PDP-Laban confident of Duterte victory despite VCM breakdowns

Front-running presidential candidate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is interviewed by the media shortly after voting in a polling precinct at Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School, Matina district, his hometown in Davao city in southern Philippines Monday, May 9, 2016. Duterte was the last to vote among five presidential hopefuls. AP

PDP-Laban is confident that the projected victory of its standard-bearer Rodrigo Duterte won’t be deterred by the high number of malfunctioning vote-counting machines in the 2016 national and local elections.

The rampant machine failures have spurred speculations of potential cheating in various polling precincts, but the political party stayed unfazed.

READ: PDP-Laban ‘extremely disappointed’ with high number of VCM errors

Pimentel even went as far as subtly declaring a Duterte victory just as the partial and unofficial results from the Comelec mirror-server have started to come in.

“But in spite of that (vote-counting machine failures) the PDP-Laban is happy and optimistic about the result so we are reaching out to the other parties we can start collaboration under the new administration,” Pimentel said during a last-minute press briefing Monday at the Duterte-Cayetano headquarters at Linden Suites in Pasig City.

READ: Who’s who in Duterte’s inner circle

“Even if there are violations of the election code and there are alleged malfunctioning we’re still confident that mayor Rodrigo Duterte will win as president,” said PDP-Laban spokesperson Atty. Paola Alvarez. “We are still banking on that because all the exit polls and surveys recently conducted have shown a double-digit lead on his part.”

As of 8:20 p.m., Duterte is leading independent candidate Grace Poe by close to five millions votes with the Davao City mayor already surpassing 10-million mark in the partial-unofficial results from the Comelec mirror server.

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