Belmonte-Bautista in QC

Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Vice Mayor Herbert Bautista filed yesterday morning their certificates of candidacy at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Quezon City.

Accompanied by a crowd of chanting supporters, Belmonte walked from his office to the poll body‘s district office, where he was joined by Bautista in filing their COCs.

Belmonte and Bautista are running under the ruling Lakas-NUCD party. The team features all-female congressional roster of candidates in the four districts of the city.

The official candidates for the congressional seats are Berna Romulo Puyat for the first district, Mary Ann Susano for the second district and re-electionists Maite Defensor and Nanette Castelo Daza of the third and fourth districts, respectively.

The mayor also revealed a partial slate of councilors under the ruling party. Among them are Elizabeth Delarmente, Jun Ferrer, Bernadette Herrera, Romel Abesamis, Jun Juico for the first district.

For the second district, the candidates are Ramon Toto Medalla, Eric Medina, Allan Francisco, Winston Castelo, Bong Liban, Aiko Melendez and Jorge Banal Jr.

Included in the third district slate are Lala Sotto, Wency Lagumbay, Dante de Guzman, Jaime Borres, and for the fourth district, Nene Montilla, Ariel Inton, Resty Malangen, Ricardo "Viva" del Rosario and newcomer Edcel Lagman Jr.

Most of the councilors have filed their COCs but they still trooped to the Comelec office and joined the mayor and vice mayor registering as mayoral and vice mayoral bets.

The final slate of councilors will be known tomorrow.

"Our team will continue the progress we started in Quezon City," Belmonte told The STAR.

The mayor also expressed his gratitude for the show of support by barangay leaders who came all the way from their respective localities to be with the mayor and his political team.

Bautista, for his part, described their team as "power team" that will continue the march of Quezon City toward becoming a "quality city" in the country.