2019 Lipa local elections

Lipa City held its local elections on Monday, May 13, 2019, as a part of the 2019 Philippine general election. The voters will elect candidates for the elective local posts in the city: the mayor, vice mayor, the congressman (which will represent Batangas' sixth district which is composed of just the city), two provincial board members, and the 12 members of its city council.

2019 Lipa mayoral election

May 13, 2019 (2019-05-13)

Nominee Eric Africa Bernadette Sabili Mario Panganiban Party Nacionalista NPC Independent Running mate Mark Aries Luancing Ruben Umali Ricardo Leyesa Popular vote 78,109 76,511 2,575 Percentage 49.68 48.67 1.63

Mayor before election Meynardo Sabili NPC Elected Mayor Eric Africa Nacionalista

There are a total of 162,042 people who voted out of the 200,706 registered voters.[1] Incumbent Vice Mayor Eric Africa won in the mayoralty race garnering 78,109 votes. Africa had 1,598 votes over his closest rival Bernadette Sabili, wife of incumbent Mayor Meynardo Sabili. Incumbent councilor Mark Aries Luancing won as Vice Mayor.

Background

Mayoral and Vice Mayoral elections

Incumbent Mayor Meynardo Sabili is now on his third and final term as Mayor of the City of Lipa. He assumed the mayorship in 2010, defeating then-incumbent and former 4th District Representative Oscar Gozos. This is despite Sabili's disqualification to run because of residency dispute. Sabili, a former Provincial Board Member used to be a registered voter Barangay Sico 1, San Juan, Batangas and transferred to Barangay Pinagtong-Ulan, Lipa City. However, the Supreme Court annulled and dismissed the Commission on Elections' ruling on Sabili's cancellation of his Certificate of Candidacy. He is running for representative of the 6th District of Batangas, which comprises only the city itself, under the Nationalist People's Coalition. His wife, Bernadette Sabili is his party's nominee. This will be Sabili's third time that she will run in the elections. She first ran for Representative of the 4th District of Batangas, when Lipa is still part of that district, but was defeated by then-incumbent Mark Llandro Mendoza. She then ran again for representative of the newly-created 6th District, but was defeated again by former Mayor and then-incumbent Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto. If elected, she will be the city's second female mayor next to Santos-Recto. Her running mate is former City Mayor Ruben Umali. Umali served as city mayor from 1986 to 1998. Sabili's platform is to continue the programs of her husband.

Her opponents are incumbent Vice Mayor Eric Africa who is running under the Nacionalista Party, the party of incumbent Representative and former City Mayor and Governor Vilma Santos-Recto. Africa served as city councilor from 1998 to 2007 and from 2010 to 2013 before being elected as Vice Mayor in 2013 and reelected in 2016. His running mate is incumbent councilor Mark Aries Luancing. Their platform is to resolve the problems that the city is enduring such as the worsening traffic in the city and garbage problems in the city. Another mayoralty candidate is lawyer Mario Panganiban with Ricardo Leyesa as his running mate. Incumbent councilor Merlo Silva is running as Vice Mayor.

Congressional election

Incumbent Representative Vilma Santos-Recto, is running for reelection. Recto became its first female City Mayor from 1998 until she was elected first female Governor of Batangas in 2007 and became the first representative of the newly-created 6th District of Batangas, that comprises only the city itself. Her main opponent is incumbent Mayor Meynard Sabili who is running under the Nationalist People's Coalition. This is Sabili's third congressional attempt. He ran in 2001 and 2007 as Representative of the 4th District of Batangas (where Lipa is still part of it), but was defeated by his erstwhile predecessor Oscar Gozos and Mark Llandro Mendoza, respectively. However, NPC withdrew his two hours before the deadline of filing of Certificates of Canidacies.[2] However, in the certified list of candidates and in the official ballot, Sabili is still running under NPC.

Congressional election

6th District (Lipa City)

Incumbent Vilma Santos-Recto is running for reelection. Her main opponent is incumbent Lipa Mayor Meynardo Sabili.

2019 Philippine House of Representatives election in Batangas's 6th District (Lone District of Lipa City)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nacionalista	Vilma Santos-Recto	96,743	61.01
	NPC	Meynardo Sabili	61,821	38.98
Total votes			158,570	100.00
	Nacionalista hold

Provincial Board Elections

6th District

Incumbent Lydio Lopez, Jr. is running for reelection. Incumbent Rowena Africa is term-limited.

2019 Provincial Board Election in 6th District of Batangas

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nacionalista	Lydio Lopez, Jr.	95,128	41.37
	Nacionalista	Aries Emmanuel Mendoza	73,647	32.03
	NPC	Federico Caisip	61,130	26.58
Total votes			229,905	100.00

Mayoralty and Vice Mayoralty Elections

Mayor

Incumbent Mayor Meynardo Sabili is now on third and final term as Mayor of the City of Lipa and he is ineligible to run for another term. He assumed the mayorship in 2010, defeating then-incumbent and former 4th District Representative Oscar Gozos. This is despite Sabili's disqualification to run because of residency dispute. Sabili, a former Provincial Board Member used to be a registered voter Barangay Sico 1, San Juan, Batangas and transferred to Barangay Pinagtong-Ulan, Lipa City. However, the Supreme Court annulled and dismissed the Commission on Elections' ruling on Sabili's cancellation of his Certificate of Candidacy. He is now running for Representative of the 6th District of Batangas, which only comprises the City of Lipa.

His wife, Bernadette Sabili is running in his place as Mayor. Her opponents is incumbent Vice Mayor Eric Africa and Mario Panganiban.

Lipa City mayoralty elections

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nacionalista	Eric Africa	78,109	49.68
	NPC	Bernadette Sabili	76,511	48.67
	Independent	Mario Panganiban	2,575	1.63
Margin of victory			1,598	0.99%
Valid ballots			157,195	97.01%
Invalid or blank votes			4,874	30.08%
Total votes			162,042	100.00
	Nacionalista gain from NPC

Vice Mayor

Incumbent Vice Mayor Eric Africa is running for Mayor. His party nominated incumbent councilor Mark Aries Luancing. His main opponents are Ricardo Leyesa, incumbent councilor Merlo Silva and former Mayor Ruben Umali.

Lipa City vice mayoralty elections

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nacionalista	Mark Aries Luancing	63,848	42.31
	NPC	Ruben Umali	47,795	31.67
	Independent	Merlo Silva	36,739	24.35
	Independent	Ricardo Leyesa	2,488	1.64
Margin of victory			16,053	5.32%
Valid ballots			150,870	99.07%
Invalid or blank votes			11,172	68.94%
Total votes			162,042	100.00
	Nacionalista hold

City Council

Eight incumbent councilors are running for reelections, upon which both Team Bangon Lipa and Team Sabili-Umali had four reelectionists for each team. Team Bangon Lipa had incumbent councilors Leonilo Catipon, Oscar Gozos II, Camille Angeline Lopez and Avior Rocafort. Both Lopez and Rocafort are former allies of Mayor Meynard Sabili. While Team Sabili-Umali had incumbent councilors Emmanuel De Castro, Nonato Monfero, Joel Pua and Ralph Peter Umali. Incumbents Mark Aries Luancing, Gwendolyn Wong, Merlo Silva, and Aries Emmanuel Mendoza are retiring. Both Luancing and Silva are challengers for City Vice Mayor, Wong is retiring from politics and Mendoza is running for provincial board member.

Incumbents are expressed in italics.

By ticket

Team Bangon Lipa

Nacionalista/Team Bangon Lipa

Name	Party
Gerardo America		Nacionalista
Galeleo Angeles		Nacionalista
Leonilo Catipon		Nacionalista
Oscar "Junjun" Gozos II		Nacionalista
George Katigbak		Nacionalista
Miguel Lina III		Nacionalista
Camile Angeline Lopez		Nacionalista
Aries Macala		Nacionalista
Michael Gerard Morada		Nacionalista
Avior "Tagumpay" Rocafort		Nacionalista
Riofer Nicole Ronquillo		Nacionalista
Jennifer Spye Toledo		Nacionalista

Team Sabili-Umali

NPC/Team Sabili-Umali

Name	Party
Jonas Anciano		NPC
Emmanuel "Oweng" De Castro		NPC
Beverly Luancing		NPC
Virgilio Macasaet, Jr.		NPC
Venice Manalo		NPC
Marcus Dominic Mendoza		NPC
Nonato "Patmon" Monfero		NPC
Raul Montealto		NPC
Joel Pua		NPC
Reman Eric "Emer" Recio		NPC
Paolo Santino Soriano		NPC
Ralph Peter "King" Umali		NPC

Independent

Independent/Team Panganiban

Name	Party
Ramir Bathan		Independent
Rodel Macasael		Independent

Councilors

As per results of the elections, 8 out of 12 seats were occupied by Team Bangon Lipa. 6 of them are reelectionists (4 from Team Bangon Lipa and 2 from Team Sabili-Umali) while other 6 are newly-elected councilors (4 from Team Bangon Lipa and 2 from Team Sabili-Umali).

2019 Lipa City Council Elections

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nacionalista	Camille Angeline Lopez	91,782	6.23
	Nacionalista	Michael Gerard Morada	80,568	5.47
	NPC	Joel Pua	77,715	5.27
	Nacionalista	Leonilo Catipon	75,301	5.11
	Nacionalista	Galeleo Angeles	73,383	4.98
	Nacionalista	Oscar "Junjun" Gozos II	72,609	4.93
	NPC	Ralph Peter "King" Umali	71,102	4.82
	Nacionalista	Jennifer Spye Toledo	70,994	4.82
	NPC	Beverly Luancing	67,909	4.61
	NPC	Venice Manalo	67,138	4.55
	Nacionalista	Avior "Tagumpay" Rocafort	66,095	4.48
	Nacionalista	Riofer Nicole Ronquillo	63,239	4.29
	Nacionalista	Miguel Lina III	56,377
	NPC	Virgilio Macasaet, Jr.	55,515
	NPC	Nonato Monfero	53,746
	Nacionalista	Aries Macala	53,413
	NPC	Raul Montealto	52,428
	NPC	Marcus Dominic Mendoza	50,996
	NPC	Emmanuel De Castro	50,882
	Nacionalista	Gerardo America	35,590
	Nacionalista	George Katigbak	35,526
	NPC	Reman Eric Recio	35,252
	NPC	Jonas Anciano	32,613
	NPC	Paolo Soriano	29,974
	Independent	Rodel Macasaet	17,307
	Independent	Florencio Fonte, Jr.	13,136
	Independent	Ramir Bathan	7,530
	Independent	Sonia Milan-Crisostomo	7,309
	Independent	Ireneo Aguilera	3,837
	Independent	Carlos Barde	3,242
Total votes			1,472,508	100.00%

References

1. "Local Results: Region IV-A - Lipa City, Batangas". GMA News Online. May 14, 2019. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
2. "NPC drops congressional bet running vs Vilma Santos Recto". Rappler. Retrieved 2019-05-27.