FINALLY, Honey Lacuna was proclaimed as the city of Manila’s 23rd mayor, making history as the first woman and physician ever to hold the said position.
The political ticket that she led under their local party Asenso Manileno made a clean sweep of all the positions up for grabs, from the mayor, vice mayor, six Representatives and 34 of the 36 councilors. The two candidates for councilor who made it, although not officially in the ticket since the party can only accommodate six councilor-candidates per district, also happen to be allies.
Lacuna, whose full name is Maria Sheilah Honrado Lacuna, was proclaimed at shortly before 8 p.m. on Wednesday at the jampacked Manila City Council session hall, amid wild cheers from her ticketmates and supporters.
Her entire family, led by former Vice Mayor Danilo “Danny” Lacuna and mother Melanie, better known as ‘Inday’, both shed tears of joy as the teary-eyed Honey hugged them tightly on her way to the stage where election officers were in wait to raise her hands and formally proclaim her as the new mayor of Manila.
Her husband, Manila Health Officer Dr. Poks Pangan and daughter Lucia, were also present, along with her siblings Lei, who is also President of the Liga ng mga barangay in Manila, Dennis, Liza Lacuna-Figueras and Philip, who is also a Councilor (6th district).
Now Mayor-elect Honey, garnered a total of 538,595 votes, which is more than triple of the votes of the far second-placer Alex Lopez, who received only 163,292 votes.
Her runningmate, now Vice Mayor-elect Yul Servo-Nieto, currently a Manila 3rd District Representative and Deputy Majority Leader in Congress, was also proclaimed minutes earlier, with 573,562 votes in total. With him to savor the moment were his wife Flovelyn and children Lucas, Louis and Laris.
Those who won a seat in the House of Representatives are: Ernix Dionisio (1st district); Rolan Valeriano (2ng district); Joel Chua (3rd district); Edward Maceda (4th district); Irwin Tieng (5th district) and Benny Abante (6th district).
Among them, Dionisio and Tieng made history by beating incumbents Manny Lopez and Crystal Bagatsing. Chua, who is currently the Manila City Council’s majority floorleader, is a first-timer in the Congressional race.
Honey was highly emotional during the ambush interview that followed their proclamation, saying her victory.
“Matagal na naming pinangarap ito eh para sa tatay ko,” a teary-eyed Honey told an ambush interview, where she also said that she is very honored that after 450 years, the city has finally had a lady mayor.
“Thank you sa aking yorme sa pagtitiwala niya po,” Honey further stated, adding that the administration that she and Servo will lead will ensure that all the pro-poor programs that Mayor Isko Moreno had started will be continued. (Baby Cuevas)
