Two contenders with same surname are running for mayor in Bacoor, Cavite, the local Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.

Lawyer Juanito V. Ravanzo Jr., Cavite Provincial Comelec supervisor, identified the two as Jessie B. Castillo and Alexander M. Castillo.

Ravanzo, also officer-in-charge of Bacoor-Comelec office, said that Jessie is a candidate of the Nacionalista Party (NP) while Alexander is an independent.

The two Castillos are the only two candidates who would vie against incumbent Mayor Strike Revilla in the upcoming elections.

Jessie joined the 2010 mayoral race after having been away in the political arena in the last election season. He was a former mayor of the town who was elected for three consecutive terms.

Officials said that Alexander is a virtual unknown candidate.

The electorate considered the fight between Revilla and Jessie as a “battle of heavyweights.”

At 39, Revilla (real name: Edwin Mortel Bautista) is the youngest mayor in Cavite. He is the fifth son of former Senator Ramon B. Revilla Sr. and younger brother of Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla.

The 2007 town elections were one of the most hotly-contested in the political history of Bacoor where the young Revilla was declared the winner.

Revilla won over Vice Mayor Edwin Malvar in the protest-marred contest on that year. Malvar decided later to withdraw his protest in the election “in the spirit of reconciliation and unity and for peace and order.”

Jessie, 53, is a former Special Assistant to then-Cavite governor Juanito Remulla. He was elected mayor for three terms from 1998 until 2007.

Records showed that Jessie was declared the duly-elected mayor in the 1995 elections four months before the 1998 elections after the court upheld his complaint of vote-rigging against the winning opponent.

Bacoor, the so-called gateway of Cavite, is a first-class urban municipality. With 441,197 people residing in the town’s 73 barangays (villages), based on latest census survey, the area is considered the most populous in the country following the conversion of Dasmariñas, also in Cavite, as a city.

Ravanzo said that there are only two candidates in the vice mayoral race namely incumbent Vice Mayor Rosette-Miranda Fernando, running-mate of Revilla, and Ma. Magdalena Gawaran-Ortiz, Jessie’s partner.

Running as congressmen in the newly-reconstituted Bacoor lone district are Lani Mercado-Revilla (Lakas-Kampi-CMD), wife of Senator Bong Revilla; Plaridel M. Abaya (Liberal Party) and Gerbie F. Ber Ado (Independent).

There are 21 contenders vying for the town’s eight council seats and five for the provincial board race, the Provincial Comelec list showed.