ALBAY, Philippines – For the first time in nearly 25 years, Legazpi City has elected a mayor outside the Rosal family.

Barangay 18 Cabagñan Chairperson “Kap” Hisham Ismail of the Lakas-CMD party defeated Carmen Geraldine Rosal of PDP-Laban in the 2025 midterm local elections, ending the Rosal family’s grip on the city’s top post which has been uninterrupted since 2001.

Ismail, a registered nurse, obtained 68,090 votes, while Rosal got 61,943, winning by a small margin of 6,147 votes, based on partial, unofficial results sourced from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Media Server with 100% of precincts reporting as of 5:48 pm on Tuesday, May 13.

He was proclaimed the City Board of Canvassers on Tuesday afternoon.

Ismail is an ally of current Legazpi Mayor Alfredo Garbin Jr., who ascended to the mayoralty after Geraldine Rosal was suspended by the Ombudsman in 2024. 

Rosal’s suspension stemmed from alleged vote-buying activities related to a financial aid distribution event during the 2022 campaign period. Rosal has refuted these allegations, maintaining that the distribution was part of the city’s cash assistance program, and that she was not behind the event.

“The cash assistance was their due as a program of the local government. I was merely invited, so I can’t say that just because I was there, they would vote for me,” Rosal earlier told Rappler. 

According to political analysts, this may have hurt Rosal’s candidacy, resulting in her loss.

Rosal defeated Garbin in the 2022 election, but the subsequent controversies led to her suspension and her husband Noel from his gubernatorial post. 

Her husband, however, had an upset victory in Albay gubernatorial race against incumbent 2nd District Representative Joey Salceda. – Rappler.com