Singson's brod leads in race

VIGAN CITY ,Philippines  – Vigan City Vice Mayor Ryan Luis Singson was leading the congressional race for the first district of Ilocos Sur, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes said yesterday.

Brillantes said Singson was ahead of his rival Bertrand Baterina based on initial results of the special polls for the congressional seat vacated by the vice mayor’s elder brother Ronald Singson, who is in a Hong Kong prison serving time for drug trafficking.

Ryan Luis is also a son of Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Chavit Singson.

Baterina was Ronald Singson’s rival in the May 2010 congressional race and a nephew of former congressman Salacnib Baterina.

“The election was very peaceful. There was no report of violence or any untoward incident,” Brillantes said.

He said the winner would be proclaimed either last night or this morning.

But unofficial poll results provided by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) showed Singson with 36,716 votes against Baterina’s 18,500 votes.

Meanwhile, the PPCRV said there were reports of vote buying although the election was peaceful.

“They have been receiving complaints of vote buying and vote selling since last week. This is why they issued a statement reminding the public that the election is a democracy and they should not be bought by money,” PPCRV chairperson Tita de Villa said, referring to PPCRV coordinators.

“But the election was peaceful because it seemed they already knew who would win. It was just that in some polling places, there were barangay officials who freely went in and out of the precincts and their attention was called,” De Villa said.

She did not say which camp was involved in vote buying.

She also said the PPCRV does not see any need to file a protest. “But if we see an anomaly, then that is the time that we would file a protest. If someone files a protest, and we also saw the (anomaly) then we would testify,” she said. - With Sheila Crisostomo, Evelyn Macairan