Revilla slightly widens lead over Ejercito in battle for last Senate seat

Senatorial candidate Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. INQUIRER.NET PHOTO/CATHY MIRANDA

MANILA, Philippines — Former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla has slightly widened his lead over reelectionist Senator JV Ejercito, who sits just outside the Magic 12.

According to the latest partial and unofficial tally from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) transparency server posted at 3:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Revilla now has 13,823,794 votes while Ejercito has 13,614,131, or a difference of 209,663.

Earlier, the difference between Revilla and Ejercito was 188,286 votes.

These represent votes coming from 81,062 out of the 87,851 polling precincts or 92.27 percent of vote counting machines (VCM) transmittals. Voter turnout as of now is slated at 70 percent, or 44,541,468 out of 63,662,481 voters.

Earlier, it was reported that the last three Senate seats were still up for grabs, largely because of the slim margin among Senator Koko Pimentel, Senator Nancy Binay, Revilla, and Ejercito.

Pimentel, previously ranked 11th, has overtaken Binay for the 10th spot, now leading by 6,808 votes. Binay, on the other hand, has a 36,353 vote lead over Revilla.

READ: PPCRV tally shows tight race for last 3 Senate seats 

These figures released by PPCRV were the third update, after several hours of being stuck at 0.40 percent of all polling precincts. This was due to a glitch in the Commission on Election (Comelec) transmittal to the transparency server.

Comelec, however, clarified that the glitch only affected the transparency server and PPCRV’s media partners, and not the actual transmittal of votes.

READ: Villar leads Senate race – PPCRV partial unofficial results 

READ: Comelec transparency server glitch delays release of partial poll results 

READ: 80% of poll results are in, no issue with transmission – Jimenez