. Sualog is a nephew of the Malay vice mayor.

Manoc-Manoc has 11,170 registered voters or 50.51 percent of the 22,111 total voters on the island.

At Barangay Balabag, village councilor Jason Talapian won with 2,390 votes, over former village chief  Glenn Sacapaño (1,838 votes) and Liberty Asuncion (98).

Talapian, who is Sacapaño’s cousin, will succeed the latter’s wife, Balabag village chief Lilibeth Sacapaño.

Hector Casidsid was reelected village chief of Yapak, the smallest of the island’s villages.

He got 1,637 votes against the 791 votes received by former village councilor Marlyn Villaresis, and 33 votes received by former village chief Anselmo Casidsid, his uncle.

Sharp drop

Several residents who had expected a contest between the Casidsids said the elder Casidsid had told his supporters to back his nephew instead.

There was a sharp drop in the voter turnout because many workers and nonnative residents left the island when it was closed to tourists on April 26 as part of its six-month rehabilitation.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government earlier said it would file administrative charges in the Ombudsman against at least 10 “local officials,” including those serving in the villages, for their alleged “failure to uphold national and local laws” that led to environment problems on the island.