Comelec to proclaim ‘Magic 12’ senators tomorrow

MANILA, Philippines —  Three days after the May 12 midterm elections, the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) has completed the tally of election results and is set to proclaim the 12 winning senators by Saturday afternoon.

“The NBOC is bent on proceeding with the proclamation of the winning senators this Saturday afternoon,” Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia said.

Garcia said the NBOC is coming out today with a resolution on the proclamation of the winning senators.

Based on the national canvass report, reelectionist Sen. Bong Go topped the senatorial race with a record-high number of votes  at 27,121,073, followed by former senator Bam Aquino with 20,971,899 votes and another re-electionist Sen. Ronald dela Rosa in third spot with 20,773,946 votes.

ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo obtained votes of 17,118,881 and landed in fourth spot, followed by former sen. Kiko Pangilinan in 5th place with 15,343,229 votes while SAGIP  party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta captured the 6th spot with 15,250,723 votes.

Former Sen. Ping Lacson is also returning after landing in 7th spot with votes of 15,106,111 followed in 8th place by another returning sen. Tito Sotto with 14,832,996 votes and re-electionist Sen. Pia Cayateno in 9th place with votes of 14,573,430.

In 10th place is Las Pinas Rep. Camille Villar with  13,651,274 followed by re-electionist Sen. Lito Lapid in 11th spot with votes of  13,394,102 and another re-electionist Sen. Imee Marcos with 13,339,227.

The seven-member NBOC came out with the final national canvass report after completing the canvassing of all the 175 certificates of canvass (COC) from the different parts of the country and overseas.

The NBOC also released the final national canvass report on the percentage obtained by the party-list groups.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the distribution and allocation of the seats for party-list groups will come later.

The top 15 partylist groups are the following:

1  Akbayan - 2,779,621

2. Duterte Youth - 2,338,564

3. Tingog - 1,822,708

4. 4Ps - 1,469,571

5. ACT-CIS - 1,239,930

6. Ako Bicol - 1,073,119

7. USWAG-Ilonggo - 777,754

8. Solid North - 765,322

9. Trabaho - 709,283

10. Cibac - 593,911

11. Malasakit@bayanihan - 580,100

12. Senior Citizen - 577,753

13. PPP - 575,762

14. ML - 547,949

15. FPJ Panday Bayanihan - 538,003

Groups that obtained two percent of the total votes for party-list shall have a guaranteed one out of the 63 reserved seats for party-list.

After the canvassing ended , the NBOC ordered the closing of the  Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS)..

No manual recount for Quiboloy

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) rejected the calls from Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) pastor Apollo Quiboloy and other groups for a manual recounting of all votes in the recently-held National and Local Elections (NLE)/

Aside from being costly, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said a nationwide manual recount of votes is unconstitutional.

“If the Comelec will conduct the recount after the proclamation, then we are usurping the power of the tribunal which are provided under the Constitution,” as he stressed the need to amend the law to allow manual re-count.

However, he said, a manual recount is possible if an election protest is filed by a losing candidate. He said an election protest is the best recourse for a losing candidate since it pertains to all issue from before until after the elections.

He then cited the case of a losing vice-presidential candidate in 2016 who filed a election protest and sought a manual recount covering an initial three provinces. After the three provinces, the case never pushed through because there were no evidence of discrepancy between the automated and manual count.

The poll chief further noted that there is an ongoing Randon Manual Audit (RMA) that could determine if the automated machines counted the votes correctly.

Wait for RMA

Losing candidates in the recently held midterm elections are advised to hold off on filing an electoral protest and instead wait for the results of the ongoing Random Manual Audit (RMA).

Veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said RMA could be the best gauge of a candidate who lost in the recent elections, whether or not to file an election protest before the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Macalintal noted that significant discrepancies between the results of the manual count of the ballots versus the results of electronically transmitted results could be the basis for a losing candidate to ask for a recount in the protest.

“Otherwise, if the results of the RMA do not reveal any significant differences between the manual and electronic count, then it’s just a waste of time or money to file the protest,” Macalintal pointed out.

“Unless of course the margin between the winner and loser is very slim, say about 50-100 votes only,” he added.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia also encouraged the public as well as candidates, to closely observe the ongoing RMA being conducted by the poll body in coordination with election watch groups.

“It is very important because the RMA will confirm whether the machines in the precincts counted votes correctly, even though it will just be randomized because that’s what’s indicated by law,” he said.

Since the manual audit is randomized, the machine installed with a program that has been subjected to source code review selected the precincts to be reviewed.

Garcia said the RMA could also be the response to those who are calling for a manual recount of votes, adding that recounting all votes manually would be difficult and time-consuming.

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting yesterday asked Comelec to explain the reported discrepancies between the total number of voters and ballots cast in several clustered precincts in Dumaguete City and Zamboanga City.

PPCRV national communications director Ana de Villa-Singson said that their coordinators in the two cities “flagged” the discrepancies.

An example is clustered precinct ID 73320344 in Barangay Lamisahan, Zamboanga City, which has 992 registered voters. The reported 768 voters who actually voted did not tally with the 919 valid ballots cast.

Meanwhile in clustered precinct ID 461000052 in Calindangan, Dumaguete City, there were 930 registered voters, however, only 814 people voted which is lower than the alleged 956 cast ballots.

The number of voters who actually voted should be equal to the ballots cast.

Singson said that when they asked for an explanation from the Comelec, they were only told that these were “mislabeled.” When the PPCRV checked the Comelec website yesterday, the questioned numbers had been changed and already matched.

“We expect an explanation will be forthcoming because Comelec, whenever we raise an issue, they come with a response. We hope to get one soon,” Singson said.

“Apparently, the data pointed for that particular cell was not the data supposedly for that cell. We just want to understand a little bit more about that mislabeling. We are doing this so there would be no cloud of doubt on our election. It would be such a waste, (because) we worked so hard on this (and) we want to make sure that everything is explained,” she added.

In a related development, the PPCRV said that as of 10 a.m. yesterday, the number of voter turnout slightly increased from 80.27 percent as of May 14 to 80.39 percent because they received more electronic election returns (ERs).

Yesterday’s data showed that during the midterm elections on Monday, 56,093,665 out of the 69,773,653 registered voters in the country went to the polls.

Region 1 (Ilocos) had the highest number of voter turnout, with 86.89 percent, followed by Region 7 (Central Visayas) with 85.46 percent and Region 6 (Western Visayas) with 85.09 percent.

Singson said they were still waiting for some ER transmissions from the overseas absentee voting.

They would also check on the National Capital Region as to why their data is showing that there was only a 78.98 percent voter turnout.

“We will check but it could also mean that it is under investigation because sometimes it is being investigated by the Comelec. Sometimes it’s a transmission issue or maybe a ballot was fed twice into the ACM,” she said.

Meanwhile, the PPCRV has already shut down its electronic transmission of ERs operations after receiving the last data from Comelec.

PPCRV executive director Jude Liao said that at 2:41 p.m. yesterday, they received the last file from the Comelec’s Data Center 3 (DC3) located in Ayala Circuit, Makati City, which housed the transparency servers for all the approved groups.

Its unofficial total transmitted ERs received was pegged at 92,808 or 99.12 percent.

They would now begin with the closing procedures including the documentation and paper work at DC3.

Also, the election watchdog will slow down its operations beginning today, and will only be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Despite this, auditing of the physical copies of the ERs against the transmitted ones will continue until June 12.

“We are no longer monitoring the count 24/7,” Singson said.

According to the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, the recent polls could have showcased the highly satisfactory performance of the automated counting machines (ACMs), if not for the slow transmission of ER results to the transparency servers of election watchdogs.

Lito Averia, NAMFREL national chairperson, noted that the reported complaints regarding the kinks in the operation of the ACMs during the actual voting were eventually addressed by troubleshooting at the polling precincts, but the slow transmission of the results to the watchdogs was an issue that could cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral exercise.

“In other words, these (problems with some of the ACMs in the polling precincts) were birth pains. Everything is new. We have a new supplier. We have new machines,” Averia said in a mix of English and Filipino at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum on Wednesday.

“It doesn’t compare to the problem over the (slow) transmission… because the issue on the transmission involves the election results, which if we do not deliver to the public promptly could easily raise serious questions, (and) many will likely resort to speculations on cheating,” he added.

Averia referred to the experience of NAMFREL and other election watchdogs like the PPCRV where the election results from the canvassed ERs that were transmitted to their transparency server registered blank sheets, while the transmission to the Comelec server received the election result numbers.

Overall, Averia said that they found the conduct of the May 12 polls to be an improvement from previous elections.

The NAMFREL chair noted that technical problems over the ACMs were fewer compared to the 2022 national and local elections.

Proof of this was that Comelec only had to deploy over 300 contingency machines despite preparing 17,000 units, Averia said.

‘No irregularities’

The Department of Information and Communications Technology found no irregular slow transmission of election results following its technical review.

DICT Secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda said that data from the ACMs were promptly being transmitted after the close of the polling precincts at 7 p.m. on Monday.

“There is no slow transmission,” Aguda told The STAR in a Viber chat interview.

“As of 8:45 p.m. on May 12, 2025, the transmission rate of election results on the Comelec Election Results Website stands at 76.37 percent, according to initial findings of the DICT Cybersecurity Bureau’s technical review,” he added.

“By comparison, the transmission rate during the May 9, 2022 elections was 61.45 percent as of 8:59 p.m. that same day,” Aguda noted.

Aguda said that the DICT Cybersecurity Bureau will release its full technical review report today. –   Rainier Allan Ronda