Thursday, May 19, 2016

Comelec proclaims 12 winning senators

5 new faces, 4 'returnees,' 3 incumbents proclaimed senators

Five new faces have earned their seats in Senate in this year's elections, along with four former senators headed for few terms, and three reelectionists.

Topping this year's senatorial race is Senate President Franklin Drilon, vice chairman of the Liberal Party, with 18,607,391 votes.

At a close second with 18,459,222 votes is former TESDA director Joel Villanueva, a first-time senatorial candidate, adopted by the administration party.

Sen. Vicente Sotto III of the Nationalist People's Coalition stands at third place with 17,200,371 votes, followed by two independent candidates, former Sens. Panfilo Lacson (16,926,152 votes) and Richard Gordon (16,719,322 votes).

Rounding up the Top 12 are:
6th: former Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri (Independent) — 16,119,165 votes;
7th: Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao (United Nationalist Alliance) — 16,050,546 votes;
8th: former Sen. Francis Pangilinan (LP) — 15,955,949 votes;
9th: former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros (Akbayan, adopted by LP) — 15,915,213 votes;
10th: Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian (NPC) — 14,953,768 votes;
11th: Senate President Pro-tempore Ralph Recto (LP) — 14,271,868 votes; and
12th: former Justice Sec. Leila de Lima (LP) — 14,144,070 votes.

The results are based on a total of 166 certificates of canvass transmitted from all over the country, as well as those manually prepared, including detainee and local absentee voting.

This accounts for a total of 44,979,151 votes, an 81-percent turnout for this elections. Unlike in previous polls, the Commission on Elections en banc, which sat as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), decided to hold this year's proclamation in one occasion, which comes after nine days of canvassing.

Two of the winning senators were not present during the proclamation: Sotto and Lacson.

It was not immediately clear why the two senators-elect skipped the program organized by the Commission on Elections, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers.

Veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal received the certificate of proclamation on behalf of Sotto while former Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. took the certificate for Lacson.


The proclamation pushed through despite opposition from former MMDA chairperson Francis Tolentino, an independent candidate who finished 13th based on the official count, Tolentino asked the Supreme Court to stop the proclamation of candidates ranking 10th, 11th, and 12th in this race.

Tolentino is in 13th place based on partial-official tally, where he raked in 12,811,098 votes, more than 1.3 million votes behind De Lima.

He said the 10th, 11th and 12th placer in the senatorial race should not yet be proclaimed because an alleged "data manipulation" has compromised the results of the results of the May 9 elections.

Tolentino asked the Supreme Court to direct the Comelec to open the automated election system to forensic audit and investigation to determine the nature, extent, effect, and consequences of the unauthorized manipulation of the system made by Marlon Garcia of Smartmatic, systems provider for the recently concluded polls.

Sought for comment, Bautista said, "Susundin namin ang magiging direktiba [ng Korte Suprema]."

As of this report, the high tribunal has not issued a temporary restraining order to stop Thursday's event.

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