Retired Army and police generals, who were previously assigned in Negros Occidental, also won in the May 9 elections.
Retired Army, Maj. Gen. Jon Aying, was reelected municipal mayor of Sara in Iloilo.
Aying, who was former 303rd Infantry Brigade commander in Negros Occidental, defeated Jess Salcedo, a scion of a well-entrenched political clan in Sara. He received 14,687 votes, compared to 8,731 of his challenger.
Salcedo was the vice mayor of Aying in the 2019 elections.
Retired P/Maj. Gen. Leopoldo Bataoil was also reelected mayor of Lingayen in Pangasinan. He used to be the provincial police director of Negros Occidental.
Before he became mayor of Lingayen, Bataoil served as Pangasinan 2nd District congressman.
Bataoil garnered 31,194 votes against the 25,579 of his challenger, Iday Castaneda, Comelec records show.
A retired 63-year-old Army general has toppled a political clan member, whose family has been well-entrenched for two decades in Sanchez Mira, Cagayan.
Retired Army general Abraham Bagasin, 63, won the mayoral race with 7,362 votes to defeat Dr. Connie Marie Sacramed, wife of incumbent Cagayan provincial administrator Darwin Sacramed, and daughter-in-law of incumbent mayor Asela Sacramed, who got 6,075 votes.
Bagasin used to be the commanding officer of the 11th Infantry Battalion in central Negros.
A first-timer in politics, Bagasin was a member of PMA Class of 1983, and used to head the First Scout Ranger Regiment, among other posts.
When he retired from the military, he was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as deputy administrator at the National Irrigation Administration.
Aying and Bagasin are members of the PDP Laban, while Bataoil is affiliated with the National Unity Party./GB
