Changing of the guard – The assumption of new and old officials

Tomorrow, there will be more than 18,000 positions, from the Senate to the different Sangguniang Bayans, that are going to be occupied again by a combination of neophytes and old-timers. Today is the assumption of new officials and returning incumbents who were re-elected by their respective constituents. There are 81 provinces to have both new and old governors and vice governors. There are 145 cities, of which 33 are highly-urbanized components, five are independent, and 107 are component cities.

The twelve senators, their respective parties, as well as the numbers of their votes are as follows: 1.) Cythia Villar (NP), 25,128,563; 2.) Grace Poe (independent), 21,922,209; 3.) Bong Go (PDP-Laban), 20,465,005; 4.) Pia Cayetano (NP), 19,645,110; 5.) Bato dela Rosa (PDP-Laban), 18,815,388; 6.) Edgardo Angara (LDP), 18,051,786; 7.) Lito Lapid (NPC), 16,885726; 8.) Imee Marcos (NP), 15,740,050; 9.) Francis Tolentino (PDP-Laban), 15,578,461; 10.) Koko Pimentel (PDP-Laban), 14,557,849; 11.) Bong Revilla (Lakas), 14,549.158, and 12.) Nancy Binay (UNA), 14,557,943. And so, there are four members of PDP-Laban, three members of NP, and one each for UNA, Lakas, NPC, LDP, and one independent.

Those who didn’t make it, aside from JV Ejercito, the good one; and Jinggoy Estrada, ang tunay na Estrada (kuno), include Mar Roxas (9,801,456) and our very own Serge Osmeña (9,403,985). That means Roxas is politically dead. He ran for vice president in 2010 and lost to Jojo Binay. He ran for president in 2016 and lost to Mayor Digong Duterte. Then, this year, he ran for senator and lost despite the fact that he was the highest spender among the senatorial candidates in terms of campaign ads and related expenses.

My fellow Law professors gave a spirited fight. Atty. Allan Montano, my fellow voluntary arbitrator was number 37 with 917,021 votes. Atty. Sonny Matula, incumbent national president of the Federation of Free Workers, was number 50 with 398,040 votes.

The top 20 among the winning partylists are the following: 1.) ACT-CIS (2.6M); 2.) Bayan Muna (1.1M); 3.) Ako Bicol (1.04M); 4.) CIBAC (.924M); 5.) Ang Probinsyano (.767M); 6.) 1 PACMAN (.711M); 7.) MARINO (.677M); 8.) Probinsyano Ako (.628M); 9.) Senior Citizens (.510M); 10.) Magsasaka (.491M); 11.) APEC (.479); 12.) Gabriela (.445M); 13.) An Waray (.440M); 14.) Coop Natco (.416M); 15.) Philreca (.394M); 16.) ACT (.393M); 17.) Ako Bisaya (.393M) 18.) Tingog Sinirangan (.387M); 19.) Abono (.377M); 20.) BUHAY (.359M). Our own TUCP was not far behind with .255M votes. That means Raymond Democrito Mendoza will still be in Congress.

An election is a numbers game. The winners are not necessarily the best in terms of competence, character, and commitment. I hope the new officials can make a meaningful difference in the life of our nation and people. [email protected]