Calixto re-elected mayor of Pasay

MANILA, Philippines—Reelectionist Antonino “Tony” Calixto won a landslide victory in the mayoralty race in Pasay, getting three-fourths of the total votes cast in the city.

Calixto of the Liberal Party was proclaimed mayor of Pasay at the Cuneta Astrodome Tuesday midnight after garnering 119, 177 votes.

All his rivals received 30 percent of the total votes. Those who trailed behind were Jorge del Rosario, businessman and former ally of Calixto, who got 28, 951, and former mayor Wenceslao “Peewee” Trinidad who got 22, 028 votes. Another candidate, Romulo Marcelo Sr., got 1,060 votes.

The proclamation on Tuesday turned into a victory party for the Liberal Party in Pasay with “Thank you” tarpaulins hung on the entrance and exit of the Cuneta Astrodome while loud campaign jingle of the mayor was played on.

Calixto’s sister Pasay Representative Emi Calixto-Rubiano also won a reelection with 130, 425 votes, beating his opponents Sonny Quial (24, 086 votes) and Pastor de Castro (4, 438 votes).

Vice Mayor Marlon Pesebre also won another term with 88,019 votes as against Noel Bayona who got 45, 688 votes, and Ricardo Santos who received 24, 879 votes.

Calixto’s landslide victory put his opponents in disbelief. Before the canvassing ended, lawyers of Trinidad filed a motion at the City Board of Canvassers to suspend the proclamation saying that the CF cards for the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) had been reprogrammed to favor Calixto and his party mates.

But the motion has been denied by the BOC siding with the lawyers of Calixto who said the question of the mayor’s opponents should be raised after the proclamation.

“It was statistically improbable that he won in all the precincts and even in my bailiwick,” Trinidad said in a phone interview.

Trinidad said he and his camp were preparing to file a complaint at the Commission on Elections while gathering more evidence on what he said was an apparent anomaly.

He said an example would be a polling precinct where he was certain a clan of 70 people voted for him but the count showed he only got 21 votes.

“It was hard to believe that I did not win in a single precinct. One candidate in Pasay getting 70 percent of the votes has never happened in Pasay, not even during (Pablo) Cuneta’s time,” Trinidad said. With Dexter Cabalza