Ex-vice president Binay loses House bid to ‘Kid’
Credit to Author: NEIL JAYSON SERVALLOS| Date: Tue, 14 May 2019 01:23:21 +0000
FORMER vice president Jejomar “Jojo” Binay lost in his bid for a seat at the House of Representatives early Tuesday in what would have been his comeback from a self-imposed hiatus following his loss in the presidential elections in 2016.
Former vice mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña Jr defeated Binay to become 1st District representative of Makati City.
Based on the election returns that were transmitted as of 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Peña won by 71,035 while Binay got 65,229 votes. The total number of ballots cast were 320,827.
“I expected to win with a higher margin because of having been able to capture the masses and the upper and middle classes in Makati,” Peña, told reporters following his proclamation.
Binay and daughter and reelected Makati Mayor Abigail “Abby” Binay were no-shows during the proclamation.
Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance legal counsel Jose Julius Castro moved to defer Peña’s proclamation, citing as ground for the motion the more than 8,000 ballots that were voided and disenfranchised due to the arrest of 60 people on Saturday night and the blackouts in three villages on Monday.
The city board of canvassers denied the motion, asking the Binay camp to file a formal pleading before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc.
Defective VCM
The Binay patriarch suffered a setback on Monday when the vote counting machine (VCM) coughed out his ballot eight times.
Binay personally lodged a complaint before the Comelec, which allowed him to recast his vote on a new ballot.
Binay, once tipped to become president after a successful transition to national from local politics with his 2010 win as vice president, placed fourth in the 2016 presidential election.
Binay also served as Makati mayor from 1986 to 1998, and again from 2001 to 2010.
Silent electioneering
With all the noise and media attention the Binay family had been making during the campaign period, Peña said he opted to instead campaign “silently and diligently.”
“I couldn’t match that kind of publicity,” Peña said.
Peña opted for house to house meetings with residents of the first district and was even spotted in Magallanes Village putting up a campaign placard on his own.
Peña was appointed acting Makati mayor after Binay’s son, then-mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. was unseated due to his involvement in the P1.3 B Makati Science High School building fiasco in 2015.
He was one of the few politicians who came close to beating the Binays in the local elections. This was in 2016 when he went toe-to-toe with then-2nd District Rep. Abby Binay, now Makati mayor.
Abby Binay beat Peña by a close margin of 3 percent or more than 16,000 votes cast. This, despite Peña winning in majority of the villages in the first district, including six affluent and gated villages.
The first district of Makati is considered the “richer” part of the city, covering Forbes Park, Dasmariñas, Magallanes, Bel-Air, San Antonio, San Lorenzo, and Urdaneta villages.
The post Ex-vice president Binay loses House bid to ‘Kid’ appeared first on The Manila Times Online.