Gwen posting big lead in Cebu Congress fight

TOLEDO CITY, Cebu, Philippines – Suspended Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia was leading in the congressional race in the province’s third district with more than 10,000 votes as of press time yesterday.

Out of one city and six municipalities within the third district, five had completed their canvassing, showing Garcia leading with 76,649 votes as against 65,880 of her opponent, Liberal Party’s Geraldine Yapha.

Asturias town delivered the most number of votes for Garcia with 12,708, while Yapha only had 6,139.

Garcia also stretched her lead with 7,721 votes in Aloguinsan town where Yapha only got 3,487.

The municipality of Barili also delivered 15,520 votes for Garcia, with Yapha closely behind with 14,128.

Garcia’s brother, incumbent Barili Vice Mayor Nelson Garcia, lost to re-electionist Mayor Teresito Marinas (LP) in the mayoral race.

In Toledo City, Yapha had the biggest number of votes with 36,828 while Garcia garnered 27,202.

Two towns, Balamban and Tuburan, were still canvassing election returns as of press time as a number of precinct count optical scan machines bogged down.

But Balamban election officer Mylor Kiamko said Garcia was leading with 12,815 votes as against Yapha’s 8,940.

In Tuburan, election officer Gilbert Pepito said they were still waiting for election returns from a number of polling precincts, but added that Yapha was leading Garcia in the town.

Garcia’s brother Pablo John was lagging behind Liberal Party’s bet Hilario Davide III in the gubernatorial race with 352,098 votes against the latter’s 491,855. – Freeman News Service