Incumbent Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte is seen to take on the mayoral post as she leads the local elections in Quezon City as of Tuesday morning. In his report on Eleksyon 2019: The GMA News and Public Affairs Special Coverage, GMA News' James Agustin said city canvassers were just waiting for the SD card containing election returns from Barangay Ramon Magsaysay to continue the counting. As of latest tally, Belmonte has 469,035 votes while rival Bingbong Crisologo has 365,682. For the vice mayoral race, Gian Sotto led with 381,984 votes, followed by Jopet Sison with 342,995 votes. Meanwhile, three lawmakers and 18 councillors have already been proclaimed: Precious Castelo and six councilors (2nd district), Bong Suntay and six councilors (4th district) and Alan Benedict Reyes and six councilors (third district). A later report by James Agustin said Alfred Vargas was proclaimed as Quezon City's 5th District Representative. Only the winners in the congressional races in the first and sixth districts of Quezon City have yet to be proclaimed as of 7:30 a.m. of Tuesday. More than 800,000 voters participated in the elections in Quezon City. — Dona Magsino/BAP/KBK, GMA News<doc-sep>MANILA, Philippines — Incumbent Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte is leading the mayoralty race in the vote-rich city with 1,145 votes as of 06:55 p.m. Monday, the unofficial Transparency Server of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting-Inquirer (PPCRV-Inquirer) showed. Belmonte’s main foe incumbent Quezon City 1st Dist. Rep. Bingbong Crisologo is coming in at second with 492 votes. ADVERTISEMENT Belmonte’s running mate, Gian Sotto, was also leading with 997 votes, followed by Crisologo’s tandem Jopet Sison with 535. The initial results are as follows: View the real-time server at https://www.inquirer.net/. (Editor: Katherine G. Adraneda) Read Next<doc-sep>Quezon City mayoral candidate Vincent “Bingbong” Crisologo has been arrested for alleged obstruction of justice in a vote buying incident in Barangay (Village) Bahay Toro in Quezon City. Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Oscar Albayalde said in a press conference today that police officers were conducting an anti-vote buying operation at a house in the neighborhood last night when Crisologo arrived and allegedly padlocked the gate so the police operatives could not get out. The police said they received a tip alleging that the house contained money that was handed out in exchange for votes. Undercover police officers posing as Quezon City residents arrived at the house at around 7:30pm, ABS-CBN News reported. A person who is allegedly part of Crisologo’s team let the officers in the house and reportedly gave them cash and a photo of the mayoral candidate, the report added. Members of Crisologo’s camp allegedly forbade the officers from leaving the premises after realizing that they were cops. They also contacted Crisologo about the situation, and he arrived at the house soon after. Albayalde said that the officers were intimidated by Crisologo. He allegedly cursed and threatened the police that he would file charges against them, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Director Joselito Esquivel said, according to GMA News. Police Lt. Col. Alex Alberto ordered Crisologo and his son Frederick Crisologo’s arrest when he arrived at the scene, ABS-CBN News reported. At least 40 others who were purportedly involved in the vote buying incident were also nabbed, Rappler reported. However, police were only able to recover PHP800 (US$15.31) from one person, a man identified as 80-year-old Renato Echas. Alberto said they did not have a search warrant and were unable to raid the site. He also said that their officers were “outnumbered” by Crisologo’s camp, Rappler reported. On a Facebook video posted last night, Crisologo criticized the police for entering the house without a warrant. He also denied that he was involved in vote buying and defended that his poll watchers were merely undergoing training inside the house. Story continues “When we arrived, we asked the police why they trespassed. Their commander, Colonel [Alex] Alberto, arrived and arrested all of us,” Crisologo said in Filipino. “We were handcuffed. This shows that even the police can be used against us by our political rivals.” He also said the operatives allegedly did not read them their Miranda rights before the arrest. Crisologo is running against incumbent Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte in the city’s mayoralty race. He is currently detained at Camp Karingal, under the custody of the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit. This article, Quezon City mayoral candidate Bingbong Crisologo arrested for alleged vote buying incident, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters!<doc-sep>MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City mayoral candidate Joy Belmonte has nothing to say on her rival 1st Dist. Rep. Vincent “Bingbong” Crisologo’s arrest for alleged obstruction of justice, direct assault, and unjust vexation. Belmonte, who is on her third term as the city’s vice mayor, brushed aside questions from reporters on the incident involving Crisologo when she cast her vote for the midterm elections at the Christ the King Seminary in Quezon City on Monday afternoon. ADVERTISEMENT Clad in white polo shirt and denim pants, she showed up at the polling precinct shortly before 2 p.m. and finished voting in less than 10 minutes. Crisologo was held at the Quezon City Police District headquarters in Camp Karingal after he was arrested at a house in Brgy. Bahay Toro on Sunday night, eve of Election Day. He allegedly tried to stop the arrest of his supporters, who are supposedly involved in a vote-buying incident there. Crisologo already underwent inquest proceedings on Monday. Belmonte and Crisologo are competing to become mayor of Quezon City, which has a total of 1.33 million registered voters. (Editor: Katherine G. Adraneda) Read Next<doc-sep>
MANILA, Philippines (3nd update, May 13 at 8:58 a.m.) — Police arrested Quezon City Rep. Bingbong Crisologo on Sunday, the eve of election day, for allegedly attempting to disrupt authorities in a vote-buying incident. Crisologo and his son, lawyer Edrix Crisologo, are seen handcuffed in a photo released on the mayoral candidate's Facebook page. Metro Manila police chief Guillermo Eleazar told Philstar.com in a text message that Crisologo was "arrested for obstruction of justice and will be detained." Joselito Esquivel, director of Quezon City Police District, said cops were conducting an operation at Barangay Toro and arrested a few people deemed to be involved in vote buying. "The report was that Crisologo arrived [at the scene] and started to curse at and threatened charges against the police," Esquivel said at a late night press conference, as reported by GMA News. In a video posted by a former congressman, however, Crisologo said police entered a house at Barangay Toro in the city without a warrant. "What happened was training for poll watchers was ongoing. We were handing out paraphernalia for the watchers. The police entered the house without a search warrant. So, there was confusion," he said in Filipino in the video posted on the Facebook page of former lawmaker Michael Defensor, now a first nominee of Anakalusugan party-list. Crisologo added that the police were out of uniform and some were in slippers. In a separate post on his campaign Facebook page, Crisologo said he was taken to Camp Karingal, the headquarters of the Quezon City Police District, with his son. "Hindi po kami binasahan ng aming (We were not read our) Miranda rights nor we were informed of why we were arrested," he said. He added that he and Edwin Rodriguez of the PDP-Laban Quezon City Council had gone to "a place where vote-buying was happening" and were picked up and brought to Camp Karingal. Crisologo's candidacy, however, will not immediatey be affected by the arrest. James Jimenez, spokesperson of the Commission on Elections, said Monday that "obstruction of justice" is not an election-related offense and Crisologo's case will still undergo investigation. "Let's see where this will go," Jimenez said in a television interview. Disclosure: Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, who is running for mayor of Quezon City, is a shareholder of Philstar Global Corp., which operates news site Philstar.com. This article was produced following editorial standards.