Cebu City Mayor Garcia concedes; Gwen Garcia lags in gov race

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Two members of the powerful Garcia clan were trailing in the partial, official counting of votes in Cebu City and Cebu province as late Monday night.

Incumbent Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia conceded to Councilor Nestor Archival at 11:40 p.m. on May 12 after 97 percent of the ballots counted showed that he was trailing by more than 70,000 votes.

Archival received 249,428 votes as against Garcia’s 170,100 votes.

READ: Baricuatro, dark horse in Cebu gubernatorial race, proclaimed winner

However, Garcia’s aunt, Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, was still fighting it out with frontrunner Pam Baricuatro, considered a dark horse in the gubernatorial race.

Based on the official and partial count of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Baricuatro, a former board member of the Land Bank of the Philippines, received 970,817 votes as against Garcia’s 662,078 votes as of 11 p.m. of May 12.

On the other hand, former Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña was heading for a comeback — this time for the position of vice mayor.

Osmeña led the race with 227,577 votes against Cebu City Councilor Donaldo Hontiveros with 185,163 votes, with  ose Joey Daluz getting 141,803 votes.