Drilon leads Senate race in Comelec partial, official count

Senate President Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

SENATE President and Liberal Party (LP) candidate Franklin Drilon has grabbed the front-runner post in the senatorial races, according to the partial and official count by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) sitting as the National Board of Canvassers for senators and party-list groups.

According to the second national canvass report with 121 certificates of canvass admitted Monday, Drilon got 18,307,801 votes. Former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) chief Joel T. Villanueva placed second with 18,212,639 votes.

Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III landed in third with 16,985,226 votes. Fourth place was copped by former senator Panfilo Lacson with 16,687586 votes while former senator Richard Gordon placed fifth with 16,444,672 votes.

Following them are: former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri (15,788,531), Sarangani Representative and boxer Manny Pacquiao (15,735,079), former PhilHealth director Risa Hontiveros (15,673,393), former Agriculture Modernization czar Francis Pangilinan (15,665,050) and Valenzuela City Representative Sherwin Gatchalian (14,726,503).

Making up the “magic circle of 12” are reelectionist Senator Ralph Recto in 11^th place with 14,030,498 votes and former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima in 12^th place with 13,894,048 votes.

Meanwhile, according to the canvass report, the top 10 party-list groupst which have gained the highest number of votes are: Ako-Bicol (1,658,063), Gabriela (1,354,180), 1-Pacman (1,297,157), Act-teachers (1,157,825), Senior Citizens (976,132), Kabayan (822,130), Agri (816,364), PBA (769,147), Buhay (754,876), and Abono (729, 897).

The canvass report noted that there are a total of 54,449,802 reported registered voters while only 43,895,329 voters actually voted.

Comelec chair Andres Bautista on Monday said that the proclamation of the winning senators and party-list groups would happen “within the week.” AC/rga

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