DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/14 May) – Joji Ilagan-Bian, candidate for representative of this city’s second district, has conceded defeat to incumbent Rep. Mylene Garcia-Albano.
Ilagan-Bian was already trailing by about 17,000 votes behind Garcia-Albano who had garnered 85,499 votes as of 3 pm Tuesday.
Ilagan-Bian made her decision early morning Tuesday even if the City Board of Canvassers was yet to finish the transmission of results.
“The election is now over and the people of the second district have spoken. My grateful appreciation for all the people who took this challenging journey with me with the hope of transforming lives. I had gained thousands of new friends who shook my hands and welcomed me to their homes,” she said in a statement.
As of 3 pm yesterday, Ilagan-Bian had 67,664 votes while the other two candidates, Uly Lopez and Jenell Nagayo garnered 887 and 240, respectively.
The second district has 297,930 registered voters.
The race between Ilagan-Bian and Garcia-Albano was projected to be “very close” based on the survey done by the Institute of Popular Opinion of University of Mindanao on April 15-25 with about 400 respondents from the second district.
Garcia-Albano is a member of Duterte’s Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod while Ilagan-Bian ran as an independent candidate.
The losing candidate ran for the same position in 2010, garnering 41,638 votes against Garcia-Albano’s 61,887 votes.
The other candidates then were Diosdado Mahipus (42,625 votes), Danilo Dayanghirang (33,572 votes) and Dexter Alcebar (494 votes).
Ilagan-Bian thanked her family and friends “who stood by me with much and care.” She vowed to continue to serve the community through her schools’ corporate responsibility projects.
“We are proud to have put up a tough and honorable fight. We now have Congresswoman Mylene Garcia-Albano and I asked all those who supported me to also support her legislative agenda. She is now our congresswoman and for that alone she deserves our respect and recognition,” she said. (MindaNews)