Partial unofficial tally from Comelec (as of 8:15 pm)

via ANC Alerts

Presidential race (part 1)

Presidential race (part 2)

VIce President results (part 1)

Vice President results (part 2)

Why Binay is winning over Roxas

   

TO THE POINT By Emil Jurado

So why Binay? I was told that during the last stretch of the campaign, the “three Stygian sisters,” like those in the movie “Clash of the Titans” told Noynoy supporters to campaign hard for Binay instead of Mar.

The “Stygian sisters” were not comfortable with Mar being a vice president. They knew deep in their hearts that Noynoy would be overshadowed by Mar. Roxas has all the credentials and qualifications we can hope for. He has achieved many things. You cannot say this about Noynoy.

Click Emil Jurado.

Arroyo likely to gun for House speaker post, says Iggy

   

Outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is likely target the House Speakership when the new Congress opens in July, her lawmaker brother-in-law said Tuesday night.

Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio (Iggy) Arroyo Jr. said Mrs. Arroyo has enough allies to get her the top post in the House of Representatives.

“Yes, I think she would,” Arroyo, who was proclaimed winner of the congressional race for the fifth district of Negros Occidental, said when asked if Mrs. Arroyo will go for the Speaker’s post.

via GMANews.TV.

ALSO READ:

Palace: Arroyo may be RP’s 1st woman House Speaker

MANILA, Philippines – While this is not a novel notion for many, it’s the first time Malacañan itself is actually acknowledging the possibility President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo may become the country’s first female speaker of the House of Representatives once she steps down from the presidency.

Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza said on Wednesday the president has a lot to share the next administration in her new role in government.

Via ABS-CBN News

AND: Arroyo proclaimed as Pampanga congressman

5.3 million votes from PCOS not yet transmitted

   

A total of 5.3 million votes from 8,745 PCOS machines have yet to be transmitted as of 10:55 am, Wednesday, May 12.

The total amount can still affect the standings in the vice-presidential, senatorial and partylist races.

Editor’s Note: This is the equivalent number of votes for regions / provinces where the PCOS machines have yet to transmit votes as of 10:55 am, May 12, 2010. Data also includes corresponding votes for national candidates as of the time this data was extracted.

via ABS-CBN News Online Beta.

ALSO READ:

Comelec urges Congress to set earlier canvassing for president, VP race

With the canvassing of results for the senatorial and party-list races progressing smoothly, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday said that Congress should schedule the canvassing of results for the presidential and vice presidential contests earlier.

“I see nothing that prevents them from doing it earlier so they should be able to do that,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez told reporters in a chance interview.

The Comelec, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), will consolidate the votes and proclaim the winners for the senatorial and party-list races.

Via GMA News.TV

44 groups likely to get seats in Congress-ABS-CBN/Pulse Asia exit poll

   

MANILA, Philippines—Of the 187 organizations that participated in the party-list election, 44 groups are likely to get seats in the House of Representatives, the results of an ABS-CBN/Pulse Asia exit poll showed on Wednesday.

Applying the seat allocation formula set by the Supreme Court in its April 2009 decision, these groups will be able to send 57 nominees to the 15th Congress.

The exit poll, conducted by Pulse Asia for ABS-CBN, interviewed 7,296 voters and has an error of margin of +/-1.8.

Via ABS-CBN News

ALSO READ:

Religious blocs fail to deliver

MANILA , Philippines —The results of the 2010 presidential and vice presidential elections have demystified the supposed political clout of various religious leaders who have held candidates hostage in past elections.

The biggest flops were Pastor Apollo Quiboloy of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in Davao City , and Brother Mariano “Mike” Velarde of the El Shaddai Movement.

The Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), under the fresh leadership of the late Eraño Manalo’s son, more particularly lived up to its perceived influence in the vice presidential race.

via ABS-CBN News Online Beta.

In Philippines, clans and guns still rule

   

CNN — The irony is often lost on Filipinos. How can the country that gave the world not one, but two, peaceful “people power” uprisings that ousted corrupt regimes have such violent elections?

On Monday more than 50 million Filipinos will have the chance to elect a new president, a new Congress and a roster of local officials. So far the campaign has exacted a deadly toll: Including the Maguindanao massacre that killed 57 people in November, some 100 people have been reported killed in election-related violence, according to news and police reports.

This past week has been especially bloody. Last Monday, armed men fired at two trucks carrying 200 campaigners of a mayoral candidate in Zamboanga del Sur in the southern part of the country. One man was killed, and 32 others injured. On Tuesday, a lone gunman approached a candidate for councilor and shot him several times at close range, as the candidate was shaking hands with voters in a gymnasium in the central Philippine city of Cebu. He died a few hours later.

via ABS-CBN News Online Beta.

ALSO READ:

Who is this guy? Philippines President Elect – Mr Vanilla of Manila

With his penchant for badly fitting shirts, dorky hair style, and complete lack of personal charisma, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino appears the most unlikely person to win an election by a landslide. But with most of the votes counted, Mr Vanilla of Manila has galloped into Malacanang Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines.

There were nine presidential contenders in this week’s general election and Noynoy seized close to 40% of the vote. In a country with over 7000 far flung islands, the call usually takes days, sometimes weeks, but with a new electronic voting system and such a handsome lead, it was clear 16 hours after the polls closed that Aquino was the winner.

Via Huffington Post

AND:

It’s enough that he is Cory’s son

MANILA, Philippines–Let’s go back to the 2007 senatorial elections. The camp of then Tarlac Rep. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III was worried about the surveys showing him in a precarious situation—hovering from the 9th to 11th in a 12-person slate.

It was puzzling. They had pulled out what they thought was their best card. His sister Kris, a celebrity and top product endorser, starred in television and radio advertisements to solicit votes for him.

It was a March 2007 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on political endorsements that saved the elections for Noynoy. It turned out that while 27% of voters said they would vote for a candidate endorsed by Kris, another 22% said they would not.

Via ABS-CBN News

Views from columnists

   

Learning from Lee Kuan Yew
AD LIB By Greg Macabenta

The management team that the new chief executive would assemble, along with his vice-president, will either lighten his load or add to the burden. This would depend on his choices and his ability to deal with them individually and as a team. Even the best advisers can become a burden when ego and self-interest prevail over duty.

The heaviest burden of all would be the culture of patronage, personal loyalties, utang na loob, short-cuts, nepotism, special treatment and misguided priorities and values — ingredients of a culture of corruption.

Click Greg Macabenta

Return of optimism
LEFT FIELD By A. R. Samson

Optimists are not always welcome to a televised discussion. They are too often dismissed as out of touch or too naive. The belief that things will turn out well in spite of the naysayers which media like to feature often seems almost irresponsible. And when things do turn out well and the sky not only failed to fall but features a blue sky and a yellow sun shining, optimists are not allowed to say — I told you so.

It is said that if pessimists like our so-called IT experts (our modern-day Cassandras) see Christ walking on water, they are likely to say that maybe he can’t swim. Optimism is certain to be making the rounds in the next few months, mostly having lunch with businessmen. She will be gaining more supporters and encountering fewer wet blankets. Optimism has always been the businessman’s mistress, someone he hides and keeps out of sight but loves with a passion. Inside the businessman’s body beats the heart of an optimist.

Click A.R. Samson

Beginning and end
THERE’S THE RUB By Conrado de Quiros

NINE MONTHS AGO, RAIN FELL ON THIS earth but the people refused to budge. They had tumbled out of their houses to join the procession, and even as the wind swirled and the water poured, they refused to break ranks and seek shelter. That was the procession to bring the remains of Corazon Aquino to her final resting place.

Observers would place the size of the crowd at equal, if not indeed more than, the one that brought her husband, Ninoy, to his own final resting place 26 years earlier. All the more remarkable for man (or woman) and nature conspiring to not make it so. The woman had declared that day a holiday ostensibly to honor the dead but more than likely to dishonor it by luring the people, the students especially, to the Mall of Asia rather than the pall of ages. And nature had sent a storm to daunt the dauntless, the skies adding more tears to the copious ones shed by a grieving nation.

Click Conrado de Quiros

The temptation of expediency
DISPATCHES FROM THE ENCHANTED KINGDOM By Manuel Buencamino

We have a new president. We now shift our focus on Congress. Who will lead the Senate and the House of Representatives? Will the new Congress reclaim its status as a co-equal and independent branch of government, or will it continue to be the servile assistant of the Executive?

The House is weak because its members defer to the president’s dedazo, the act of pointing a finger to indicate one’s preference. Jose de Venecia Jr. became Speaker when Gloria Arroyo pointed her forefinger at him. He lost his job when she pointed her middle finger at him. It need not be that way.

Click Manuel Buencamino

A gracious political act
ANALYSIS By Amando Doronila

IN JUST 15 HOURS, OR LESS THAN A DAY after the close of voting in the country’s first computerized election on Monday, Sen. Manuel Villar, who was running third in the tally of presidential poll results, conceded defeat to Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Villar’s concession stamped a historical landmark as the swiftest ever in the annals of bitter Philippine presidential elections, in which losers seldom conceded defeat in polls often marred by violence and rampant cheating. The concession came in the wake of a deluge of results announced by the Commission on Elections at 11:11 Monday night, showing Aquino leading his nearest rival, former President Joseph Estrada, by more than 3.3. million votes, based on 57 percent of the election results electronically counted by the Comelec. At that moment Aquino tallied 8,958,396 votes, against Estrada’s 5,678,821, and Villar’s 3,058, 942.

Click Amando Doronila

Usurping Congress’ canvassing mandate
FRONTLINE By Ninez Cacho Olivares

What the Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioners are doing is all wrong, in the sense that they as a body, are not empowered by the Constitution to announce the results of the elections on the presidential and vice presidential level, since this rightly belongs to Congress, that is tasked to canvass the results of the top two political posts, automated or manual, taken from the provincial certificates of canvass.

The task of the Comelec en banc, constituted as a national election canvasser, is to strictly announce and proclaim the senatorial winners.

Click Ninez Cacho-Olivares

A little paranoia led to vigilance at polls
DEMAND AND SUPPLY By Boo Chanco

The news so far has been encouraging. We took our sacred duty in a democratic society seriously. A little paranoia, a nagging fear that you-know-who could try something fishy to stay there beyond June 30 led to an EDSA 1 like experience at voting centers nationwide. The act of voting was not easy. But people knew they had a lot riding on this election and were willing to make the sacrifice.

It was very encouraging to see people of all ages taking responsibility for their lives by enthusiastically voting. I suspect media warnings of dire consequences made people want to send an extra strong message that they will not stand for any more funny tricks from power hungry politicians. This time around, no one can accuse the Pinoy of being complacent …of taking the electoral process for granted.

Click Boo Chanco.

Automated victory
By DUCKY PAREDES

WE won!

We all did, even those who lost. We were able to pull off an automated election with minimum bother. Sure those pesky and temperamental PCOS machines never lived up to expectation but we Pinoys did something unimaginable. We patiently learned how to use the machines and never wavered even when, in some cases, we were tested to the limit.

Via Ducky Paredes

Revisit Pary-list
BIG DEAL By Dan Mariano

The weekend before E-Day, talk in online social networks, coffee shops, parish courtyards and elsewhere no longer swirled around the presidential candidates. Just about everyone assumed that the presidency was already in Noynoy Aquino’s bag.

Instead, discussion among many citizens centered on the so-called party-list system, particularly Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo’s gambit to remain in Congress as number-one nominee of Ang Galing Pinoy (AGP).

Click Dan Mariano

Stormiest selection ever of Chief Justice
GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc

It was the stormiest selection ever of a Chief Justice. Bitter words exchanged. The Supreme Court’s image waned as the last bastion against absolute power. Bared was the vulnerability of the Judiciary — even of the fighting Senate — to influence by the Executive.

Dark clouds began to gather in December, long before CJ Reynato Puno’s retirement on May 17 would create a vacancy. The Judicial and Bar Council that vets judgeships was told that early to nominate replacements to Gloria Arroyo. At once authors of the 1987 Constitution and leading lawyers opposed admin Rep. Matias Defensor’s “premature” suggestion. Supposedly it would make Puno a lame duck in his last five months of jurisprudential leadership. Moreover, they said, the departing President had no authority to name a CJ on May 17. The date falls within the constitutional ban on midnight appointments, 60 days before a presidential election till the June 30 end of the President’s term. Draw up a shortlist if you must, they advised the JBC, but give it to the next President who’d still have time to meet the Constitution’s 90-day rule to fill up vacancies in the Supreme Court. Everything depended on Puno, as head of both the Court and JBC.

Via Phil. Star

Editorials

   

Manila Times: Bearer of people’s hopes

THE Filipino electorate, the majority of the people registered as voters who could indeed be taken to stand for the majority of our population, got its wish. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd as president to replace outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Via Manila Times

Phil. Star: Pat on the back

The peso gained strength and market shares were up yesterday in a clear sign of satisfaction over the conduct of the country’s first automated elections. Foreign diplomatic missions congratulated the Philippines for the relatively peaceful exercise, which had a high turnout despite technical glitches and the long lines in the scorching summer heat.

Via Phil. Star

Inquirer: Good job

CONTRARY to the most dismal expectations, quite a number of which were shared by the Inquirer, the country’s first nationwide automated elections have turned out to be a success. Not as originally advertised, but well enough as to make a return to the old manual system with its months-long canvassing, its tried-and-tested modes of wholesale cheating, politically untenable. Much needs to be improved in the new system, and close local contests must continue to be zealously monitored, but we can already say that the May 10 vote marked a true rite of passage. Our electoral system has finally caught up with the 21st century.

Via Inquirer.net

Malaya: Verdict still out

WE heard over the radio that some election lawyers were complaining that they lost business in what they admit is a strictly seasonal industry with the automation of elections. Their bread and butter was protesting results starting at precinct levels. With machines doing the appreciation of the ballots and counting the votes beyond the eyes of the public, including lawyers, there was no opportunity to protest, say, the counting of a wrongly spelled name of a candidate.

Via Malaya

Daily Tribune: GMA wins

Yes, it certainly was GMA-7, not Gloria Arroyo, who won in the manner with which the TV network covered the 2010 elections, in comparison to the ANC’s election coverage.

The GMA Network anchors and its reporters — save for some snide remarks by a guest commentator on her take of senatorial candidates who appear to have won the polls, but whom obviously she did not care for.

Via Daily Tribune

Biz to Aquino: Appoint competent Cabinet

   

BUSINESS groups have already acknowledged the victory of Sen. Benigno Aquino III in the presidential polls, and they heaved a sigh of relief that their fears over the possibility of a widespread election rigging due to glitches in the automation did not happen.

And now business groups will be keenly watching the appointments to Cabinet posts, as they said this will indicate the direction of the new administration, and if they will get the key reforms that they are seeking to really spice up the appetite of the business sector to continue investing.

“The results are acceptable and credible. There is no doubt that Senator Aquino won. The results also jibe with the surveys,” [Makati Business Club Alberto] Lim said.

He recognized that the vigilance of the business groups and other sectors prevented any grand scheme to sabotage the conduct of the elections.

via BusinessMirror.

ALSO READ:

Tetangco: Polls may lead to RP credit-rating upgrade

THE Philippines is poised for a smooth transition of government, which could eventually lead to a higher sovereign credit rating, central bank Governor Amando Tetangco said.

“The significant strides and reforms we have put in place should support a possible upgrade,” Tetangco said in an e-mail reply to Bloomberg questions on Tuesday. Still, “the credit rating agencies will listen closely to the new administration’s pronouncements on economic programs before making any move.”

Indications that Benigno Aquino is poised for a landslide presidential election victory spurred a rally in stocks and helped the peso advance the most of any Asian currency. Aquino would inherit President Arroyo’s record budget deficit and must concentrate on containing the nation’s debt burden and improving voters’ living standards, according to analyst Prakriti Sofat.

Via BusinessMirror

Comelec stops tally in favor of official count

   

THE Commission on Elections en banc yesterday decided to stop issuing tabulation reports of transmitted results of the national elections.

The Comelec is tasked to canvass votes for senatorial candidates. It convened yesterday as the National Board of Canvassers.

Votes for president and vice president are canvassed by Congress which will convene also as a board of canvassers on May 31.

via Business Insight Malaya.

ALSO READ:

Comelec junks partial proclamation of Senate winners

THE Commission on Elections, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBoC), yesterday ruled out a partial proclamation of winning senatorial candidates.

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said a partial proclamation would be like going back to the manual election system.

In the last update released by the Comelec yesterday morning, the top 12 candidates were Ramon Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Franklin Drilon, Juan Ponce Enrile, Pia Cayetano, Bongbong Marcos, Ralph Recto, Vicente Sotto III, Sergio Osmeña III, Lito Lapid, and Teofisto Guingona (8,493,334).

Via Malaya

Take a bow, Filipino voters

   

On Monday, Filipino voters showed just what they thought of their betters.

For weeks, even months before the voting, legislators, so-called IT experts, business leaders, civil society figures and the candidates themselves were saying that the automated elections would fail.

There were dire warnings of how the basic programs of the computers could be “rigged” to produce the desired results. Talk was rife of how ordinary Filipinos would be so discombobulated by the task of shading the “egg-shaped circles” and feeding a ballot into a PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machine that they would either botch the job or stay away completely.

via INQUIRER.net.

For Estrada, 2010 fight not over yet

   

MANILA, Philippines—Cigarette in one hand, Joseph “Erap” Estrada grinned when the TV screen the size of a billiards table broke the news on Monday night that Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III was leading the presidential race.

Supporters around him in his Polk Street home in San Juan City, including his daughter Jerika Larize, looked uneasy but to the 73-year-old man gazing at the huge screen in front of him, the race was far from over.

Groans rose from those around him in the expansive living room each time numbers were announced that showed Aquino had increased his lead.

via INQUIRER.net.

MEANWHILE:

Believe it or not: Bangit believable

MANILA, Philippines—Look who’s laughing now.

After being hounded by suspicions and accusations that he was part of a plot to bring about a failure of elections, Gen. Delfin Bangit, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Tuesday triumphantly saluted his troops for the successful conduct of the country’s first automated balloting on May 10.

Even Bangit’s rumored bitter rival, Philippine National Police Director General Jesus Verzosa, said the success of the elections was a vindication of sorts for Bangit, who is known to be a favorite of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

On the other hand, Ms Arroyo had reportedly tried to replace Verzosa who had been vocally against supporting any military exercise to back alleged moves to extend the President’s term.

via Inquirer.net

Fast count stuns nation

   

MANILA, Philippines—Shell-shocked.

Winners and losers did not know what hit them as a barrage of election tallies—first a trickle, then a torrent—confronted them with the reality that the poisoned political environment had nothing to do with Monday’s automated elections, officials said Tuesday.

“It was faster than you can say Garci,” said Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Jose Melo, alluding to disgraced former commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, who was accused of colluding with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to rig the 2004 presidential election, a charge she denies.

The first results came from satellite transmissions—the VSATs and BGANs—from mountainous regions in northern Luzon where there were no regular cell phone sites and the voting populations were small.

via INQUIRER.net.

AND: PPCRV update for presidential, VP, senatorial posts

How dark horse Binay surged ahead in VP race*

   

MANILA, Philippines – “Under-the-radar” campaigning and a crucial endorsement by Sen. Francis Escudero a month before the polls helped Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay negate the popularity of vice-presidential frontrunners Mar Roxas and Loren Legarda to sprint ahead in the race, a political strategist said Wednesday night.

Campaign strategist Malou Tiquia, who helped steer Roxas to a successful senatorial campaign in 2007, said Binay and his running mate, former President Joseph Estrada, took advantage of their “underdog” status to wage a low-key campaign that helped strengthen their support base for the May election.

“What afforded them the chance to do the sprint was media wasn’t paying attention. There wasn’t much attention on the two. There were not as many stories about Erap especially the fact that he was convicted of plunder but still allowed to run,” Tiquia said in an ANC interview.

Via ABS-CBN News

ALSO READ:

Senate begins receiving COCs

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate began receiving Certificates of Canvass (COCs) Tuesday evening.

First to arrive at the Senate office in Pasay City was the COC of overseas absentee voting from Laos.

The COC was received by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Philippine Ambassador to Laos Marilyn Alarilla.

via ABS-CBN News Online Beta.

*This is just part of the story. Tiquia is quiet on how Sen. Roxas’ campaign was undermined from within his own party and by his own standard-bearer. All will be revealed in due time. I’m also glad that Tiquia points that Roxas is not the kind of person who would cheat in the elections, as his rival Jojo Binay asserts. We should know who is the cheat and the corrupt one in these elections.

Noynoy prepares to form government

   

MANILA, Philippines – Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy”Aquino III is forming a search committee to study the background of everyone applying to serve under his administration.

Aquino said Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, social welfare secretary under the Arroyo administration, has agreed to return to the same Cabinet position.

Aquino said Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard-bearer Gilbert Teodoro Jr., who has conceded defeat, can also join his Cabinet as defense secretary, although questions of nepotism could crop up. Teodoro has said he is not interested in a government position.

via Philippine Star.

ALSO READ:

‘President-apparent’ hopes for peaceful transfer of power

MANILA, Philippines – After historic elections that saw 40 million Filipinos casting their votes in the country’s first-ever automated polls, president-apparent and Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is hoping for a peaceful and orderly transfer of power – something he says his late mother Corazon did not enjoy.

Aquino is leading the nine-cornered race with 40.19 percent of votes tabulated, with closest rival former President Joseph Estrada getting 25.46 percent of the votes. Four of Aquino’s rivals have conceded the presidency to him. Aquino, however, refused to describe how victory felt as of yesterday afternoon, saying, “I still will await the completion of the process.”

Asked what he can promise the country’s poor, who constitute the majority of Filipinos, the man poised to be the country’s 15th president said simply, “Opportunity.”

Via Phil. Star

AND: GMA wins, vows smooth transition