Belmonte takes big lead in QC mayoral race, poised to secure third term

MANILA, Philippines (Published May 12; Updated 3:00 a.m. on May 13) — On track for her third and final term, incumbent Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte dominates the mayoral race by a huge margin, based on partial and unofficial results released on Monday, May 12.

Facing four other challengers, Belmonte leads with over 795,625 votes, while her closest rival, Diosdado Velasco, has only 16,302 votes as of 2:32 a.m. on May 13, according to the media transparency servers.

Quezon City Vice Mayor Gian Sotto, seeking re-election, is also in the lead with over 724,780 votes, while vice mayoral contenders have garnered fewer than 30,000 votes, with 76.90% of data already transmitted.

In the 1st District, incumbent Rep. Arjo Atayde holds a narrow lead with around 68,941 votes, just 20,000 ahead of former congressman Bingbong Crisologo, who has about 49,232 votes.

Meanwhile, in the 2nd District, incumbent Rep. Ralph Tulfo, son of Sen. Raffy Tulfo, is on track to retain his seat, leading with 146,870 votes. His challenger, Virgil Garcia, has only about 24,572 votes, widening the gap.

As of 2:14 a.m., the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has received 97.81% of local election returns, while 84.29% of overseas election returns. 

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Disclosure: Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte is a shareholder of Philstar Global Corp., which operates Philstar.com. This article was produced independently in adherence to our editorial and ethical guidelines.