3 days after E-Day: A flurry of oath-takings

Expect a flurry of oath-takings in Metro Manila in the coming days. Jejomar Binay was proclaimed winner in the Makati mayoral race after thrashing administration bet Lito Lapid and Alfredo Lim’s lone rival Ali Atienza conceded defeat Thursday to pave the way for the outgoing senator’s ascension as Manila chief executive. In Mandaluyong, Benhur Abalos was reelected mayor of the fledging city after leading his opponent by a wide margin while Sonny Belmonte ran unopposed in Quezon City. The opposition senatorial candidates increased their leads Thursday with less than a quarter of the vote canvassed by the National Movement for Free Elections. While the opposition was expected to retain its Senate majority after Monday's midterm elections, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo predicted a big victory for pro-administration candidates in the House of Representatives, leaving Congress divided again. Securing enough seats in the 265-member lower chamber would scuttle any third impeachment bid against Arroyo on allegations of rigging the 2004 election. The fractured opposition, which earlier conceded it failed to field enough House candidates, scored two key victories Thursday: Binay, the incumbent mayor of Makati, the capital's financial quarter, was proclaimed winner by the Commission on Elections. Binay has been a thorn in the side of Arroyo's administration for readily accommodating opposition protests calling for her resignation at the height of the vote-rigging allegations, which she has denied. Binay, thanking Mrs Arroyo for his re-election, alleged the administration was behind a recent attempt to suspend him on charges of graft, which he said only helped him win. In the city of Manila, Atienza, son of pro-Arroyo Mayor Lito Atienza, conceded defeat to Lim, who was leading by a comfortable margin in an official count. Lim, a 77-year-old former police chief and interior secretary, vowed to eradicate rampant criminality and allow political rallies in the city "as long as they're peaceful." Both Binay and Lim are closely linked to former presidents and Arroyo foes Corazon Aquino and Joseph Estrada. Votes for half of the 24-member Senate, the entire House, as well as 17,500 local posts are being counted by hand, and results could take weeks. Violence marred balloting, with officials earlier saying more than 130 people were killed in intense electoral rivalry in four months of campaigning. Foreign observers reported cheating and vote-buying in the southern Philippines. But police officials lowered the death toll to 41 on Thursday, saying the other fatalities were not election-related or were being reviewed on suspicion they were not linked to the polls. In the latest bloodshed, a poll watcher of a local candidate was killed in a shootout Thursday with police after he fired his gun at the wife of a mayoral candidate in northern Abra province. The woman was wounded, said police, who earlier reported she had died. On southern Basilan Island, an election officer was wounded when a grenade hurled at a gymnasium where votes were being counted exploded late Wednesday, Basilan police said. A second grenade failed to go off. - GMANews.TV