MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 10 May) – Incumbent Mayor Azucena Huervas of neighboring Valencia City has won against former mayor Jose Galario Jr.
Huervas got 57,374 votes while Galario obtained 48,354 votes after all of the 184 election returns from the city were tallied, according to results posted at ABS-CBN’s Halalan 2022 site (https://halalanresults.abs-cbn.com).
Huervas won as vice mayor in 2010 and in 2013. In June 2014, he assumed as mayor after Galario, who won in 2013 as mayor, went into hiding after he was convicted by the Sandiganbayan for violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Huervas was elected as mayor in 2016 and reelected in 2019.
Galario, who was given conditional pardon by President Duterte, filed a certificate of candidacy (COC) for the May 9 elections even if his penalty for graft perpetually barred him from holding any public office.
Huervas filed in October last year a petition before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to nullify Galario’s COC, arguing that the conditional pardon did not restore his full civil and political rights. But it was only in late April this year that the Comelec issued a decision granting the petition.
Galario’s camp said they would appeal Comelec’s decision up to the Supreme Court.
But with Huervas’ victory, that has apparently become moot and academic.
Galario, a retired police colonel, made history in 2001 when he defeated former governor Carlos O. Fortich in a three-cornered fight for mayor of Valencia.
He was reelected in 2004, lost to Leandro Jose Catarata in 2007 and 2010, and won again in 2013. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno / MindaNews)
