Antipolo city councilor wins father’s House seat

MANILA, Philippines — Antipolo City Councilor Philip Conrad Acop won the congressional seat emptied by the death of his father, Romeo Acop, but the poll results showed a disappointing turnout with a plurality that represented only a third of the district’s voters.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) proclaimed the victory of the younger Acop in the election for the city’s second district representative after he obtained 60,051 of 83,550 votes cast during the special polls on Saturday.

But poll body data showed that the district has a total of 252,793 registered voters, representing a turnout rate of only 33 percent. Acop won the nod of about 23.8 percent of registered voters.

READ: No untoward incident so far as Antipolo special polls begin – Comelec

In the 2025 Philippine general election, the older Acop garnered 131,925 votes, a landslide reelection to a second consecutive term, although he was unopposed. However, Romeo Acop died due to a heart attack in December 2025, prompting the special elections to fill the congressional seat.

But Comelec Chair George Garcia stressed that voter turnout cannot be used to gauge the success of a special election.

“In a special election, we do not have a percentage requirement for an election to be valid. Even if only one voter votes, as long as there is no terrorism, violence, threat, intimidation, no declaration of failure of election, that is a valid election,” said Garcia.

With only two years before the national polls, Acop shall fill in for his father’s term until the end of the 20th Congress in 2028.

The newly elected representative was one of six candidates: Dandin Infante, Reden Llaga, Ma. Trinidad Galang, Nathaniel Lobigas and Irvin Paulo Tapales. /cb