CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — Incumbent local chief executives still get to serve another three years in Cagayan de Oro City and Misamis Oriental province, after the local Commission on Elections (Comelec) has declared them as winning candidates on Wednesday.
Oscar Moreno defeated Jose Gabriel “Pompee” La Viña in the city’s mayoral race, while Yevgeny Emano is still the province’s governor after defeating Julio Uy. Cagayan de Oro is a chartered city, and not part of Misamis Oriental province.
Moreno, the standard bearer of the city chapter of the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), swept the May 13 polls with most of his partymates in the two districts of the city, with the exception of 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and two out of 16 winning councilors.
In this city, Moreno and his running mate, Vice Mayor Raineir Joaquin Uy, who are both re-electionists and are on their last term, retained their posts, while most of their allies also won, notably councilor-elect Girlie Balaba, who was heavily endorsed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
In the recent campaign sorties, Duterte personally asked Moreno to help Balaba and congressional bet Yan Lam Lim.
Lim, however, lost to Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, national president of the Centrist Democratic Party of the Philippines (CDP), has forged an alliance with the Padayon Pilipino, founded by the late Vicente “Dongkoy” Emano, and the Davao City-based regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP).
Padayon-CDP fielded La Viña for the mayoral race, with Emano’s daughter Nadya Emano-Elipe, who replaced her deceased father, as his running mate. Both lost to their opponents Moreno and Uy, respectively.
Balaba, a known friend of the Duterte family and a first-time political bet, mustered the second highest votes among the city councilor candidates, with 73,612 votes. She is followed by Edna Dahino, who got 79,733 votes.
Cagayan de Oro has 345,358 registered voters with 401 clustered precincts.
Days before the election, Moreno was the target of disinformation when fake orders supposedly coming from the Commission on Elections and the Sandiganbayan disqualified him.
Moreno’s camp accused La Viña of being behind the spread of the supposed Comelec and Sandiganbayan orders on social media, which the former Social Security Services official denied.
Meanwhile, in Malabang, Lanao del Sur, the more-than-five-decade rule of the Balindong clan was challenged by Mohammad Yahya “Tomas” Macapodi.
Macapodi won with 8,884 votes. His rivals, Rusty Balindong and Arrie Balindong, got 3,702 and 2,113 votes, respectively.
Rocky Ali, Macapodi’s running mate, also won with 6,049 votes, against Ahl Balindong, 3,191; Alexander Balindong, 2,636; and Aksara Balindong, 2,413.
It was reported that the Balindongs held political positions in Malabang for 53 years.
The incumbent Malabang officials are composed mostly of the members of the Balindong clan, except for one. -PNA
