Local elections were held in Malolos, Bulacan on May 12, 2025, as part of the 2025 Philippine general election. The capital city of the province of Bulacan, Malolos' incumbent local executive, the National Unity Party's nominee Christian "Agila" Natividad was re-elected to his second-consecutive term unopposed. This is Natividad's fifth cumulative term as Mayor of Malolos after previously serving from 2010 to 2019.
Natividad's running mate however, incumbent city vice mayor Migs Tengco Bautista lost his re-election bid to former Mayor and previously vice Mayor Engr. Gilbert Gatchalian by a 10,000-vote margin. Gatchalian defeated Bautista and term-limited councilor Kiko Castro for the vice-mayoral position.
The 2025 local race marks the return of the Natividad-Gatchalian tandem as the local executives of the City of Malolos, a tandem that had previously been a team during their first nine-years from 2010 to 2019. Gatchalian replaced Natividadwho ran Governor of Bulacan in 2019 but lostand served a three-year term as Mayor before he was defeated by Natividad in his political comeback in 2022. Meanwhile, the Malolos city council is also packed with Natividad's slate with seven of the ten seats being occupied by "One Malolos" the alliance name under the Natividad-Bautista slate. Two seats were filled by Gatchalian's candidates from "Bayanihan Generation" and the remaining seat was the re-electionist Mikki Soto who was running with the aforementioned Kiko Castro.
Background
In 2022, former gubernatorial-candidate and mayor Christian Natividad won his first non-consecutive term as Mayor of Malolos, defeating the provincial-backed candidate and then-outgoing Mayor Bebong Gatchalian. Largely considered as a swing citywhere voters would tend to either side with the administration or largely support the opposition during electionsthe local leaders under Malolos tends to be of support to the administration during the last and this years election. President Bongbong Marcos won Malolos with 60,991 votes to former Vice President Leni Robredo's 37,667, and then-Davao city Mayor Sara Duterte won 53,333 votes to then-Senate President Tito Sotto's 26,808 votes. Robredo's running mate Francis Pangilinan placed third with 23,030 votes behind Sotto.
Coalitions In adherence to the nationwide filing of certificates of candidacies, the filings were conducted on October 1 to 8, 2024 from which local slates were formalized and announced. Generally, the venue of the COC filings occurred in downtown Malolos.
One Malolos Incumbent city Mayor Christian Natividad and incumbent city vice mayor Migs Tengco Bautista are seeking re-election bids for their respective positions under the National Unity Party-backed One Malolos. The ticket is supported by a ten-member city council slate, of which three are running for re-election: Councilors JV Vitug, Troi Aldaba, and Dennis San Diego.
The One Malolos slate is considerably filled with several candidates who previously ran in the 2022 local race including Geli Bulaong, Miel Agustin, and Jun Cruz who were under the same banner as Natividad in 2022 but lost the election. There are new candidates seeking a political comeback including former councilor Poncho Arcega who ran and lost for a second-term in 2022, and former vice mayor Len Pineda who lost his bid for re-election as vice mayor in 2022 to former opponent-now-ally Migs Bautista. Under the same slate, two new candidates emerged for a chance to win a seat in the local city council, Atty. Muchas Absalon and Barangay Tikay chairman Jawo Hernandez.
Bayanihan Generation The former coalition of Governor Daniel Fernando continued into the local scene where former mayor and coalition member Gilbert Gatchalian is seeking a political comeback. Gatchalian lost his bid for re-election in 2022 to Natividad who made his own political comeback after his 2019 lost as Governor to the aforementioned Fernando. Now in 2025, Gatchalian is running for Vice Mayor.
Under the coalition however are only three candidates for the city council. Re-electionist councilor Ega Domingo who is vying for his third and final term and former councilors Rico Capule and Toots Bautista.
Team Kiko Castro The term-limited councilor Kiko Castro declared his run for vice mayor for the 2025 race. Castro had been the number-one vote getter for the city council of Malolos in three-consecutive elections in 2016, 2019 and 2022. Castro is running with re-electionist Mikki Soto who is vying for his third and final term as city councilor for Malolos. Soto was elected to the council in 2019 as the tenth and final member while was re-elected in 2022 as number 5.
Tickets One Malolos has been slated under the administration-backed coalition as its primary party, the NUP is under the Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas coalition of parties for this year's midterm elections.
Administration backed-coalition +One Malolos Position#CandidatePartyMayor 1Christian Natividad Vice Mayor 1Migs Tengco Bautista Councilor 1Atty. Muchas Absalon 2Miel Agustin 3Troi Aldaba 4Poncho Arcega 6Coach Geli Bulaong 8ABC Jun Cruz 12Jawo Hernandez 15Len Noel Pineda 16Dennis Konde San Diego 18JV Vitug
Other tickets +Bayanihan Generation Position#CandidatePartyVice Mayor 3Gilbert Gatchalian Councilor 5Toots Bautista 7Rico RC Capule 10Ega Mr. Rescue Domingo +Team Kiko Castro Position#CandidatePartyVice Mayor 2Kiko Castro Councilor 17Mikki Soto
+None affiliated candidatesPosition#CandidatePartyCouncilor 9Batang Malolos Cruz 11Mark MG Garchitorena 13Kuyang Wili Jimenez
Mayoral election Incumbent city mayor Christian Natividad, who has served since 2022 was re-elected to his second-consecutive term as Mayor of Malolos and his fifth cumulative term, making his total years in the city hall at max fifteen years following his unopposed win.
Results
Vice mayoral election Former mayor Gilbert Gatchalian won the vice-mayoral race in the city of Malolos, a position he held from 2010 to 2019 before ascending to the mayoral seat in the 2019 race. Gatchalian defeated incumbent vice mayor Migs Bautista and term-limited councilor Kiko Castro.
Results
City council election Seven out of the ten seats in the city council were candidates of incumbent Mayor Natividad while five of its members were for re-election. Two of the ten were won by Bayanihan Generation, and the remaining seat was one by Mikki Soto.
Candidates with italicized names denotes that they are incumbent city councilors.
National election results The national election was also conducted in the city of Malolos and its registered voters where all must vote for senators, district representatives, and their local sangguniang panlalawigan body and its Governor and Vice Governor.
Senate In the senatorial race, former senator Bam Aquino won the most votes from the city of Malolos with 66,868 votes then Francis Pangilinan and Bong Go.
The following are the top twenty-senatorial candidates who received the most votes in the City of Malolos with those highlighted being part of the top twelve nationwide. Among the twelve elected senators, only nine candidates were included in the Top Fifteen in Malolos. Just outside of the top fifteen was senator Imee Marcos at seventeenth (22,191), Lito Lapid at nineteenth (21,885), and Camille Villar at thirty-fourth (11,873).
Party-list In the party-list race, the Akbayan party-list garnered the most votes in the race with 16,121 votes, nearly 9,000 votes ahead of second place CWS and followed by CIBAC and APAT-DAPAT.
House of Representatives The city of Malolos is under the congressional jurisdiction of Bulacan's First District. Incumbent representative Danilo Domingo won the city of Malolos by an overwhelming margin against his closest competitor, term-limited board Member Allan Andan.
Provincial-level races
Gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial races Incumbent governor and vice governor Daniel Fernando and Alex Castro both received overwhelming victories in the city of Malolos. Fernando received 76,771 votes or 72.61% of all votes obtained by all candidates while Castro received an even bigger 91,382 votes or 89.24%.
Provincial Board Member In the provincial board member race, the top four candidates are all incumbent councilors for the city of Malolos. Topping the tally is Ninong Michael Aquino, followed by Atorni Niño Bautista, Noel Sacay, and Ayee Ople.
See also
2025 Philippine general election 2025 Bulacan local elections
References