Thursday, May 17, 2007 Former Surigao guv leads Siargao House race By Ben Serrano
SURIGAO CITY -- Former Surigao del Norte Governor Francisco Matugas who served the province for three consecutive terms is now leading the congressional race for Surigao del Norte's first congressional district.
Matugas, a lawyer, is the official Kampi congressional candidate for Siargao Island -- a district composed of nine municipalities.
The municipalities are: Burgos with total registered voters of 2,647, Dapa, 14,738 registered voters, Socorro 12,478 registered voters, Del Carmen, 9,850 voters, General Luna 9,867 voters, Pilar 6,291 voters, San Benito 3,248, San Isidro 5,063 voters, and Santa Monica 5,297 registered voters.
Siargao Island's nine municipalities that comprise the first congressional district of Surigao del Norte have total registered voters of 69,479, based on the 2007 Comelec official list of registered voters.
Siargao Island is the country's surfing capital and major tourist destination and was mentioned by President Arroyo in her recent State of Nation Address (Sona) as promising tourism growth development area.
Of the 339 polling precincts out of the total 358 polling places in the entire Siargao Island, lawyer Francisco Matugas got 28,610 votes.
Wenelisa Andanar Navarro, sister of former Department of Interior Local Government Undersecretary Wencelito Andanar got 10,784 votes followed by former Surigao del Norte Board member Dominador who got 9,921 votes.
Matugas has a wide margin of 17,826 registered votes in the final unofficial results.
As of Wednesday, votes in at least eight municipalities of Siargao Island were canvassed by the Provincial Canvassing Board at the Provincial Capitol this city.
Matugas's lead counsel, Lawyer Cacel R. Azarcon thanked Siargao residents, the Philippine National Police and the military for the successful and peaceful conduct of May 14 elections in Siargao Island.
"The wide margin of former Governor Matugas only showed his achievements in the past as Governor were remembered by the people of Siargao, which earned the people's respect", Azarcon said.
In Butuan City, reelectionist City Mayor Democrito "Boy Daku" Plaza, II of Lakas-CMD is gaining headway against his close political rival Agusan del Norte Representative Maria Angelica Rossdell Amante of Kampi.
Unofficial final counting of votes results from the Butuan City Comelec office showed Plaza got 50,289 votes while Amante got 45,395 votes.
Butuan City congressional aspirants, former OWWA deputy administrator Angelo Jimenez of Kampi got 34,343 votes while former MEDCO assistant secretary Jose Aquino II of Lakas-CMD got 36,520 votes.
