It’s going to be a three-way battle for vice mayor of Quezon City in the 2019 local elections.
Councilor Roderick Paulate is running as an independent against District 3 Councilor Gian Carlo Sotto and District 2 Rep. Winston “Winnie” Castelo, several sources have confirmed to Manila Standard.
Sotto is the son of Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto and will be the running mate of incumbent Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, who has confirmed her bid for the city mayoralty next year.
Meanwhile, Castelo is the husband of three-term Councilor Precious Hipolito Castelo—a former broadcast journalist and child actor like Paulate—and will be the partner of Rep. Vincent “Bingbong” Crisologo, president of the ruling PDP-Laban party in QC’s District 1.
Precious Castelo will run to take her husband’s place in Congress, sources added.
As for Paulate, a ranking official of his office, requesting anonymity, said the councilor was “definite” in his decision to seek a higher post, “as vice mayor or Congressman [in District 2].”
Meanwhile, the 37-member Quezon City council has passed a resolution ratifying a memorandum of agreement to transfer funds to the Quezon City government from the Department of Public Works and Highways-National Capital Region.
The funds are meant for affected informal settler families, who are being displaced by the road construction and improvement on Visayas Avenue Extension traversing Tandang Sora Avenue to Republic Avenue.
District Councilor Raquel Malangen authored City Resolution 7188 of 2017, authorizing Mayor Herbert Bautista to receive an allocated fund of P37,829,880 from the DPWH.
The fund shall be distributed to 1,353 informal settler families as financial assistance.
Each informal settler family will receive P27, 960 corresponding to the current minimum wage for 60 days under Section 28 of Republic Act No. 7279 or the Urban Development and Housing Act.
