Duterte, Marcos in early lead

MANILA, Philippines - Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte appeared headed for a decisive victory in the presidential race while Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. took an early lead as the vote count got underway last night.

Sen. Grace Poe placed a far second, based on the partial and unofficial tally conducted by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), with administration bet Manuel Roxas II following closely. Vice President Jejomar Binay placed fourth while Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago was a far fifth.

In the race for vice president, Roxas’ Liberal Party (LP) runningmate Leni Robredo was running a close second to Marcos, garnering 5,850,998 votes against the frontrunner’s 6,536,505. Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano was running third with 2,460,587 votes followed by Sen. Francis Escudero with 2,081,343, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV with 346,953 and Sen. Gregorio Honasan with 301,384.

As of 7 p.m., 40 percent of the election results had been transmitted to the National Canvassing Center. The official canvass starts at 11 a.m. today.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the 12 winners in the Senate race are expected to be proclaimed “within 72 hours.”

In the first hour of the unofficial vote count, Duterte took a commanding lead of three million over Poe, garnering 7,034,664 votes against his rival’s 4,012,417. Roxas had 3,847,989, Binay 2,373,262 and Santiago 744,707. Former ambassador Roy Señeres, who died before the start of the campaign but whose name could no longer be deleted from the ballot, garnered 9,933 votes.

As Duterte’s lead widened by nearly five million, the mayor thanked those who voted for him but also thanked those who did not, stressing that what was important was to have their voices heard.

“I am a great believer in destiny,” Duterte told GMA 7 News when asked for a message to the nation. “If I win, you have my guarantee that I will work for the people.”

He added , “What is important is that the votes are counted correctly.”

The same point was raised by Marcos, even as he said, “It’s not over till it’s over.”

“Of course I’m happy and it’s good to see that we are leading in the count, but it’s still too early to make judgments,” Marcos said. “We’ll keep waiting and watching. We will continue to monitor the votes.”

The PPCRV is conducting the unofficial quick count together with the Kapisanan ng mg Brodkaster ng Pilipinas.

As of 7 p.m., the count covered 40.82 percent of the 92,509 clustered precincts nationwide.

“We are almost halfway with the transmission and hopefully we would be able to outdo our performance in the 2013 elections,” Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said at 7 p.m. yesterday. “I did not expect it to be this fast.”

In 2013, the Comelec was able to proclaim six of the winning Senate candidates three days after election day.

Roxas’ camp admitted that the early results were “a bit discouraging,” but stressed that the fight was not yet over.

“The boxing is not yet finished,” Koalisyon ng Daang Matuwid spokesman and Akbayan Rep. Ibarra Gutierrez told a press briefing at the LP headquarters in Quezon City last night. “There’s still time to make up for the ground that we have to cover. For the vice presidential race, obviously the number is much closer so we’ll continue monitoring and we remain optimistic.”

Binay’s camp also preferred to wait for official results.

“Let’s wait. We’re really optimistic that by tomorrow, things will be clearer and results will be believable,” Binay’s campaign spokesman Rico Quicho said at a press conference.

Quicho said based on their monitoring, the votes from Binay’s bailiwicks had not yet been transmitted to the Comelec.

“We’re still waiting for areas where we have strong base support. Based on our calculations, once these get in, we’ll have a better position,” Quicho said. “Tomorrow we will fight again.” – With Mayen Jaymalin, Alexis Romero, Jose Rodel Clapano, Helen Flores