AKLAN, Philippines – The Commission on Elections proclaimed Acting Malay Mayor Floribar Bautista as winner of the 2022 mayoral race on Tuesday morning, May 10.
Bautista got 16,134 votes against the 10,134 votes of his closest opponent, Hector Casidsid.
The victory gives Bautista his first full term as local chief executive. He was vice mayor in 2018 when the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) appointed him acting mayor after suspending then-incumbent mayor Ciceron Cawaling over environmental issues in Boracay island, which Malay town administers.
The Office of the Ombudsman and the DILG dismissed Cawaling on April 24, 2019, just weeks before the May local elections. But Cawaling still won the polls.
DILG Western Visayas Regional Director Ariel Iglesia issued an advisory on June 27, 2019, allowing Bautista, who also won the vice mayoral race, to take over as mayor. Cawaling tried to defy the DILG and “assumed office” on June 30, but Bautista eventually took over as chief executive. – Rappler.com
