Manila Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna has been elected as Manila City’s first woman mayor of the country’s capital.
As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Lacuna was enjoying a wide margin of at least 360,000 votes over Alex Lopez. As of posting time, she has garnered 515,605 votes while Lopez has 150,699.
Both are scions of Manila’s political families. Lacuna is the daughter of former vice mayor Danilo Lacuna. She is married to fellow doctor and Manila Health Department chief Arnold Pangan, Lopez’s father is the late former mayor Mel Lopez.
The Commission on Elections has tallied about 97 percent of election returns but would defer proclamation until all results are in.
Lacuna’s running mate under Asenso Manileño/Aksyon Demokratiko and long-time councilor, Yul Servo Nieto, also leads with 562,333 votes over actor Raymond Bagatsing of Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (175,684 votes).
Bagatsing’s uncle, former Manila 5th District congressman Amado Bagatsing, and Christy Lim, daughter of the late Manila mayor Alfredo Lim, are the other contenders for the post to be vacated by losing presidential aspirant Francisco “Ïsko Moreno” Domagoso.
Lacuna vowed to continue the programs of Domagoso like housing, financial support for the elderly and students of city-run Universidad de Manila and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, improvement of the health care system, and modernization of public school buildings.
Domagoso considers the elder Lacuna his mentor and the one who encouraged him to take up further studies.
Lacuna was also the city’s first female vice mayor when she was elected in 2016 under Joseph Estrada, the former president.