The camp of leading vice-presidential candidate Jejomar Binay said Friday their copies of the certificates of canvass yet to be tallied by the congressional canvassing committee show the outgoing mayor of Makati would win the tight race with Sen. Manuel Roxas II by more than 700,000 votes.
The camp of leading vice-presidential candidate Jejomar Binay said Friday their copies of the certificates of canvass yet to be tallied by the congressional canvassing committee show the outgoing mayor of Makati would win the tight race with Sen. Manuel Roxas II by more than 700,000 votes.
Lawyer Aquilino Pimentel III, Binay’s chief legal counsel, told reporters that the vice presidential candidate’s lead of more than 644,000 votes over Roxas would increase to more than 700,000 votes after the joint committee wraps up the vice presidential canvass next week.
Binay’s lawyers held a news conference Friday to counter allegations of “dagdag-bawas” raised by the Liberal Party, saying the allegations of vote-shaving and vote-padding also put into question the runaway victory of Roxas’ running mate, presumptive President-elect Benigno Aquino III, over Binay’s standard-bearer, former President Joseph Estrada.
They dismissed the Roxas camp’s call for the counting of more than three million null votes, saying there were more than 5.1 million null votes in the vice presidential election in 2004 but these didn’t form part of the protest filed by defeated candidate Sen. Loren Legarda against broadcaster Noli De Castro, who was proclaimed vice president.
“(Binay’s) lead is insurmountable. It will even increase,” Pimentel said at Friday’s news conference, which was held at Binay’s 21st-floor office at the Makati City Hall.
There were only five COC’s to be canvassed by the joint committee when it suspended its proceedings on Thursday night. The COC’s are from Davao City, Bacolod City, Mountain Province, Eastern Samar and Lanao Del Sur.
They reportedly represent 1.4 million votes cast in those five places.
Based on the copies of the COC’s obtained by the Binay camp, Pimentel said Binay won in Davao City, Eastern Samar and Lanao Del Sur. He said Roxas beat Binay in Bacolod City and in Mountain Province, where it was “a close fight.”
Pimentel, who’s also the president of the PDP-Laban party to which Binay belongs, took exception to the allegations of election fraud raised by Roxas supporters.
He said the votes for President and for Vice President were contained in only one computer file.
“There is only ... one computer file. If they are questioning (the election results), the apparent victory of their standard bearer will be put in question,” Pimentel said.
Pimentel said that the large number of null votes repeatedly raised by Roxas’ camp is actually a non-issue since elections are decided by only by valid counted votes.
“In 2004, there were 3.1 million null votes for president and 5.1 million null votes for vice president but Senator Loren Legarda, when she filed a protest pointed to the votes counted and not to the null votes because it is the right of the people to abstain from voting,” Pimentel said.
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