Loren overtakes Kiko in Comelec OAV canvass

Eight senatorial candidates from the Genuine Opposition, three from the administration’s Team Unity and one Independent made it to the “Magic 12" in the latest Commission on Elections (Comelec) tally of votes from 46 countries across the globe. GO’s Loren Legarda, garnering 26, 403 overseas absentee votes, dislodged re-electionist Senator Francis Pangilinan, an independent contender, from the No. 1 slot. Pangilinan, husband of “megastar" Sharon Cuneta, topped the previous day’s tally from 15 absentee voting COCs. In the latest partial, official tabulation of the Comelec, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, Pangilinan placed second with 25, 203 votes. The overseas absentee votes tallied on Thursday came from COCs from Switzerland, New Zealand, Cook Island, Fiji, Australia, Vietnam, Belgium, Indonesia, Mexico, Iran, China, Romania, Bulgaria, France, Portugal, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Ankara, Spain, Morocco, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Libya, Lebanon and Nigeria, with Hong Kong giving the biggest number of votes of close to 20, 000. No vote was cast in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Monaco, Mali, Algeria, Chad, Malta, Mauritania, Tunisia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo and Senegal. Manuel Villar Jr., also of GO, ranked third with 21, 183 votes, followed by Team Unity’s Ralph Recto, husband of popular actress Vilma Santos, with 19, 402 votes. Occupying the fifth slot was GO’s Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III with 19, 088, followed by fellow GO candidate Aquilino “Koko" Pimentel III with 16, 535; TU’s Edgardo Angara with 16, 132; GO’s Panfilo Lacson on the eighth with 16, 126; Alan Peter Cayetano, also of GO, with 16, 076; Francis “Chiz" Escudero of GO on the 10th with 15, 641; Sonia Roco of GO with 12, 744; and TU’s Joker Arroyo rounding up the Top 12 with 12, 442 votes. On the 13th and 14th place are TU candidates Michael Defensor and Vicente “Tito" Sotto III with 11, 344 and 10, 771 votes, respectively. John Henry Osmena and Anna Dominique (Nikki) Coseteng of GO occupied the 15th and 16th slots with 10, 219 and 10, 174 votes, respectively. The overall ranking for the first five was exactly the same as the ranking of the OAV votes from Hong Kong. Cayetano ranked sixth in Hong Kong, followed by Pimentel, Lacson, Angara, Escudero, Roco, and Defensor, while Coseteng, Osmena, Arroyo and Juan Miguel Zubiri of TU were tailing behind on the 13th to 16th place. Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos said Thursday the poll body expects to be flooded with local certificates of canvass by Friday as he advised commissioners and other parties in the canvassing to be prepared and to stay until midnight. The National Board of Canvassers composed of Comelec commissioners adjourned at 7:15 p.m. after tallying the COC from Mandaluyong, Biliran and Batanes. On the first day of canvassing Wednesday, the Comelec tallied votes from 14 countries, mostly in Europe and the Asia Pacific, and Palau, a US island territory in the Pacific. Based on the Comelec tally of votes in the first two days of canvassing, here’s the rest of the senatorial candidates’ ranking and the votes cast for them: 17. Gregorio Honasan (Ind) – 8, 915 18. Juan Miguel Zubiri (TU) – 8, 799 19. Vicente Magsaysay (TU) – 8, 627 20. Cesar Montano (TU) – 7, 127 21. Antonio Trillanes IV (GO) – 6, 912 22. Luis “Chavit" Singson (TU) – 6, 015 23. Richard Gomez (Ind) – 5, 397 24. Prospero Pichay Jr. (TU) – 5, 286 25. Tessie Aquino-Oreta (TU) – 5, 129 26. Joselito “Pepito" Cayetano (KBL) – 3, 378 27. Melchor Chavez (KBL) – 2, 742 28. Martin Bautista (Ang Kapatiran) – 2, 009 29. Victor Wood (KBL) – 1, 913 30. Zosimo Jesus Paredes (Ang Kapatiran) – 1, 739 31. Adrian Sison (Ang Kapatiran) – 1, 523 32. Jamalul Kiram (TU) – 1, 318 33. Oliver Lozano (KBL) – 1, 221 34. Antonio Estrella (KBL) – 1, 083 35. Felix Cantal (PGRP) – 542 36. Eduardo Orpilla (KBL) – 516 37. Ruben Enciso (KBL) – 462 GMANews.TV computed the total OAV votes tabulated so far by deducting the votes coming from the provinces of Biliran and Batanes and the city of Mandaluyong in Metro Manila from the Comelec’s running total tally of votes as of 7:30 p.m. Thursday. The latest Comelec count covered 30, 332 votes, representing a turnout of 20.63 percent out of 147, 054 registered voters in close to 70 countries across the world. The CoCs from vote-rich countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in the United States, have not been tabulated. More than 70,000 overseas absentee voters, or 15 percent of the 504, 122 registered voters in 156 countries participated in this year’s Philippine mid-term senatorial and party-list elections. The turnout was way below the previous election’s participation rate of 65 percent, or 233, 092 of the 359, 297 registered voters for the first overseas absentee balloting since the system was adopted by law in 2003. - GMANews.TV