THE Commission on Elections has proclaimed the winners of the May 9 election in Quezon City.
With a clenched fist, Mayor-elect Herbert Bautista entered the city hall’s Carlos Albert Session Hall when he was called upon by lawyer Jonalyn Sabellano, election officer IV and chairman of the city board of canvassers, as the duly elected city chief executive now on his third term.
In brief remarks during the proclamation, Bautista expressed gratitude to Quezon City residents, his allies and supporters “for giving your trust in me again.” He addressed the local officials and his supporters at the jam-packed session hall.
“I thank the Lord for the challenges before us to help.”
He called on the local officials to throw their support for the new administration under the Duterte presidency.
“I am looking forward to supporting the new President of the Republic of the Philippines. I believe he can do so much for the people of Quezon City not only on peace and order,” he said.
“So I was telling a previous meeting, Duterte is a former mayor and he knows the problem of the city mayors. If there will be programs we have to present to him for Quezon City, hopefully, he could attend to our programs.”
Bautista thanked defeated LP standard bearer Mar Roxas for trusting him to be his campaign manager at the National Capital Region.
“I look forward to working with him, perhaps, in some other capacities,” he said.
At the sidelines, city administrator Aldrin Cuña was wearing a Duterte baller despite the city government’s allegiance to the Liberal Party and Tuesday’s presence of Belmonte at the proclamation event.
Sabellano also proclaimed Bautista’s running mate, Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, for her third and final term, along with the winners for the congressional and council races.
Bautista is one of the 13 reelected mayors out of the 17 newly proclaimed local chief executives in Metro Manila.