VP race: Cayetano concedes to Leni
With about 1.3 million votes still to be tallied in the unofficial quick count as of yesterday afternoon, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, the runningmate of incoming president Rodrigo Duterte, conceded to administration candidate Leni Robredo.
“I humbly concede my vice presidential bid to Rep. Leni Robredo who, by all accounts and with 96 percent of the votes already tallied, is our country’s presumptive vice president- elect,” Cayetano said in a statement yesterday.
He expressed belief Robredo “is not only leading the race, she has clearly won it.”
The senator is trailing the Camarines Sur congresswoman by a wide margin in the unofficial tally. She is neckand-neck with Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the race.
Cayetano also called on other candidates to respect the people’s decision and to rally behind Duterte and Robredo.
“While losing an election hurts, nothing is more painful than the sight of a divided country,” Cayetano said. “Let us begin the journey toward healing and unification.”
He expressed confidence that Robredo would also “respect and value” the people’s full support for Duterte as well as his vision for real change.
“I call on the people to rally behind our newly elected leaders. It is in this crucial hour that our voice is needed the most. Let us work together and let the process of real change begin,” he said.
Respect democracy, Bongbong urged
The camp of Robredo called on Marcos to respect the democratic process and refrain from making baseless allegations.
Georgina Hernandez, Robredo’s spokesperson, said the Marcos camp should observe the proper process of reporting incidents of cheating instead of making accusations that are not backed by evidence.
“Let us respect the process. The people have spoken. It is clear that Congresswoman Leni Robredo has retained her lead. Let us respect the democratic exercise, and unite so we can move on and serve the nation,” Hernandez said.
“We respect the right of everyone to express their views. Why not follow the proper process? Accusations should not be made public without enough evidence. If they see any form of cheating, they should go to the appropriate agencies,” she added.
Hernandez said they have confidence in the work being done by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) despite the allegations made by Marcos.
“We continue to believe that we had a clean election and there was no cheating,” she said.
The Robredo camp remains optimistic that the LP vice presidential aspirant would maintain her lead in the canvassing.
“We are positive that the counting is about to be finished and we will know the results of this election,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez, however, declined to say when Robredo would declare victory.
Hernandez said Robredo has forgiven her bashers even if they do not apologize for their remarks.
“Many comments have been hurled at Congresswoman Leni and she has already forgiven all those who spoke ill of her,” Robredo’s spokesperson said.
“For her, what is important is we unite and we stop the bashing in social media so there can be healing and unity,” she added.
Among those who bashed Robredo, who represents a district in Camarines Sur, was Sofia Romualdez, the 16-yearold daughter of newly proclaimed Tacloban mayor Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez. The teenager swore at the leading vice presidential candidate and called her stupid.
Romualdez is the wife of outgoing Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez who is a cousin of Marcos. Robredo votes
Hernandez said the large number of votes obtained by Robredo was a product of hard work and clean campaigning.
She issued the statement after the Marcos camp said that fraud led to Robredo’s surge in the vote tally that put her ahead in the vice presidential race.
Marcos’ running mate, Sen. Miriam Defensor- Santiago, also alleged that cheating led to Robredo’s topping the latest count.
Hernandez said surveys conducted in April by various outfits including Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations showed Robredo gaining ground. ‘Genuine defeat can make Bongbong concede’
Only a “genuine defeat” would be acceptable to Marcos, who is neck- and- neck with Robredo in the vice presidential race.
“We are willing to accept genuine defeat, not one that is the product of manipulation,” Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz of party-list group Abakada told the Usaping Balita forum at the Serye Café yesterday.
He said Marcos would not hesitate to concede if his supposed loss to Robredo would be shown in an accurate and honest vote count.
De la Cruz is part of the campaign team of Marcos for whom he worked when the senator was Ilocos Norte governor. He had also served the regime of the senator’s father as a labor official and ambassador.
“Leni’s camp is saying that we are complaining because we are a sore loser. Let me remind them that no one has won because the tabulation going on is just an unofficial tally, and the official canvass by Congress will start on May 25 yet,” he said.
In the unofficial count, Robredo is ahead of Marcos by about 200,000 votes. De la Cruz said his candidate was leading by 900,000 votes in the early hours of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting ( PPCRV) tabulation on Monday night.
“But at about 7:30 p.m., a Smartmatic technician, who is a Venezuelan national, changed the script of the transparency server without authorization from PPCRV and notice to candidates through their lawyers. If you do that, you can corrupt the entire system,” he said.
He said they are seeking an explanation from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and its automation service provider Smartmatic why “such intervention” was made.
“We started losing after that. There were 31 updates made in the PPCRV count, and each time, we lost by about 40,000 votes,” he added.
He said Marcos plans to ask the Comelec and the PPCRV to redo their tabulation or do a manual count of precinct-level results.
Reminded that such move would serve no purpose, as it is the official canvass that would matter, De la Cruz said, “we want the people to be properly informed.”
According to the camp of Robredo, she started to overtake Marcos when votes from the Bicol region, Western and Central Visayas, and Negros Island were tabulated.
It said the early lead of Marcos came from votes from the Ilocos region and Cagayan Valley.
De la Cruz said vote transmission irregularities have been uncovered in the official Comelec canvass of senatorial votes.
He said about 200,000 votes for former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri and another 200,000 from Francis Tolentino “migrated” to former justice secretary Leila de Lima.
“That is why the Comelec was forced to suspend the canvass,” he added.
De la Cruz also questioned why ballot boxes containing manually accomplished certificates of canvass ( COCs) delivered to the Senate were deposited in the office of Senate President Franklin Drilon of the Liberal Party.
“In the past, these were kept in the Senate session hall under guard by security personnel of the chamber,” he said.
The COCs will be transferred to the House of Representatives, where the official canvass would take place. They will be compared with the electronic COCs to be generated every time a manually filled out certificate is brought out and tallied.
De la Cruz also said the Comelec must explain the role of Venezuelan Smartmatic project director Marlon Garcia in directing the quick count of votes.
Garcia, according to some media reports, allegedly ordered the introduction of a new computer command that triggered the dramatic increase of votes for Robredo.