by Jel Santos, Manila Bulletin
As the uncanvassed certificate of canvass (COC) can no longer affect the senatorial race, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), has named the 12 winning senatorial candidates who will be officially proclaimed by the poll body at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) Forum Tent on Wednesday, May 18, at 4 p.m.
In its Canvass Report No. 7 which covered 172 out of 173 COCs, the senatorial bet with the most number of votes was Robin Padilla, garnering a total of 26,612,434 votes.
Padilla was followed by Loren Legarda with 24,264,969 votes and third in rank was Raffy Tulfo who got 23,396,954 votes.
The other senatorial candidates who won were Win Garchalian (20,602,655 votes); Chiz Escudero (20,271,458 votes); Mark Villar (19,475,592 votes); Allan Peter Cayetano (19,295,314 votes) ; Migz Zubiri (18,734,336 votes) ;Joel Villanueva (18,486,034 votes) ; JV Ejercito (15,841,858 votes) ; and Risa Hontiveros (15,420,807 votes).
The last spot was won by Jinggoy Estrada who garnered 15,108,625 votes.
As the number of the remaining untransmitted votes from Lanao del Sur and Shanghai, China will no longer affect the 12 winning senatorial candidates, the poll body’s supervisory group has recommended to the Comelec en banc to push through with the official proclamation of the winning bets on May 18.
“Even if we add the 685,643 registered voters of Lanao del Sur and the 1,991 registered Filipino overseas voters from Shanghai with the votes of the 13th ranked candidate 13,263,970 votes, the votes of the 12th ranked candidate 15,108,635 votes will no longer be overcome considering the margin of 1,844,655 votes,” it said, which was approved by the Comelec en banc.
Recently, Comelec Acting Spokesperson John C. Laudiangco said the poll body will proclaim the senators-elect without their rankings yet as they will still wait for the conduct of special elections in several barangays in Lanao del Sur this month.
The poll body said the winning senators will only be allowed to bring five companions.
The Comelec en banc, sitting as the NBOC, is canvassing the votes for senators and party-lists at the Philippine International Convention Center Forum Tent in Pasay City.
It can be recalled that elections in Shanghai, China did not push through due to Covid-19 lockdown. Meanwhile, the Comelec declared failure of elections in 14 barangays in Lanao del Sur, forcing the poll body to order special elections.
