Rep. Czarina Umali, who trounced in the polls ex-Rep. Rodolfo Antonino for the gubernatorial post, was proclaimed by the provincial board of canvassers winner Thursday evening. The delay in the completion of election results in the province was due to a glitch in the electronics transmission from San Antonio town.
Also proclaimed winners were re-electionist JP Padiernos, her partymate in the ruling party and re-electionist Representative Magnolia Antonino-Nadres of 4th district.
With Rep. Umali’s win, she also won the appellation “first woman governor of Nueva Ecija” after 118 years when the first civilian governor of the province was elected.
Three other women, two of them former congresswomen, tried to become governor but failed in their respective bids.
The new governor is wife of outgoing Gov. Aurelio Umali. She is finishing her three terms as representative of the 3rd district of the province.
She was first thrown into the political limelight when she was fielded by her husband, who was then congressman of the third district, to take his post and won. She was re-elected twice.
Gov. Umali was, however, unsuccessful in his bid to recapture his old post as congressman. He was defeated by newcomer Rosanna Vergara, wife of Cabanatuan Mayor Julius Cesar Vergara. Gov. Umali and Mayor Vergara, who both belong to the ruling party, had a falling out because of the desire of the latter to convert his city into a highly-urbanizing city status which the former vehemently opposed.
Representative-elect Vergara, whose proclamation was held Thursday afternoon, finished her master’s degree in business administration at the Harvard Business School in Boston, USA. She was a summa cum laude graduate when she finished her associate degree in apparel production at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
For the first time also, four women will represent the four districts of Nueva Ecija in Congress. Aside from Antonino-Nadres and Vergara, re-electionist Estrellita Suansing (1st district) and Mikki Salvador (2nd district) will complete the all-women contingent of representatives from Nueva Ecija in the coming 17th Congress.
Of the five cities and 27 towns of Nueva Ecija, nine women were elected mayors. They are re-electionists Rianne Cuevas of Palayan City, Mary Abad of Carranglan, Lally Belmonte of Zaragoza, and Nerivi Santos-Martinez of Talavera towns, and newcomers Flor Paguio-Esteban of Cuyapo, Sylvia Austria of Jaen, Femy Domingo of Licab, Marita Angeles of Sta. Rosa, and Imee de Guzman of Sto. Domingo.
In Jaen town, it will be a husband and wife team who will rule as mayor and vice mayor. Outgoing mayor Santy Austria will become the vice mayor of his wife mayor-elect Sylvia.
From the Joson clan, former Vice Gov. Edward Tomas Joson was elected board member of the third district while his cousin EJ Joson as member of the Sangguniang Panglunsod of Cabanatuan.
In the fourth district, the elected board members were sons of their respective outgoing parents.
Except for some glitches in the electronics transmission of results and complaints of missing names from the list of voters, the elections in Nueva Ecija and proclamation of winners went on smoothly.
