DILG: 923 mayors, 41 governors re-elected

MANILA, Philippines – A total of 41 governors and 923 mayors get re-elected nationwide during the May 10 national and local elections, the Department of Interior and Local Government yesterday.

The DILG r-elected, there were 39 newly elected governors, including Maguindanao governor-elect Ismael “Toto” Mangudadatu, whose wife and other relatives were among those killed in the gruesome massacre of 57 persons in Ampatuan, Maguin­danao last Nov. 23.

In a report to Secretary Ronaldo Puno, DILG Assistant Secretary for Information Technology and Regional Operations Eubert Gutierrez said there are more incumbent or re-electionist governors, city and municipal mayors who won in the recently concluded May 10 national and local elections than newcomers.

Gutierrez said that based on statistics from the DILG’s regional and field offices, out of the country’s 137 city mayors 56.2 percent or 77 city mayors got a fresh mandate to serve the people. Out of the 1,497 municipal mayors nationwide, 57 percent or 846 municipal mayors were reelected. He said that a total of 60 city mayors and 644 municipal mayors would serve their first term in office.

Gutierrez said that based on such data from the DILG field offices, it could be surmised that re-electionists have a fairly huge advantage over the new faces who are trying to penetrate the political arena.

“Of course, there are many other factors to consider and this will also depend on how the re-electionists performed during their last term, or how the new political competitors present their alternative platform of governance to the public,” he said.

In Luzon, 444 out of the 771 city and municipal mayors who were proclaimed winners by the Comelec are reelected while only 327 are on their first term. In Mindanao, 256 of the 455 city and municipal mayors are re-elected local officials and 199 are new to their positions.

There was a different case in Visayas, wherein there are more newly elected city mayors with 22 city mayors, than re-elected with 17. Among municipal mayors, re-elected officials were 213 against 156 for the newly elected.

In the National Capital Region (NCR), there are 10 re-elected mayors, including Alfredo Lim of Manila, Enrico Echiverri of Caloocan City, Vergel Aguilar of Las Piñas, Canuto Oreta of Malabon, Benjur Abalos Jr. of Manda­luyong City, Aldrin San Pedro of Muntinlupa City, Florencio Bernabe of Para­ñaque City, and Sherwin Gatchalian of Valenzuela. –Cecille Suerte Felipe (The Philippine Star)