Leni beats Bongbong in VP race

As she declared in April, the last man standing in the vice presidential race is indeed a woman.

Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo has edged out Senator Ferdinand Marcos in one of the closest elections ever for the vice presidency.

Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, finished the official tally of the votes for president and vice president at past 7 p.m. on Friday.

According to the official tally, Robredo finished with 14,418,817 votes while Marcos had 14,155,344. Robredo led Marcos by only 263,473 votes.

Marcos had a lead of 83,480 votes going into Friday's canvassing but this was immediately wiped out when the votes from Antique and Iloilo City were tallied.

Robredo had a combined lead of more than 170,000 votes in the said areas.

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano placed third with 5,903,379 votes, followed by Senators Francis Escudero (4,931,962), Antonio Trillanes IV (868,501) and Gregorio Honasan II (788,881).

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as expected came up with a huge win in the presidential race with 16,601,997 votes.

His closest rival, former Interior Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas II, got 9,978,175 votes.

They were followed by Senator Grace Poe (9,100,991 votes), Vice President Jejomar Binay (5,416,140), Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago (1,455,532) and the late OFW Family party-list Rep. Roy Señeres (25,779).

Overall, the NBOC processed 166 certificates of canvass representing 42,578,614 votes for president and 41,066,884 votes for vice president.

The canvassing process only took three days, beating the record set in 2010 when Congress finished the tally in eight days (excluding weekends).

Late husband's 58th birthday

The NBOC's termination of the canvassing of votes came on the 58th birthday of Robredo's late husband, former Interior Secretary and longtime Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo.

"Actually, napakalaking bagay dahil tingin ko ang lahat ng nangyari after niya namatay ay parang providential na lahat," Robredo said earlier Friday, when asked about the prospect of the canvass ending on Jesse's birthday and with her on top.

"Hindi ko man inaasahan na as early as his birthday may possibility na matatapos ang bilangan. Pero kung matatapos ngayon parang siniselyuhan ang pakiramdam ko na hindi talaga ako pinapabayaan ng asawa ko," she added.

Both Duterte and Robredo would be proclaimed on Monday, May 30, according to Senate canvassing chairman Aquilino Pimentel III.

"After the canvassing, we prepare the report and the joint session reconvenes and then we sponsor the report. The joint session approves the report. The joint session issues the resolution of proclamation of the winners. That's it," Pimentel said prior to the resumption of the canvass.

Pimentel said attending the proclamation was not mandatory.

‘Last man standing....’

At the end of the vice presidential debate in organized by the Commission on Elections in April, Robredo quoted a forum moderator who said, "The last man standing is a woman."

It was a come from behind victory in more ways than one for Robredo, who languished in the lower rungs of the vice presidential surveys at the start of the 90-day campaign period with single-digit ratings.

During the unofficial and partial tally of the Commission on Elections' transparency server and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, Robredo also trailed in the first hours of transmission of election returns from across the country.

Friday's canvassing of votes showed Marcos leading Robredo by more than 80,000 votes before COCs from Antique and Iloilo City pushed the Bicolano lawmaker to the top.

Election protest

Marcos' election lawyer George Garcia told AFP that his client was considering filing an appeal, alleging 3.9 million votes for Marcos were not reflected in the official count.

"We suspect that these votes were credited to other candidates.... We believe these votes belong to Bongbong Marcos," Garcia added.

Robredo said she was expecting a protest from Marcos.

"Inaasahan naman po natin ito dahil nung nagsimula po tayong mag-lead dun sa quick count ng PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for responsible Voting) pati na po sa Comelec, very vocal naman po sila na maghahain po sila ng election protest," Robredo told GMA News anchor Mike Enriquez.

"Pero ang mahalaga po sakin na nung nangyayari po yung canvassing ng Congress yung sinasabi po nila dati na may mga discrepancies ito sa hawak nilang COCs (Certificate of Canvass) na-disprove po na hindi totoo yung kanilang sinasabi," she added.

Third canvassing day

The third day of the canvassing went smoothly except for the temporary deferment of the counting of votes from Austria, Canada and Northern Samar.

For Austria, no COC was found in the ballot box, but the scanned copy of the COC sent via email by the a member of a special board of canvassers in Viennato the Comelec was accepted by the NBOC as authentic.

The counting of votes from Canada was suspended by the board on Thursday due to the absence of the physically delivered COC.

But on Friday, Comelec Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) director Maria Juana Valeza said a scanned copy of the COC was sent via email by the Philippine Embassy of Ottawa.

A discrepancy between the electronically transmitted and the physically delivered versions was observed by the board in the COC copies from Northern Samar.

The chairman of the provincial board of canvasser (PBOC) was summoned to explain the discrepancy but failed to appear.

At past 7 p.m. the NBOC decided to count the votes from the province based on the physical copy of the COC which had the handwritten notation of the number of for Barangay San Francisco in Lope De Vega town which had a special election on May 16.

House canvassing panel member Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barazaga explained that it was  noted on the physical copy of the COC that the vote result for Barangay San Francisco was not included  in the electronically delivered COC, hence the discrepancy.

The COC from Northern Samar was the last canvassed by the board.

Following the announcement of vote results from the province, loud cheers and applause were heard in the session hall.

‘Missing’ COC found

The COC from Iloilo City, which canvassers said was missing, was finally located on Friday and canvassed by the board.

Robredo garnered overwhelming votes for the vice presidential post in the said COC.

The NBOC on Thursday suspended the counting of votes from Iloilo City, a known bailiwick of Robredo's Liberal Party, after no COC was supposedly found inside the two ballot boxes for the area.

Pimentel on Thurday said that the COC was "missing" and only the election returns (ERs) were found inside the ballot boxes.

However, on Friday's canvassing, City Board of Canvassers chairman Jomar Alyzar Betita found in one of the two ballot boxes the missing brown envelope containing the COC.

This made the lawmakers who examined the ballot boxes on Thursday laughed at their mistake. 

Robredo garnered 137,662 votes from Iloilo City as against Marcos who only garnered 33,778 votes.

The canvassing of votes from Iloilo City proved to be the turning point in the vice presidential race as it was after that that Robredo took over the lead from Marcos.

Votes from Zamboanga del Norte, Maguindanao and Northern Samar also helped Robredo to hold on to the lead. —with a report from Agence France-Presse and John Ted Cordero/NB, GMA News