Liberal Party bet Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III jumped back to the top of the presidential contest Tuesday after lagging behind former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada in Monday’s count, while Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay scored a hairline lead against Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas in the vice presidential race.
Aquino now leads the presidential race with with 9,564,943 votes while Estrada, his closest competitor was behind with 5,927,990 votes according to the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).
They were followed by Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar, 3,333,558 votes; former Defense Chief Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro, 2,480,185 votes; and Bro. Eddie Villanueva, 722,857 votes.
The cutthroat contest for vice president ensues between Binay with 9,048,351 votes and Roxas, 8,749,968 votes. Sen. Loren Legarda lagged behind with 2,570,103 votes.
A total of 203 certificates of canvass (CoCs) have been opened in today’s joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives but only 189 CoCs have been counted. The rest of the CoCs were deferred due to technical problems.
Parañaque Representative Roilo Golez noted that the joint body canvassed at a rate of 7 minutes per CoC, prompting Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, who presided over today’s session, to say that they could probably proclaim the winners by Monday.
But talk on null votes punctuated Tuesday’s canvassing as lawyers of vice presidential bets repeatedly commented on the high number in some areas.
Lawyer Joey Teñafrancia of the Roxas camp said they received reports that about 2 million votes were nullified.
Lawyers from both the Roxas and Binay camps asked that the number of null votes be put on record while indicating that their bets won in the area, implying that they are not complaining because they lost.
But Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) explained that the number of nullified votes simply shows that the maximum number of votes for a position has not been reached.
“Meaning, if you vote for two candidates for Mayor, or if you do not vote for any candidate for that position, then that is considered a nullified vote,” he said.
He added that the total null votes added to the total votes for all candidates in a position would result to the total votes cast for the position.
But Zubiri said the number of null votes is “alarming” and asked Comelec and poll machine supplier Smartmatic to be present at Wednesday’s session to explain.
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