Comelec finishes canvassing for senators, party-list groups
The Commission on Elections (Comelec), sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), finished last night the canvassing of votes for senators and party-list groups.
Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the proclamation of 12 winning senators will proceed today even after former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino filed a petition before the Supreme Court.
Tolentino, in 13th place, sought a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court to stop Comelec from proclaiming the last three winning senators, saying the hash code controversy has compromised the results of the May 9 elections.
“We are looking to proclaim all the 12 senators as well as the 59 party-list representatives. But we will follow whatever will be the (SC) directive,” Bautista said.
Based on the last canvass report released by Comelec, the 12 winning senators are Franklin Drilon, Joel Villanueva, Vicente Sotto III, Panfilo Lacson, Richard Gordon, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Manny Pacquiao, Risa Hontiveros, Francisco Pangilinan, Sherwin Gatchalian, Ralph Recto and Leila de Lima.
In 12th place, De Lima has a lead of 1.3 million votes over Tolentino.
Bautista added they intend to proclaim at 6 p.m. today all the winning party-list groups that will occupy 59 seats at the House of Representatives.
At the same time, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) yesterday concluded its partial and unofficial quick count from the transparency server of the Comelec.
PPCRV communications director Ana de Villa-Singson said the citizen poll watchdog has sent a letter to the Comelec informing them that they had ceased operations as of 2:15 p.m. yesterday.
“We sent a letter, through the PPCRV chair (Henrietta de Villa), that says we will already close our screens and stop showing the transmission of results,” she said.
Before it was shut down, the LED screens showed the final transmitted number of votes.
Out of the 92,509 clustered precincts and 1,767 overseas absentee voting (OAV), the PPCRV received 96.14 percent of the transmission or 90,633 clustered precincts.
It was explained that while their LED screens would no longer show the tally, the PPCRV server would still accept additional election return transmissions from the Comelec transparency server. However, this would no longer be made public so as not to cause confusion with the official tally of the Comelec.
The termination was initially set at 10 p.m. but it was moved earlier.
In the final showing of the PPCRV partial and unofficial tabulation, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte got the highest number of votes at 15,970,018 followed by administration candidate Manuel Roxas II with 9,700,382 votes.
In third place is Sen. Grace Poe with 8,935,733 votes followed by Vice President Jejomar Binay with 5,318,249 votes, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago with 1,424,520 and former ambassador Roy Señeres with 25,161 votes.
In the vice presidential race, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo is still leading with 14,023,093 votes, followed by Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. with 13,803,966; Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano with 5,679,102; Sen. Francis Escudero with 4,812,375; Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV with 844,157 and Sen. Gregorio Honasan II with 760,409 votes.
Singson added she had been talking to Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim about the final transmissions.