Comelec to proclaim 8 winning Senate bets Saturday

Contrary to a previous statement, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it will be proclaiming at least eight of the 12 winning senatorial candidates on Saturday afternoon.

In a chance interview with reporters Friday, Comelec chairman Jose Melo said the poll body — sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) — hopes to proclaim about eight to 10 of the senatorial winners on Saturday.

On the other hand, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, said that they might probably be able to proclaim just about six to eight.

This is in contradiction to a statement made by the poll body earlier in the day, saying that it will only proclaim the winning candidates once all the certificates of canvass (COCs) are in.

Larrazabal explained that the gap in the senatorial rankings is large enough for the poll body to conduct a partial proclamation. "They (the candidates) already know their standings in the official and unofficial counts, they already have an idea," he told reporters in a chance interview.

But Larrazabal said that for them to proclaim the remaining winning senators, the Comelec should have received all COCs from the provincial board of canvassers nationwide. As of posting time, 18 out of the total number of 274 COCs have yet to arrive.

The 18 cities and provinces which still need to transmit COCs are:

Caloocan City (653,003 voters)
Las Pinas City (331,220 voters)
Apayao (62,350 voters)
Mountain Province (101,983 voters)
Batanes (10,124 voters)
Isabela (867,119 voters)
Nueva Ecija (1,289,804 voters)
Palawan (535,279 voters)
Masbate (437,898 voters)
Iloilo (1,015,574 voters)
Davao del Sur (247,616 voters)
Basilan (230,459 voters)
Lanao del Sur (515,486 voters)
Maguindanao (651,692 voters)
Sulu (315,104 voters)
Misamis Oriental (493,209 voters)
Surigao del Norte (288,653 voters)
Cotabato City (94,342 voters)

(The number indicated beside the provinces are the number of registered voters, not the number of voters who actually voted.)

Fastest proclamation ever

Larrazabal noted that the proclamation for this year's senatorial race is still probably the fastest one in Philippine history. The proclamation is slated just five days after the conduct of the automated polls.

In 2004, it took the Comelec two weeks before it could declare the complete slate of newly elected senators. In 2007, it took them two months to do the same.

According to the latest official tally of the poll body, the candidates most likely to snag a Senate seat are:

# Bong Revilla, Ramon (Lakas-Kampi) - 15,064,835 votes.
# Estrada, Jinggoy (PMP) - 14,598,398 votes
# Defensor-Santiago, Miriam (PRP) – 13,335,800 votes
# Drilon, Franklin (LP) – 12,375,507 votes
# Enrile, Juan Ponce (PMP) – 12,187,170 votes
# Cayetano, Pilar Juliana (NP) – 10,631,671 votes
# Marcos, Ferdinand Jr. (NP) – 10,050,605 votes
# Recto, Ralph (LP) – 9,814,356 votes
# Osmena, Sergio III (Independent) – 9,361,068 votes
# Sotto, Vicente III (NPC) – 9,225,733 votes
# Lapid, Manuel (Lakas-Kampi) – 8,576,686 votes
# Guingona, Teofisto III (LP) – 8,222,670 votes

Party-list

On the other hand, the Comelec said it will not proclaim any winners for the party-list race just yet. "We have to wait for everything to come in... because you need to get all the votes for the party-list to enable you to do the computation," said Larrazabal.

According to the Party-list System Act (Republic Act 7941), “the parties, organizations, and coalitions shall be ranked from the highest to the lowest based on the number of votes they garnered during the elections. The parties, organizations, and coalitions receiving at least two percent (2%) of the total votes cast for the party-list system shall be entitled to one seat each: Provided, That those garnering more than two percent (2%) of the votes shall be entitled to additional seats in proportion to their total number of votes: Provided, finally, That each party, organization, or coalition shall be entitled to not more than three (3) seats."

Article VI of the Philippine Constitution likewise says that "the party-list representatives shall constitute twenty per centum of the total number of representatives including those under the party list."

Meanwhile, a joint session of Congress, sitting as the NBOC, will serve as the canvassing board for the position of president and vice president. — RSJ, RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV