HNP bets still dominate as quick count nears end

MANILA, Philippines — The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV)’s quick count on the senatorial race is nearing its end with candidates of the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) regional party of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio dominating the winning circle.

As of 11:04 a.m. yesterday, the PPCRV had tallied 85,568 clustered precincts from electronically transmitted results, or about 99.7 percent of the 85,769 total local clustered precincts and 97.4 percent of the total 87,851 precincts, including overseas absentee voting (OAV) posts.

In the latest PPCRV tally, nine HNP candidates remained in the top 12.

Reelectionist Sen. Cynthia Villar is still on top with 24,941,807 votes.

Former special assistant to the president Bong Go remained strong in third place with 20,269,311 votes, followed by returning senator Pia Cayetano in fourth with 19,498,577 votes and former Philippine National Police chief Bato dela Rosa in fifth with 18,630,528 votes.

Reelectionist Senators Sonny Angara and Koko Pimentel also made it to the winning circle in sixth and 11th places with 17,925,097 and 14,421,311 votes, respectively.

Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino and returning senator Bong Revilla Jr.  placed eighth, ninth and 10th with 15,633,139, 15,234,503 and 14,427,368 votes, respectively.

Three other candidates from other parties – reelectionist Sen. Grace Poe, returning senator Lito Lapid and reelectionist Sen. Nancy Binay – placed second, seventh and 12th with 21,787,602, 16,768,241, and 14,359,995 votes, respectively.

Another HNP senatorial bet, reelectionist Sen. JV Ejercito, is in close 13th place with 14,128,354 votes.

The eight opposition bets from Otso Diretso were shut out of the winning circle. Reelectionist Sen. Bam Aquino obtained the highest rank among them, in 14th place, with 14,007,815 votes.

With about 2.6 percent votes remaining to be tallied, especially the OAVs, it remained statistically possible for Ejercito and Aquino to enter the top 12 as of yesterday afternoon.

In the party-list race, the ACT-CIS of the Tulfo brothers remained on top of the PPCRV quick count with 2,595,767 votes or 9.47 percent of the votes cast.

Militant group Bayan Muna maintained the second position with 1,103,235 votes or 4.02 percent, followed closely by AKO Bicol in third place with 1,044,892 or 3.81 percent and CIBAC in fourth with 920,036 votes of 3.81 percent.

Rounding up the top 10 in the PPCRV count were Ang Probinsyano in fifth place with 761,386 votes or 2.78 percent, 1Pacman in sixth with 706,333 votes (2.58 percent), Marino in seventh with 666,815 votes (2.43 percent), Probinsyano Ako in eighth with 624,546 votes (2.28 percent), Senior Citizens in ninth with 505,753 votes (1.84 percent) and Magsasaka in 10th place with 488,325 votes (1.78 percent).

Sibling conflict

The conflict between her two younger siblings – Makati City Mayor Abby Binay and Junjun Binay – was one of the factors that brought reelectionist Sen. Nancy Binay to the tail end of the senatorial race.

Binay said the issue in Makati divided her time from campaigning in the senatorial race as she also had to campaign for her brother Junjun, who ran but lost to his elder sister Abby.

“Of course, somehow, our problem in Makati factored in the equation… For one, I had to divide my time in campaigning, and of course, I had to help my brother,” the reelectionist senator told reporters yesterday.

Binay said some voters asked her why she had a quarrel with her sibling when she went around to campaign for her senatorial bid.

She, however, expressed confidence that she has secured her position in 12th place of the tally as she already enjoyed over 200,000 votes more than Ejercito, a fellow reelectionist.

While she consistently placed in the top five in the pre-eleciton surveys, Binay contributed the slide to her lack of political machinery and not being part of the PDP-Laban and HNP. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe