LAGUNA/BATANGAS, Philippines – Batangas City will remain under one family’s rule after voters gave fresh mandates to politicians Beverley Rose Dimacuha and husband Marvey Mariño.
Batangas City Mayor Dimacuha and Batangas 5th District Representative Mariño, who are both term-limited, succeeded in swapping posts. They were proclaimed on Tuesday, May 13.
Dimacuha cruised to an easy victory in the congressional race of the 5th District, which covers only Batangas City.
Dimacuha obtained 156,049 votes, demolishing her opponent Carlito Bisa’s 22,698 votes.
Batangas City became its own congressional district in 2015. Mariño has been 5th District congressman since 2016.
Mariño was elected Batangas City mayor. He obtained 116,487 votes, exceeding the 68,857 votes of his rival, Clemente Berberabe, who ran under the banner of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Partido Federal ng Pilipinas.
Reelectionist Batangas City Vice Mayor Alyssa Cruz won with 147,955 votes against her newcomer opponent Carlo Mercado, who got 27,183 votes
The Dimacuhas have led city hall since the conduct of the first local election in the Philippines after the 1986 EDSA People Revolution.
The late patriarch Eduardo B. Dimacuha won in the 1988 local election, and ruled the city for 22 years until 2016. In years he was term-limited, he passed the baton to his wife Vilma and son Angelo.
Under the family’s leadership, the locality has seen significant growth since the late 1980s to become a key industrial city in Calabarzon.
Allegations of cultivating a political dynasty, however, persisted, especially from their political opponents.
Berberabe and his Team Bagong Batangas City slate ran a campaign grounded on the promise of building a new public hospital with free services in the locality, but residents did not buy into their vision. Mariño had called Berberabe’s plan unsustainable, and was inclined to continue the city government’s health card program that had a coverage cap.
“The Batangueños are happy with the status quo. As long as they can see that the administration is performing, that what they need is actually being given — even if it’s just meeting the minimum — I think the Batangueños are good with that,” Batangas City-based political science professor Abvic Ryan Maghirang previously told Rappler.
Berberabe’s machinery was also no match to that of the Dimacuhas, who also have the backing of returning governor Vilma Santos-Recto.
Jun Berberabe, and Hamilton Blanco, both under the EBD slate of the Dimacuhas, secured the two board members spots in the Batangas 5th District.
The 12 elected Batangas City councilors are all reelectionists:
- Claudette Ambida
- Aileen Grace Montalbo
- Arthur Bart Blanco
- Andrea Faytaren Macaraig
- Gerry Dela Roca
- Mando Lazarte
- Junjun Gamboa
- Ailin Grace Dimacuha
- Zester Hernandez
- Dr. Jonash Tolentino
- Momshie Ched Atienza
- Michael Villena
– Rappler.com
