The Villafuertes won by a landslide in Camarines Sur in this year’s elections and have all been proclaimed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as the winners in their respective electoral races on May 9.
LRay Villafuerte was reelected to his third term as the premier province’s second district representative in the Congress, while his sons—Miguel Luis or “Migz” and Vincenzo Renato or “Luigi”—won as 5th district representative and governor, respectively, of the province.
The two young Villafuertes triumphed over powerful political clans in the province. Migz Villafuerte toppled the Alfelors, represented by Iriga City Mayor Madelaine Alfelor-Gazmen; and Luigi, the young entrepreneur who is running for the first time for an elective post, knocked out from the gubernatorial contest Rolando Andaya Jr. who used to represent CamSur’s first district and had served as House Majority Floor Leader and Budget Secretary.
Andaya’s sister—Maribel Andaya Eusebio—ran in his stead as representative of the first district, but lost to Hori Horibata of PDP-Laban.
Both Migz and Luigi ran as candidates of PDP-Laban, President Duterte’s political party, while LRay ran under the banner of the National Unity Party (NUP), one of the administration’s political allies.
The latest unofficial voting results as of Wednesday showed that LRay garnered 111,743 votes as against the 30,324 votes of his rival Aba Abasola. Migz racked up 153,852 votes as against Alfelor-Gazmen’s 101,944 votes, and Luigi got 492,415 votes vs. Andaya’s 416,434 votes.
The sweeping victories of the three Villafuertes reflected earlier survey results of the prominent Pulse Asia placing them as the runaway winners in their respective races in the recently concluded elections.
In Pulse Asia’s approval ratings for selected incumbent officials in CamSur, LRay Villafuerte scored 83 percent and Migz Villafuerte, 72 percent.
As for trust ratings, LRay had a score of 80 percent; and Migz Villafuerte, 75 percent.
As pointed out by political watchers, the Villafuertes have wiped out the Andayas and Alfelors of CamSur.
The Andayas have long dominated the 1st district of CamSur, starting with Rolando Andaya Sr. who became assemblyman of the Batasang Pambansa in 1984, and later as undersecretary of budget. The senior Andaya also served as chairman of the House committee on appropriations for 11 consecutive years, the longest on record, when he was congressman. His son, Rolando Jr., had served as a three-term congressman and also chairman of the House appropriations panel and Budget Secretary.
Rolando Jr.’s sister, Maribel Eusebio, was former mayor of Pasig and had attempted twice—but failed—to run as congressperson, in the second district in 2019 and in the first district in 2022.
Rolando Jr. lost to neophyte Luigi, who had a sizable lead of 76,000 votes over the former.
Maribel Eusebio lost to neophyte Horibata, thereby ending the political reign of the Andayas in the first district.
Iriga City Mayor Alfelor-Gazmen run against incumbent Gov. Migz in the Fifth District and lost heavily by a margin of some 50,000 votes.
Nonokoy Alfelor also lost to Vice Mayor Rex Oliva in the contest for mayor of Iriga City, which was under the Alfelors’ rule for over 30 years. The Alfelors also ruled the Fifth Distric for over 20 years.
Incumbent board member Rupert Alfelor also failed to make it as board member in the Fifth District.