Duterte allies dominate early Senate count

QUICK COUNT The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting has set up its command center at Pope Pius Compound in Manila,where volunteers will be working in shifts in the next few days to conduct an unofficial count of the vote in the senatorial race parallel to that of the Commission on Elections. —LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte’s legislative agenda appeared to face less opposition as initial and unofficial results of Monday’s midterm elections showed nine of his allies poised to win seats in the Senate.

Based on the 6:05 p.m. results from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting’s (PPCRV) transparency server, Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) candidate Cynthia Villar, a reelectionist, was at the head of the pack.

The initial results covered 330 out of the 85,769 clustered precincts nationwide.

In second place was another reelectionist, Sen. Grace Poe, followed by another Hugpong candidate, former presidential aide Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go.

Also winning

Rounding up the winning circle were Taguig Rep. Pia Cayetano, former Bureau of Corrections chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, reelectionist Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, former Sen. Lito Lapid, former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chief Francis Tolentino, reelectionist Sen. Nancy Binay, former Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and reelectionist Sen. JV Ejercito.

Except Poe, Lapid and Binay, all are HNP candidates.

The initial results somehow reflected the last preelection survey released by Pulse Asia on Saturday.

Only reelectionist Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, who ranked well in the poll, failed to make it to the ranks of early winners.

In danger of losing

Pimentel was at 14th place on Monday night.

The former Senate President was reportedly dropped from the HNP’s sample ballots given to voters on election day.

Another reelectionist, Sen. Bam Aquino, is also in danger of not making it back to the Senate as he is currently in 13th place.

Aquino is the lone opposition candidate who had a statistical chance of winning, based on the Pulse Asia survey.

With more proadministration candidates poised to take the Senate, the President’s legislative agenda such as federalism and the revival of the death penalty may face less resistance.

Starting on Tuesday, the PPCRV focus will be on validating the election returns to ensure that these match the electronic results sent in to the servers, the group’s chair, Myla Villanueva, said.

“This is our main work: to make sure that there is no padding of votes,” Villanueva said.

She noted that in the 2016 election, the PPCRV’s validation of more than 77,000 election results showed a 99.3-percent match rate.

“You can be assured that there’s no padding of votes on a massive scale. We hope that it’s the same for these elections,” she said.

This time, the PPCRV has 300,000 volunteers to help ensure the smooth conduct of the elections.

In the next three weeks, around 300 volunteers will be working in shifts at Pope Pius Center in Manila to validate election results.