Robredo widow, Aga, GMA son repel rivals

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – The widow of former interior secretary Jesse Robredo is expected to win by a landslide in the third district of Camarines Sur’s congressional race.

Actor Aga Muhlach, whose congressional bid in the fourth district of the province had hit a snag amid complaints he and his wife Charlene lack the required residency, also posted an early lead.

Leni Robredo got 111,414 votes or 80,181 votes over the 31,233 votes of Nelly Villafuerte with at least 66.26 percent of the votes counted as of noon yesterday.

“This only shows that vote-buying has no effect in the election,” said Robredo, who filed a disqualification case against her opponent last Thursday for vote-buying.

“I did not expect that I will get a very commanding lead in the other towns since I initially thought Naga City is where I was strong,” she said.

Muhlach got 50,950 votes against 47,446 of Wimpy Fuentebella, son of Deputy House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella.

In the second congressional district, the son of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo, so far garnered 50,960 votes against the 43,310 for outgoing Camarines Sur Gov. L-Ray Villafuerte.

In the gubernatorial race, 23-year-old L-Ray “Migz” Villafuerte Jr. had 187,934 votes while his grandfather Luis Villafuerte got 145,134 votes. In third place is Liberal Party’s bet, former solicitor general Joel Cadiz, with 102,496 votes.

Re-electionist congressman Salvio Fortuno won the congressional race in the fifth district with 65,439 votes against veteran politician Felix Alfelor Jr., who got 36,206 votes. Actor Rez Cortez got 11,704 votes.

The Camarines Sur provincial board of canvassers had so far counted 1,033 of 1,599 tallied results as of press time. – With Celso Amo