Incumbent Cebu governor Gwen Garcia will have a new gubernatorial term in the province after garnering a historic win with over a million votes.

The official results from the Commission of Elections in Cebu on Tuesday showed Garcia had 1,478,436 votes over former Tourism Secretary Ace Durano, who only had 341,455 votes.

Independent candidate Nito Magnanao was last with 9,812 votes.

According to Comelec provincial supervisor Jerome Brillantes, this is the first time that a gubernatorial candidate has received such a number of votes.

The 66-year-old Garcia has held her position anew since 2019, after she served as Cebu governor from 2004 to 2013.

She was the congressional representative of Cebu's 3rd district from 2013 to 2019.

• Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia poised for reelection; Cebu Mayor Rama leading

'ONE CEBU' FOR 'UNITEAM'

In her victory speech, she said she worked hard to campaign for the "UniTeam" of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, who had landslide wins in the presidential and vice-presidential elections respectively.

The whole One Cebu party, under her leadership, endorsed the UniTeam in the last few weeks of the 2022 election campaign.

“To me, it is a fulfilled promise to deliver one Cebu. We were able to unify the entire island, including the tri-cities,” added Garcia.

Cebu province had 1,055,985 votes for Marcos Jr. and 1,258,538 for Duterte.

The Governor hinted that she might invite the UniTeam to her inauguration. She clarified that there was no bargain for the endorsement she made.

“One Cebu is all about unity. Does unity really work? Look at province of Cebu,” Garcia said.

Cebu is the province with the most number of voters at 3.2 million. It is also the richest province.—Report from Annie Perez

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