Comelec official says Visayas votes already in

Commission on Elections Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said Saturday that votes from Visayas, the supposed bailiwick of Liberal Party vice-presidential candidate Manual "Mar" Roxas II, have already been transmitted to the Comelec's central server.

"Pasok na po. Kasama na po iyon (It's already transmitted. It has been included)," Larrazabal told radio dzMM when asked if the the Visayas votes have already been transmitted.

He, however, declined to disclose the latest figures received by the Comelec, particularly on the much-awaited results of the vice-presidential race.

"I cannot release. I have to apologize," he said, adding that people should just wait for Congress to announce the winner in the vice-presidential and presidential races.

Butch Abad, LP leader and campaign manager of Roxas, meanwhile, insisted during a separate radio dzMM interview that not all votes from the Visayas have been transmitted to the servers.

Abad said that at least 30% of the results from all Visayas provinces have not been received by the Comelec.

He said that votes from that 30% would matter in the end part of the counting for the vice-presidential elections.

"A significant portion has not been reported," he said.

Abad said that the LP continues to gather information from their people in Visayas.

In a statement released Saturday, LP's senatorial campaign manager Sen. Francis Pangilinan said that the party will not accept defeat until all votes have been counted by the Congress.

"Walang kukurap (No one should blink)," Pangilinan said.

He said that the LP remains confident that the tandem of Roxas and leading presidential candidate, Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III will prevail.

The LP claims that Roxas leads Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay by a margin of at least 2 million votes in central and western Visayas regions. The party said Roxas can still win the race by a "hairline" margin.

The other camp, however, said that Binay would win the race based on the current trend.

Binay's camp said if the trends continue 2 million of the uncounted votes would go to Binay and only 1.9 million will go to Roxas.

The group predicts that Binay would emerge as winner with 15.37 million votes against Roxas's 14.44 million.