Manila: Former first lady Imelda Marcos, 83, and daughter Imee were declared congresswoman and governor of northern Luzon’s Ilocos Norte respectively.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) officially declared Marcos as one of the early winners in the House of Representatives, saying she had captured 88 per cent and her opponent, lawyer Ferdinand Ignacio, 12 per cent of votes cast by residents in her husband’s hometown in Ilocos Norte in Monday’s polls.
Having no opponent, the young Marcos was declared governor of Ilocos Norte on Tuesday, Comelec said, adding that Angelo Barba, a cousin, also won as vice governor. Both the women are in their second consecutive terms of office.
Earlier, Marcos expressed her wish to see her son, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., join the presidential race in 2016 at the end of his term which began in 2010.
The family has been winning elected government posts since they returned to the Philippines in 1990, following the death of former president Ferdinand Marcos in Hawaii in 1989, three years after a people-backed military mutiny ousted him from office in 1986.
Embezzling funds
Marcos was accused of amassing an estimated $35 billion (Dh128.6 billion) ill-gotten wealth, but was never convicted in a Philippine court which is not allowed to hold trial for an absent defendant. A US court granted $2.2 billion in damages to Filipino rights victims who suffered when Marcos declared a Martial Law rule in 1972.
Marcos was notorious for her 2,000 pairs of shoes which were revealed after her family left the presidential palace following the mutiny in February 1986.
Boxer Manny Pacquiao was declared another winner at the House of Representatives. He ran unopposed in Saranggani in southern Philippines. His wife Jinkee also won as vice governor of Saranggani.
Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo won a second term as congresswoman representing her hometown in Pampanga at the House of Representatives. Her opponent, Vivia Dabu, was Pampanga City’s provincial administrator.
She has been under hospital arrest for alleged electoral fraud and corrupt practices. She has denied the allegations. Arroyo did not vote for herself in her hometown in Pampanga. She remained at the Veterans Medical Centre during the May 13 polls.
