May 15, 2016 10:25 pm
by JAIME R. PILAPIL AND REINA TOLENTINO, THE MANILA TIMES
Vice presidential candidate Ferdinand
“Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is now leading main rival Camarines Sur congresswoman
Leni Robredo by 995,207 votes, according to official Certificates of Canvass
(COC) gathered so far by the senator’s legal team.
Administration bet Robredo, however, said she
is “sure” that she will emerge as the winner in the race for Vice President.
As of Saturday (May 14, 2016), 3:30 pm,
Marcos had a total of 12,479,207 votes, compared with Robredo’s 11,484,092.
The figures are based on 102 out of 122 COCs,
or 87.7 percent.
Controversy struck the May 9 polls after the
camp of Marcos exposed the allegedly mysterious introduction of a new computer
program script that changed the hash code in the transparency server of the
Commission on Elections (Comelec), suspecting that election results were
tampered with.
Fears that the vote had been manipulated were
raised after Robredo of the Liberal Party suddenly overtook the almost 1
million vote lead of the Ilocano senator in the count conducted by the election
watchdog PPCRV in less than five hours during which the
nation of more than 100 million were mostly asleep.
The last lead of Marcos of 5,539 votes was
posted at 2:59 a.m. of May 9. Marcos had 12,823,523 votes while the lawmaker
from Bicol had 12,817,985.
A minute later, at 3 a.m., Robredo took the
lead, with 14,876 more votes than those for Marcos.
Her numbers climbed further to 12,938,123,
against Marcos’ 12,923,247.
These figures were based on the Comelec’s
transparency server count monitored by the election watchdog and Catholic
Church-based Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).
Since that time, Marcos never regained the
lead based on the PPCRV quick count and Robredo began maintaining a
200,000-vote lead.
The Marcos camp on Sunday reminded the public
that only completed COC will be the basis for the national canvassing of the
votes for President and Vice President by the National Board of Canvassers
(NBOC) to be convened by Congress.
The quick count of the PPCRV, it pointed out,
is not the basis for proclaiming winners of the May 9 polls.
Also on Sunday, Marcos attended a Holy Mass
at the Baclaran Church in Paranaque City (Metro Manila) together with his
mother and former First Lady Imelda Marcos, wife Liza, and eldest son Sandro.
Reporters failed to interview him because the
senator was mobbed by churchgoers who all tried to reach out to him.
Marcos said his camp does not believe anymore
results being posted by PPCRV and that they will just wait for May 25 wherein
the NBOC will start canvassing the votes from the presidential and vice
presidential races in a joint session of Congress.
But Robredo was upbeat about making it as the
next Vice President of the Philippines.
“Sigurado na po base sa numero ng Comelec
pero siyempre hindi pa tayo pwede mag-claim kasi ang pwede lang mag-claim ‘yung
Comelec. ‘Yung pinaka-purpose lang ng pagpakita namin ng numero, marami kasing
nangangamba dahil napakalapit nung laban, marami sa aming supporters ung
nangangamba [We are already sure based on the numbers from the Comelec but of
course we cannot claim (victory yet) because the only one who can claim (it for
us) is the Comelec. The purpose of the update was to appease our our supporters
because a lot of them were anxious due to the tight race],” she told reporters
in an interview when asked if she is sure of victory. - Full story on The Manila Times
