Malabon, Valenzuela mayors get fresh terms in office

Malabon City Mayor Antolin Oreta III.  INQUIRER.NET FILE PHOTO

MANILA — Malabon City Mayor Antolin Oreta III won a fresh term in office after the Commission on Elections proclaimed him winner of the vote count at 2 a.m. on Tuesday.

The certificate of canvass showed that Oreta, 45, got 54.52 percent of the votes and beat lone district Representative Josephine Lacson-Noel.

Malabon City has 194,733 registered voters in 279 clustered precincts.  It had a voters’ turnout of 78.83 percent.

Winning as Malabon City vice mayor is incumbent Jeannie Sandoval of the NPC who gathered 53.68 percent of the total votes. She beat Jap Garcia who earned 38.9 percent and Leslie Yambao who had 7.42 percent of the votes.

Oreta, the eldest son of former Senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta and businessman Antolin Oreta, received a Bachelor of Science in Japanese Studies and Business at the Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan.

He also took short governance and administration-related courses at the National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG) and Development Academy of the Philippines.

Oreta was reelected despite being tagged in the murders of barangay councilors Daniel Villaluna, 42, and Bienvenido Reyes Jr., 40, this year.

His mother, though, lost to Ricky Sandoval of the NPC in the Malabon congressional race. Oreta gathered only  48.68 percent of the total votes while Sandoval earned 49.96 percent.

Meanwhile, in Valenzuela City Mayor Rexlon Gatchalian won a fresh mandate as the city’s top official.

Gatchalian won 190,856 votes while his contender, Representative Magtanggol Gunigundo got 65,375, according to the Comelec’s final tally.

At 1:10 a.m. on Tuesday, Gatchalian went to the Valenzuela City Hall to thank his supporters.

Lorie Natividad-Borja won as Valenzuela vice mayor with 162,131 votes, followed by Mar Morelos with  79,885 votes.

Winning as Valenzuela’s first district representative is Wes Gatchalian with 92,541 votes.  He beat Ritchie Cuarra with 22,246 votes and Victor Reponia with 336 votes.

Eric Martinez, meanwhile, won as 2nd district representative of Valenzuela over contender Adel Gunigundo.

As of posting time, the accounting and transmission of ballots in Caloocan and Navotas City were almost finished. (With reports from JC Alvarino, trainee) SFM