Canvass over; it's Noynoy, Binay

MANILA, Philippines - The joint Senate-House canvassing committee finally finished its tally of votes for president and vice president yesterday, with Sen. Benigno Aquino III and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay emerging as winners.

The two chambers will proclaim Aquino and Binay as president-elect and vice president-elect, respectively, in joint session ceremonies at the Batasan complex starting at 2 p.m. today.

Sought for comment, Aquino said he would not be making one until after his proclamation.

Speaker Prospero Nograles said he was confident quorum would not be a problem and that his House colleagues or most of them would show up for the “historic occasion.” 

He said he did not expect anyone to raise a howl if a problem on quorum emerges.

On the part of the Senate, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said there would be enough senators who would show up in the joint session.

The canvassing committee took eight days to complete its canvass, with the votes from Lanao del Sur the last to be tabulated.

The inclusion of Lanao del Sur in the tally increased Aquino’s lead over his closest opponent, former President Joseph Estrada, to 5.7 million.

The final results showed Aquino had 15,208,678 against Estrada’s 9,487,837.

Similarly, Binay increased his margin over Sen. Mar Roxas to more than 700,000. He had 14,645,574 against his closest rival’s 13,918,490.

Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. got 5,573,835 votes; Gilberto Teodoro Jr., 4,095,839; Bro. Eddie Villanueva, 1,125,878; Sen. Richard Gordon, 501,727; Vetellano Acosta, 181,985; Nicanor Perlas, 54,575; Sen. Jamby Madrigal, 46,489; and JC de los Reyes, 44,244.

Sen. Loren Legarda is in third place in the vice presidential race with 4,294,664, followed by Bayani Fernando, 1,017,631; Edu Manzano, 807,728; Perfecto Yasay Jr., 364,652; Jay Sonza, 64,230; and Dominador Chipeco, 52,562.

No more ‘perorations’

After terminating the canvass, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile ordered the panel’s secretariat to prepare the joint committee’s report for submission in this afternoon’s joint session of Congress.

He said the report would be accompanied by a resolution of proclamation.

Both the report and the resolution would be approved through a voice vote, he said.

After Aquino’s and Binay’s proclamations, senators and congressmen would be allowed to explain their votes, he said.

“Otherwise, we will go through the night with perorations. We don’t want to proclaim at dawn (on Thursday),” he added.

He was apparently referring to the proclamation of President Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro that took place at about 2 a.m. on June 24, 2004 after a tumultuous 13-day canvass.

Enrile and his joint committee co chairman, Nograles, thanked the public for closely monitoring the canvass proceedings through live national television and radio broadcasts.

Zubiri said he and Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. would sponsor the joint committee report for the Senate.

For the House, the sponsors would be Majority Leader Arthur Defensor and Senior Deputy Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, he said.

He said that after their sponsorship speeches, members would be allowed to ask questions about the report.

He added that he expected allies of Roxas to rake up the issues his lawyers had raised during the canvass.

“We hope to make the proclamation at about 5 p.m. or 6 p.m.,” he said.

Before adjourning the canvass proceedings, Enrile and Nograles allowed the candidates’ lawyers to put into the record their last remarks.

Roxas’ lawyers said they had advised their client to file an election protest against Binay.

George Garcia, Estrada’s representative, informed the committee that the deposed president’s senator-son Jinggoy would read a message from his father in today’s joint session.

“It will be a message that will call for national unity after a divisive election,” he said.

Estrada’s camp had vowed to prove alleged massive fraud that Garcia claimed had benefited Aquino. It failed to do so.

Villanueva’s representative said they would elevate to the Supreme Court the issues that they had brought to the joint committee’s attention.

On the other hand, Legarda’s lawyer said her client wanted to extend her congratulations to Aquino and Binay.

No word yet

Aquino opted to keep his silence for a moment but went on with preparations for his proclamation.

He had a haircut from Pin Antonio of Salon de Manila, while his celebrity sister Kris Yap came to fix his wardrobe together with designer JC Buendia who designed his two barong.

His visitors included Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and businessman Antonio Gonzales, who was tourism secretary during the administration of his late mother.

Aquino achieved his historic victory on a promise to tackle the corruption and poverty that have plagued the country for decades and, he said, thrived under Mrs. Arroyo’s rule.

His critics sought to portray him as an uncharismatic leader who has accomplished little in his political career, and he admitted to not having presidential ambitions until his mother died. But her death unleashed a massive outpouring of support for the family, a defining moment that he said convinced him to run for the presidency.

Same aspiration

Binay, for his part, said he and Aquino share the same aspiration of improving the lives of Filipinos.

Binay, who had served as Makati mayor for more than two decades, said he is ready to contribute his experience as mayor of the country’s premier financial and business district.

“I look forward to working with our next President. I believe both President-elect Noynoy and I share the same aspiration of improving the lives of our people,” he said.

“I am ready to contribute my experience and expertise in achieving this aspiration within our term,” Binay said.

Binay, running mate of Estrada under the banner of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, said he is glad that Congress has concluded the canvass of votes.

“I would like to sincerely thank my fellow Filipinos who gave their wholehearted support. Rest assured that I will do my best to reciprocate your trust,” he said.

“I would like to thank my family who gave me the moral courage to pursue my fight, my friends, campaign staff, my brothers and sisters from Alpha Phi Omega, mayors and local officials and the thousands of volunteers who were with me for the past three months. Likewise, my warm thanks to my friend and kumpare Sen. Chiz Escudero for his guidance and help,” Binay said.

“I would also like to pay tribute to three individuals who have inspired me to serve our people - former President Cory Aquino, Fernando Poe Jr. and former President Erap Estrada. Thank you,” Binay said.

GMA’s call

President Arroyo, meanwhile, called on Filipinos to support Aquino, one of her staunchest critics.

“We call on our people to give our support, not just with the new President but with the entire leadership of the new administration,” deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar told a news briefing.

He said Mrs. Arroyo was likely to call up Aquino either from Shanghai, China or upon her return to congratulate him.

Mrs. Arroyo left yesterday for China to attend the Shanghai World Expo and is expected to return to Manila tonight.

“We have a paid ad,” Mrs. Arroyo said when asked by reporters what would be her message to Aquino after she emerged from a brief meeting with former US Vice President Al Gore at the SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

When asked to elaborate on the President’s comment, Olivar said he expected “more direct and personal communication” between her and Aquino.

The ad is expected to come out today.

“We look forward to the proclamation of the new President and Vice President of our country,” he said.

“It will be certainly be high mark of the electoral process that happens regularly in the country and this year, an additional testimonial to the outgoing President, the automation of the elections, one of her commitments to the people,” he said.

“We hope that our stability and economic growth would continue under the new leadership that we have chosen,” he added.

Mrs. Arroyo led a Cabinet meeting yesterday at the Palace during which a transition plan was discussed.

She earlier formed the Presidential Transition Coordination Team to help facilitate the peaceful turnover of government.

“We must now turn our sights to preparing for a new President, a new Congress, and a new set of local government officials. To ensure a smooth transition to a new government, I am putting our government at the disposal of the incoming leadership,” Mrs. Arroyo said in a speech a day after the May 10 elections.

“Our goal is to support a process that will help the next President hit the ground running as soon as they take office. They will be assuming tremendous responsibility. We all need to do what we can to support them,” she said.

Protests

As Congress prepares to proclaim the country’s new president and vice president, Villanueva’s Bangon Pilipinas is for a review of the ballots to determine if massive poll fraud had indeed taken place.

“It is time to recognize that (Aquino) is the presumptive President-elect and thus, we implore him to commit the office of the presidency to help find the truth and get to the bottom of what really happened in the May 10, 2010 elections,” said Bangon Pilipinas secretary-general Ted Pascua.

He said that if evidence of widespread fraud is uncovered, Aquino should “bring the responsible persons to task for trampling upon the people’s sacred democratic right to vote and choose through honest elections, their leaders.”

“If we cannot find what went wrong and hold people responsible for allowing the people’s right to suffrage to be trampled upon, then there is no more reason to call any election again in the future,” he added. With Paolo Romero, Jose Rodel Clapano, Evelyn Macairan