CEBU CITY, Philippines – A fresh development has emerged for Cebu. governor .
Pamela Baricuatro of Partido Demokratikong Pilipino — On Tuesday afternoon, May 13, 2025, Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) was declared the elected governor.
Baricuatro triumphed over the current Governor Gwen Custodio. Garcia following an accumulation of 1,107,924 votes, leading by a significant gap of around 342,000 ballots.
On the contrary, Garcia obtained only 765,051 votes.
The result of the gubernatorial election came as a significant shock to Garcia, aiming to secure her third and last term in office.
Baricuatro emerged victorious -whether by a landslide or narrowly- in 29 municipalities. These victories include well-known Garcia strongholds such as Liloan, which is the home town of the current official's spouse's family.
Baricuatro had control over the southern region, stretching all the way from Talisay City down to Oslob at the southernmost part of the province.
In the first congressional district, which includes the cities of Talisay, Carcar, Naga, and the municipalities of Minglanilla, San Fernando, and Sibonga, she secured every vote, emerging victorious with a landslide win.
The 1st Congressional District is the area with the highest number of votes in the province of Cebu.
The Cebu province encompasses 51 different areas, with Mandaue City being the sole highly urbanized city (HUC) permitted to participate in gubernatorial elections. Most of Mandaue City’s electorate favored Baricuatro.
Proclamation delayed
Nevertheless, Baricuatro’s announcement has been overshadowed by technical issues following a malfunction with an automated counting machine (ACM) at a single polling station in Pinamungajan town, leading to delays in result transmission.
Consequently, the election officials had to manually process the ballots one at a time, which was quite time-consuming.
Lawyer Marchel Sarno, who serves as the Election Supervisor for Comision on Elections (Comelec) in Cebu, clarified that according to the established electoral protocols, they are required to announce the victors solely when all voting tallies from the 3,080 polling units across the region have been submitted to the tabulation hub.
At first, the Board of Canvassers opted to change the threshold following Baricuatro’s camp suggestion to proceed with the proclamation, stating that the leftover uncounted ballots would not alter the final tally significantly.
Nevertheless, all outstanding votes successfully made their way through prior to the Comelec Manila office being able to address the threshold request.
Tension
While waiting for all unread ballots to be counted, tensions began rising at the canvassing center located in the Capitol Social Hall. This was exacerbated when someone allegedly attempted to submit a disqualification petition against Baricuatro.
This led Sarno to issue a warning to anyone attempting to disturb the electoral process, stating that such individuals would be detained.
In contrast, the Board opted to continue with the proclamation even though there were speculations that Garcia’s team plans to file a disqualification case against her rival.
Although declining to make any remarks, Sarno stated that they haven't received any such document.
Credit to Rodrigo Duterte
In turn, Baricuatro thanked the voters who placed their confidence in her to govern the province, as well as her supporters, which included ex-President Rodrigo Duterte.
Baricuatro even gave credit to Duterte over his endorsement, saying it greatly helped in her victory.
“And to those who campaigned for me without me knowing, daghan gyud kaayong salamat,” she added.