CAVITE – Carmona is now a component city of Cavite after the majority of plebiscite participants ratified its conversion from a municipality on Saturday, July 8.

The municipal plebiscite board of canvassers said 30,363 voted “yes” while “1,016” voted “no” to cityhood.

According to data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), 53.9 percent of Carmona’s 58,691 registered voters participated in the plebiscite.

The majority of plebiscite participants ratified the conversion of the municipality of Carmona into a component city of Cavite on Saturday, July 8 (Carla Bauto Deña/MANILA BULLETIN)

Carmonians celebrated at a plebiscite results announcement event at the Municipal Town Plaza on Saturday evening.

During her speech, teary-eyed Carmona Mayor Dahlia A. Loyola thanked the residents who cast their votes and everyone who worked hard to make their cityhood aspiration a reality.

“Mula sa isang barrio mula sa Silang, na naging isang first class municipality, at ngayon, isang ganap na lungsod na. Nakita n'yo naman ang ating pinagdaanan para ito’y ating makamit (From being a barrio of Silang, we became a first class municipality, and now, we are a full-fledged city. You saw what we had to go through to achieve this),” Loyola told the cheering crowd.

Carmona Mayor Dahlia A. Loyola addresses the crowd at the Municipal Town Plaza during the proclamation of plebiscite results (Carla Bauto Deña/MANILA BULLETIN)

The mayor also thanked her husband, Cavite 5th District Rep. Roy M. Loyola, who authored the bill in the House of Representatives.

Carmona is now Cavite’s eighth component city, alongside Bacoor, Cavite City, Dasmariñas, General Trias, Imus, Tagaytay, and Trece Martires.

Carmonians celebrated during the plebiscite results announcement at the Municipal Town Plaza (Carla Bauto Deña/MANILA BULLETIN)

Manual canvassing, generally-peaceful plebiscite
During a press briefing before the proclamation, Comelec Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia explained why the plebiscite canvassing took a while to finish.

George Erwin M. Garcia at a press briefing before the proclamation of Carmona cityhood plebiscite results (Carla Bauto Deña/MANILA BULLETIN)

“'Yung nasasaksihan niyo po ngayon, 'yan 'yung classic example nang ating manual na eleksyon. Therefore, i-expect po nating lahat na ito ay mangyayari sa darating na barangay at SK elections. Manual, natapos tayo nang alas tres pero hanggang ngayon, nagka-canvass tayo (What you are witnessing now is a classic example of our manual election. Therefore, you can all expect this in the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. We closed the polls at 3:00 p.m. but we are still canvassing until now,” Garcia said at around 7:30 p.m.

The results of the plebiscite were proclaimed at 9:33 p.m.

Police Regional Office 4A Director Brig. Gen. Carlito M. Gaces, meanwhile, said the plebiscite was generally peaceful, with no record of any election-related incident.