MLAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/11 May) — In one of his campaign streamers hung along the highway, former Valencia City mayor Jose Galario Jr. vowed “I shall return.” But Galario, defeated in 2007 by Leandro Jose Catarata who lost to him in 2004, has appeared to be fighting an uphill battle based on initial results gathered by MindaNews from www.ibanangayon.ph, Comelec’s website on the results of Monday’s polls.
The figures were based on the results as of past 7:00 a.m. Tuesday.
MindaNews looked up the vote tallies of ten clustered precincts in Valencia in successive order as they appeared in the website. Catarata led in eight of the ten sampled clustered precincts.
Catarata had 2357 votes and Galario got 1773. A third candidate, Susan Bangis obtained 17 votes.
Valencia has around 100,000 registered voters.
In the 2007 elections the city was placed under the control of the Commission on Elections owing to the intense rivalry between Catarata and Galario. Weeks before the election, the Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao put Galario on preventive suspension based on graft charges filed by Catarata.
In Malaybalay City, the mayoralty contest was too close to call, based too on the results transmitted by ten clustered precincts sampled by MindaNews.
Vice Mayor Ignacio Zubiri led in seven of the ten sampled clustered precincts. But his margin was only 130 votes. He obtained 2162 votes while his close rival, Aglayan Barangay Capt. Glorio Sajulga got 2032 votes.
Barangay 9 Barangay Capt. Provo Antipasado Jr. had 1420 votes. He managed to beat Sajulga and Zubiri in one of the sampled precincts.
Malaybalay has at least 80,000 registered voters. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews)