CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines – Still waiting for the replacement of defective CF cards, re-electionist Julius Cesar “Jay” Vergara of the Liberal Party (LP) was proclaimed mayor at Cabanatuan City Hall on Tuesday, May 14.
Vergara won with a total of 78,470 votes (as of 2:04 PM on May 14) against challenger, incumbent Board Member Anthony Umali (Sigaw) who received 45,761 votes.
Maurius Gacia, Vergara’s running mate, won the race for vice mayor with a total of 71,634 against Jess Diaz of Sigaw who got 44,745 votes.
Comelec Cabanatuan City determined that the contents of the defective CF cards will not affect Umali’s number of votes.
City election supervisor Atty. Romeo Aguilar Jr. said they asked permission to lower the canvassing threshold from the regional election director and are waiting for the username and passwords.
Once the permission is granted and the account details are given, they will be able to print the certificate of canvass and transmit the results to the Provincial Board of Canvassers.
The re-elected Vergara declared during his campaign that he will continue to push for the conversion of Cabanatuan City into a Highly Urbanized City (HUC).
The HUC issue has been the central theme of debates against both opponents. Umali, strongly opposes the conversion bid.
Cabanatuan City has a total of 219,430 voters, the largest in the province. – Rappler.com
Anthony Esguerra is a Rappler Ambassador.
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.