Magalong new Baguio mayor; Go retained rep; Olowan now vice mayor

BAGUIO CITY —Former police general Benjamin Magalong won as city mayor here saying it is time to “deliver results” and go with the commitment of a “breath of fresh air” for the more than 400,000 residents of this mountain resort city.

This, as Marquez “Mark” Go retained his seat as congressional representative while councilor Faustino Olowan won as for vice mayor.

The city board of canvassers Tuesday proclaimed the winning candidates for local elected positions during the May 13, 2019 mid-term elections.

The board composed of city Election officer lawyer Renan Sorbita, City Prosecutor Elmer Manuel Sagsago and City Schools Davison Superintendent Dr. Federico Martin initially proclaimed Go, Magalong and Olowan winners of said positions.

Proclaimed city councilors for the 12 slots in the city’s local legislative body were Joel Alangsab, Benny Bomogao, Betty Lourdes Tabanda, Elaine Sembrano, Maria Mylen Victoria G. Yaranon, Isabelo Cosalan, Jr., Francisco Roberto Ortega VI, Arthur Alad-iw, Vladimir Cayabas, Fred Bagbagen, Lilia Fariñas and Philian Louse Weygan-Alan.

The winning candidates were supposed to be proclaimed by the board shortly after midnight Monday but the inability of some precincts to transmit the generated results from their vote counting machines (VCMs) to the centralized canvassing center based at the PFVR Youth Action Center compelled the members to suspend the proceedings and resume the canvassing several hours later.

The board also decided to summon the members of the board of elections inspectors of the precincts that failed to transmit the results from their VCMs for the manual uploading of the results until there was a 100 percent transmission that paved the way for the proclamation of the winning candidates shortly before noon Tuesday.

Among problems encountered during the casting of votes in the precinct level were the alleged malfunctioning of the designated VCMs with some being immediately replaced, missing names of voters, and poor signal of the telecommunication companies in some areas in the city.

After the proclamation of the winning candidates in the local elected positions, the board subsequently transmitted to the national canvassing center at the Philippine International Convention Center for the canvassing of votes for the 12 slots in the Senate that will be vacated and the party-list organizations to have their representatives in the House.

There were over 165,000 registered voters in the city during the May 13, 2019 with only nearly 70 percent actually casting their votes in the over 257 clustered precincts based in 57 polling centers in the different parts of the city.

The poll body provided some 22 contingency VCMs in the city as back up for VCMs that may malfunction during the course of the casting of votes and the canvassing that followed after the precincts closed operation at around 6 pm Monday.

“The people have a high expectation, so we really have to start hitting the ground,” said Magalong in a media interview after the Comelec proclaimed him as the mayoralty winner before midnight on May 13.

“We are so lucky that the clamor of Baguio is change. At the end of the day, we just simply have to deliver results. Rest assured that I won’t fail you,” Magalong said. “Right timing. Tamang-tama breath of fresh air. At the end of the day we just simply have to deliver,” he added.

“My only commitment to the people of Baguio is we will strongly and aggressively pursue our strategy and programs to be able to fix the issues affecting Baguio,” Magalong said.

He called on Baguio residents to work together and cooperate with him, saying “there’s a lot of things to be done”.

“Kung kayang pagtuunan ng pansin ng sabay-sabay bakit hindi. Magtulungan tayo (If we can address all the issue at the same time, why not. Let’s work hand in hand),” he said.

He said that as the city’s new mayor, he would continue to engage with the different sectors,

Magalong served the Philippine National Police in various capacities, both operational and management, in his over 38 years in the service.

He said he wanted to give back to Baguio, where he intends to continue living with his family.

Born and raised in Baguio, Magalong completed his education from Saint Louis University and at the Philippine Military Academy, graduating magna cum laude in 1982.

After retiring from the service in December 2016, he served as senior vice president for operations of Steel Asia Corp., a major firm in the Philippines.

Magalong started to hit the ground after filing his certificate of candidacy on the last day on October 17, 2018.

He said he consulted his family, and it took him a while to decide whether to run for the 2019 polls.

Being a first timer, he had to introduce himself personally to the people of Baguio. Magalong took every opportunity to be with the residents, meeting different sectors — starting the day early and going home past midnight.

For him, the grueling part was before and during the campaign period. Like any other candidates, he lacked sleep, felt exhausted, but said all was worth it.

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting the margin would he like this. We pushed ourselves too much. We are so lucky that the clamor is change,” he said. – With reports from PNA, Freddie Lazaro and Dexter See