BY ASHZEL HACHERO and GERARD NAVAL
FORMER senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. yesterday continued to maintain a wide lead over Vice President Leni Robredo, his closest rival in the presidential race, according to the partial and unofficial count of poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting.
In the vice presidential race, Marcos’ running mate, presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio also maintained her lead with 31.4 million votes over the 9.2 million of Robredo’s running mate, Sen. Francis Pangilinan.
As of 7:17 p.m., Marcos had 31.03 million votes, based on electronically transmitted results received by PPCRV from 105,726 clustered precincts representing 98.09 percent of the total 107,785.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the “partial and unofficial” results being reported since Monday night are expected to be accurate and consistent with results of the official canvassing of votes.
In a press conference, Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said the results being reported by the media are based on election returns (ERs) transmitted to the transparency server.
“If we canvass it, since it is also based on the transmission, there will no changes in the results. It would be 100 percent accurate,” said Casquejo.
To note, media entities have started reporting “partial and unofficial” results of the May 2022 polls since Monday night or just hours since voting ended.
The results are based on the data in the transparency server which is located at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, with accredited media entities given access to.
Based on the Comelec’s Election Results website, 98.58 percent of the ERs have already been transmitted to the different servers of the Commission.
In the PPCRV count as of 7:17 p.m., Robredo had 14.7 million votes followed by Sen. Manny Pacquiao with 3.6 million and 1.8 million for Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso.
In fifth place is Sen. Panfilo Lacson with 880,744.
Faisal Mangodadato was in sixth place (254,638 votes) followed by former presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella (113,053), labor leader Leody De Guzman (91,926) former defense chief Norberto Gonzales (88,878 votes) and Jose Montemayor (59, 843 votes).
In the vice presidential race, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III was in third place with 8.1 million votes followed by Willie Ong (1.8 million)
The rest of the vice presidential candidates — Lito Atienza, Manny Lopez, Walden Bello, Carlos Serapio and Rizalito David — have yet to break the million-mark in votes received.
In the senatorial race, actor Robin Padilla was still the front runner with 26.3 million votes followed by Loren Legarda with 23.9 million and 23.1 million for Raffy Tulfo.
In fourth to 12th places were Sherwin Gatchalian with 20.3 million votes, Francis Escudero 20 million, Mark Villar 19.1 million, Alan Peter Cayetano 19.04 million, Juan Miguel Zubiri 18.5 million, Joel Villanueva 18.2 million, JV Ejercito 15.6 million, Risa Hontiveros 15.2 million, and Jinggoy Estrada with 14.9 million.
Meanwhile, PPCRV board member Agnes Gervacio said the poll watchdog has already encoded 2,689 election returns (ERs).
“We have received 2,689 election returns. These are from the diocese of Archdiocese of Manila, Cubao as well as Novaliches,” Gervacio said.
She added they expect ERs from other areas to come including from Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Pasig, and the provinces of Sorsogon, Cavite, Rizal and Batangas in Luzon.
“We also expect ERs from from Negros Occidental, Cebu and Iloilo in the Visayas and Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao,” she added.
Meanwhile, PPCRV lawyer Vann Dela Cruz also said they are looking into reports spreading on social media on the supposed questionable consistent percentage of votes that Marcos and Robredo received during transmission from 8 p.m. on May 9 to 1 a.m. on May10 of the partial and unofficial poll results.
“We have seen those reports. We’ve been receiving the same information and right now, it’s no cause for concern but PPCRV is looking into it,” Dela Cruz said.
He said they are coordinating the matter with the Commission on Elections particularly in checking the server logs.
OUTRIGHT MAJORITY
Marcos’ spokesman, Vic Rodriguez, said the former senator vowed to work for all people after his stunning election victory, and told the world to judge him by his presidency, not his family’s past.
Marcos Jr is set to become the first candidate in recent history to win an outright majority in a presidential election, paving the way for a once unimaginable return to rule for the the political dynasty.
“Judge me not by my ancestors, but by my actions,” Marcos told the world, according to a statement of Rodriguez.
Marcos fled into exile in Hawaii with his family during a 1986 “people power” uprising that ended his father’s autocratic 20-year rule, and has served at the House of Representatives and the Senate since his return to the Philippines in 1991.
Marcos’ runaway victory in Monday’s election now looks certain with 98% of the eligible ballots counted in an unofficial tally showing he has 31 million votes, double that of nearest rival, Vice President Robredo.
An official result is expected around the end of the month.
“This is a victory for all Filipinos, and for democracy,” spokesman Rodriguez said.
Though Marcos campaigned on a platform of unity, political analysts say his presidency is unlikely to foster that, with bitter feelings about his family’s vast political influence and wealth.
Philippine markets were mixed after the vote. Stocks lost as much as 3% at one point, sovereign dollar bonds fell, while the peso currency rose 0.4% against the dollar.
Many who did not support Marcos are angered by what they see as a brazen attempt by the once reviled former first family to use its mastery of social media to reinvent historical narratives of its time in power.
Thousands of opponents of the senior Marcos suffered persecution during a brutal 1972-1981 era of martial law, and the family name became synonymous with plunder, cronyism and extravagant living, with billions of dollars of state wealth disappearing.
The Marcos family has denied wrongdoing and many of its supporters, bloggers and social media influencers say historical accounts are distorted.
TRANSMISSION
The Comelec said that as of 3:30 p.m., 104,671 out of the 106,174 vote-counting machines (VCMs) have transmitted their election returns (ERs).
The speed rate of the transmission of ERs, according to the Comelec, is already the fastest since the adoption of the automated election system.
This as the number of ERs transmitted reached 80,000 at 11 p.m. on Monday, as compared to 5 a.m. on Tuesday in 2016 and 2019 polls.
Sought for the reason for the quicker transmission of results, Casquejo said it is better preparation by the Comelec.
“We studied the transmission mode extensively after the 2019 elections. We enhanced the terms of reference of our transmission. We included those that are missing in 2019,” he said. “We also improved the capacities of the VCMs.”
ACCURACY
The Comelec assured the public that the transmitted ERs carry accurate results.
This is amid some conspiracy theories questioning Marcos’ constant lead of 47 percent over Robredo on Monday night.
“Our system passed through international certification and local source code review. How can we insert such a percentage to win over other candidates?” said Casquejo.
He challenged those questioning the accuracy of the results to manually check each transmitted ER.
“If they will insist on this, they can check the ERs in each province,” he said.
In addition, Casquejo said the public may monitor the forthcoming random manual audit (RMA).
“The RMA will be a big help. In the RMA, we can check the accuracy of the machines,” said Casquejo.
On Tuesday morning, the Comelec RMA Committee selected 757 clustered precincts to be subjected to the RMA.
PROCLAMATION
Winners in the presidential and vice presidential elections can be proclaimed on May 28 at the latest, said Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House Speaker Lord Alan Velasco as they led the initialization of the canvassing and consolidation system for electronic reception by Congress of the certificates of canvass (COCs) for the presidential and vice presidential elections at the House of Representatives on Monday night.
The system will be used to receive the COCs from the provincial, city and district Board of Canvassers.
Winning senators and party-list groups may be proclaimed by the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) earlier than the May 16 projection, as long as the speedy transmission of ERs will be maintained.
“Hopefully, this week, if we can, we will proclaim (the winners already),” Casquejo sad.
The canvassing process passes through a ladderized system from the City/Municipal Board of Canvassers, to the Provincial Board of Canvassers, and to the NBOC.
“The basis of proclamation of our senators and party-lists is the transmitted COCs to the NBOC. Once they are all able to transmit, then we can proclaim the winning senators and party-lists,” said Casquejo.
Last night, the NBOC finally began the official canvassing of votes for senators and party-lists.
First on deck were the Certificate of Canvass (COC) from Abra and Malabon City. — With Raymond Africa, Jocelyn Montemayor and Reuters
