Philippine VP tells supporters to respect poll results

MANILA: Vice President Leni Robredo on Tuesday urged her followers not only to respect the results of the elections but she also asked them to stay the course following an outpouring especially of youth volunteerism that highlighted her campaign for the presidency.

“We know how much we love this country but we cannot let this love sow further division. It is clear the people have spoken. We need to listen to their voice because in the end we share only one nation,” Robredo said in her message to media on Tuesday in Filipino and English in her hometown of Naga City in the Bicol Region.

Political analysts noted that Robredo fell short of formally conceding her loss in the presidential race to former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, the only son and namesake of the late Philippine dictator.

As of 10 am on Tuesday, partial and unofficial results from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) placed Marcos on the way to a landslide victory in the presidential race. His votes totaled 30.5 million as against Robredo’s 14 million.

Another presidential candidate Senator Panfilo Lacson has conceded defeat, however, as he said: “I am going home, this time to serve my family.”

In the press conference, meanwhile, Robredo told her supporters not to lose heart even if the number of votes she had garnered in the Comelec unofficial tally was not what they had expected.

“I am telling you now,” Robredo said, “our efforts were not in vain. We have no failed. This is not the end. We only just begun.”

She pointed out that with their help, she would continue to help improve the lives of millions of poor Filipinos and bring needed changes in society and governance.

She was referring to what has been called a “people’scampaign”intheelectionsledbythousands of mostly youth volunteers who spent their own money and resources to organise political rallies and conduct house-to-house calls for Robredo.

In the 2016 vice presidential race, Robredo defeated Marcos by a slim margin of about 200,000 votes. Marcos filed a protest before the Supreme Court (SC) siting as the presidential electoral tribunal, citing alleged widespread cheating.