Majority of incumbent WV officials reelected
Majority of the local chief executives who won in the May 10, 2010 elections in Western Visayas are reelectionists, according to the Department of the Interior and Local Government 6.
The Philippine News Agency reported that based on DILG records, these officials, including governors and city and municipal mayors who are now in their second or third terms in office, outnumbered the newcomers, 80 to 59.
The LCEs, both reelectionists and newcomers, were among the 1,456 local officials including provincial board members and city and municipal councilors, who were elected in the May elections.
Although there were more reelectionist LCEs who won than the newcomers, there were more newcomers who ran for governor, mayor and other local posts who won than the reelectionists, 818 to 638.
These and other data were put together in a profile of local officials who were elected in the May 2010 elections prepared by the DILG regional office.
The profile also showed that 57 of the 80 reelected LCEs are on their second term while 23 are serving their third or last term.
Of the 59 newly elected LCEs, 39 are so-called newly minted local officials. They include one mayor of a highly urbanized city, six mayors of component cities, and 31 municipal mayors.
In terms of educational attainment, 961 of the 1,456 elected local officials are college graduates, while 218 have post graduate degrees, 189 reached college, 44 are vocational course graduates, 29 reached high school, and 15 reached elementary.
One out of every 5 of those elected was a woman. Overall, there were 292 women officials while their male counterparts numbered 1,185.
The province of Iloilo had the highest number of women elected to office. Of the total 449 positions in the province, 102 are occupied by women.
Most of the local officials in the region are in the ages ranging from the 30s to early 60s. About 8 percent of them are within the 18 to 22 and 68 to 82 age ranges.
An on-line DILG report said earlier that in the case of city and municipal mayors, given the higher number of reelectionists who won over the number of newcomers who did, it could be surmised that the former had a fairly huge advantage over the new faces who were trying to penetrate the political arena.
According to the report, there are many other factors to consider and this will also depend on how the reelectionists performed during their term, or how the new political competitors presented their alternative platform of governance to the public.
