ILOILO City – With the victories of Mayor-elect Raisa Treñas and reelectionist Cong. Julienne Baronda already a given long before yesterday’s elections due to their having no challengers, the win of vice mayoralty candidate Love-Love Baronda would see this city being led by three women for the next three years – a first in the metro’s history.
As of 12:40 a.m. of May 13 (95.92 percent of election returns processed), Love-Love Baronda was leading the race for vice mayor with 127,781 votes against incumbent Vice Mayor Jeffrey Ganzon’s 116,267 votes.
Love-Love Baronda, a three-termer city councilor, is the younger sister of the city’s congresswoman. They are running as a tandem under Team Sulong Gugma.
Ganzon, on the other hand, is running in tandem with Treñas, daughter of incumbent Mayor Jerry Treñas, under Team Uswag.
In the race for the 12-seat Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) , however, Team Uswag dominated the polls with 11 slots so far over Team Sulong Gugma’s lone slot.
The 11 Team Uswag SP candidates are Sedfrey Cabaluna, Miguel Treñas, Rex Sarabia, Alan Zaldivar, Lyndon Acap, Nene Dela Llana, Mandrie Malabor, Johnny Young, Romel Duron, Rudolph Ganzon, and Frances Grace Parcon.
Team Sulong Gugma’s lone candidate still in the running for a city council seat as of press time is Sheen Mabilog.
Cong. Julienne Baronda thanked voters for their trust: “Salamat gid sa inyo bug-os nga suporta kag gugma. Padayon kami sa pagserbisyo kag pagpakigbato para sa kaayuhan sang pumuluyo. I-sulong naton ang gugma!”
Mayor-elect Raisa Treñas also expressed her gratitude: “Daku gid nga pasalamat sa tanan nga nagbulig kag nagsalig. Ang kadalag-an nga ini para sa aton tanan. Padayon kita magbinuligay kag mag-uswag para sa Iloilo City.”/PN