LONG QUEUE. Voters queue patiently in a clustered precinct at Sto. Tomas Central Elementary School on Monday morning. (Mart D. Sambalud/davaotoday.com)
STO. TOMAS, Davao del Norte — Kusog Baryohanon mayoral bet Daniel Batosalem Jr., whose candidacy was bankrolled by Tagum Agricultural Development Company Incorporated (Tadeco), holds the lead in the mayoral race, based on the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) partial, unofficial results.
As of 7:30 am on Tuesday, May 10, Batosalem heads the race with 22,739 votes. His rival, re-electionist Benigno Andamon lands on second place with 19,185 votes.
Andamon is followed by independent candidate Daniel Lu with 2,183 votes before Inday Rose Tuga with 1,421 votes.
Voter turnout in this town as of Tuesday morning reached 48,035 out of 57,387 registered voters.
Tadeco is Davao del Norte’s biggest banana plantation owned by the political kingpin family of Floirendos. It covers around 6,900 hectares of banana fields and produce millions of boxes of export-quality bananas annually which can be considered as the province’s “economic lifeblood.”(davaotoday.com)
