Comelec to proclaim 12 senatorial winners today

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will proclaim today (Thursday) the winners in the senatorial and party-list races, 11 days after the May 9 balloting.

Concluding the canvassing of 165 certificates, Comelec Chair Andres Bautista on Wednesday said the proclamation of the winning senators will be at 3 p.m. today and the party-list groups at 6 p.m. at the Philippine International Convention Center.

The last to be canvassed were certificates of canvass (COCs) from Lanao del Sur, Northern Samar and detainee voting.

The latest canvass showed Senate President Franklin Drilon with 18,307,801 votes at first place and Joel Villanueva with 18,212,639 votes at second place.

Third place went to Vicente Sotto III, 16,985226; fourth to Panfilo Lacson, 16,687,586; fifth place to Richard Gordon, 16,444,672; and sixth place to Miguel Zubiri, 15,788,531.

Manny Pacquiao came in seventh with 15,735,079; Risa Hontiveros was 8th with 15,673,393; Francis Pangilinan was in ninth place with 15,665,050; and Sherwin Gatchalian, 10th with 14,726,503.

The 11th and 12th slot went to Ralph Recto with 14,030,498; and Leila De Lima with 13,894,048.

The National Board of Canvassers resolved on Wednesday issues on the double transmission of COCs in the provinces of Ilocos Sur, Nueva Ecija, Laguna and Bohol due to the inclusion of preelection logical accuracy test results in some towns. The election supervisors of these provinces personally appeared to the Board to clear up the matter.

Some protests, however, remained and were brought to the Supreme Court. Former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair and senatorial candidate Francis Tolentino on Wednesday asked the high court to stop the Comelec from proclaiming the last three winning senators today, claiming irregularities in the vote count.

Tolentino, 13th placer in the count, accused the poll body of allowing a foreign national access of the Automated Election System and introducing unauthorized changes via a new script and hash code. He asked the Court to command Comelec to open the system to a forensic audit and investigation.

Meanwhile, Election Commissioner Rowena Guanzon  had words of advice for the senators. She told the public to watch out for the new faces in the Senate, whom she also advised to “stay the course as public servants of the country.”

“I advise them to study very hard and work very hard for the Filipino people. I do not doubt that they would do an excellent job,” said Guanzon in an interview with reporters.