Trillanes hangs on to Magic 12

Trillanes hangs on to Magic 12

By Cathy C. Yamsuan, Nikko DizonInquirerLast updated 04:06am (Mla time) 05/17/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- It was 8-2-2 in favor of the Genuine Opposition (GO) as of 9:11

Wednesday night in the quick count by the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections.
GO increased its lead over the administration’s Team Unity (TU) in the official count of the overseas absentee votes.

It was 8-3-1 for GO, according to partial results of the canvassing presided over by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc sitting as the National Board of Canvassers.
After slipping out of the Magic 12 in early tabulation Wednesday, Antonio Trillanes IV moved up to 11th place based on Namfrel’s tally as of 9:11 Wednesday night.

TU’s Juan Miguel Zubiri who earlier placed 12th in the winning circle dropped to No. 13 with Trillanes’ reentry.

From 8th place, Trillanes slid to 13th place Wednesday afternoon before climbing to 11th place Wednesday night. TU’s Edgardo Angara and Joker Arroyo maintained their steady climb in the Magic 12 in the Namfrel count.

GO’s Francis Escudero, who was trailing fellow GO candidate Loren Legarda Wednesday afternoon, captured the top slot Wednesday night but by a very narrow margin of 116 votes.
GO’s Alan Peter Cayetano climbed to 9th place from 10th, exchanging places with independent Gregorio Honasan who slid to 10th. Aquilino Pimentel III of GO dropped from 11th place to 12th.

The women’s group Gabriela was the front-runner among party-list groups, followed by Buhay and Bayan Muna.

At its headquarters at the La Salle gym in Greenhills, San Juan, Namfrel had so far counted votes from 24,394 precincts from all regions.

Results from 15 countries

Over at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City, the official Comelec tabulation of the certificates of canvass (CoCs) for the senatorial elections began Wednesday with results from 15 countries and a US territory in the overseas absentee voting.
The votes came from the following countries: Laos, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, South Korea, Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Netherlands, Japan, India, Thailand, Bahrain, and Palau, a US territory.

There were a total of 38,469 registered voters in these places but only 5,742 or almost 15 percent voted in May.

Only one voted in Slovenia. No votes were cast in Kiribati and Solomon Islands.
Angara rose from 11th place at the start of the Namfrel tabulation Tuesday morning to 7th place Wednesday night, while Arroyo climbed from 12th to 8th place.

Legarda topped tabulations in Regions 1, 2, 8, 11, 12 and the Cordillera Administrative Region.
Escudero was No. 1 in Metro Manila, Regions 4, 5 and 10, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Caraga region.

Angara remained in 1st place in Central Luzon and Region 7.

Panfilo Lacson of GO was No. 1 in Region 9 tabulations and maintained his 3rd place standing in the Namfrel count with 996,017 votes.

GO guest candidate Manuel Villar was first in Region 6 and placed fourth on the Namfrel list.
Independent candidate Francis Pangilinan was steady at No. 5.
Benigno Aquino III also maintained his standing in 6th place.

Trailing Trillanes

Trailing Trillanes were Pimentel, Zubiri, TU’s Ralph Recto at No. 14; Prospero Pichay at No. 15 and Michael Defensor at No. 16.

GO’s Sonia Roco was in 17th place followed by TU’s Cesar Montano and GO’s John Osmeña.
Along with Trillanes, Roco and Osmeña’s rankings dropped dramatically as tabulations from the various regions came in Wednesday.

Roco started in 13th place when Namfrel began its tabulation. Osmeña initially was in 16th place.

Pichay enjoyed a steady climb from No. 18 since Namfrel began its count.

Comelec count

In the Comelec count, Pangilinan was in 1st place, followed by Legarda. Aquino was in 3rd place; Villar, 4th, and Escudero, 5th. Arroyo was in 6th place; Lacson, 7th; Cayetano, 8th; Angara, 9th; Pimentel, 10th; Roco, 11th, and Defensor, 12th.

Zubiri was in 13th place, followed by Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Honasan and Osmeña.

The canvassing will resume Thursday at 10 a.m. with CoCs from Malaysia and vote-rich Hong Kong.

At a press conference, Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. said that the National Board of Canvassers (NBC) hoped to complete the canvassing for both OAV and CoCs from the provinces and Metro Manila “within 10 days” and proclaim the winners.

Abalos said that the NBC might partially canvass the CoCs in the 13 municipalities in Lanao del Sur depending on the election results there following a yet-to-be-scheduled special elections in the province.

“If the result of the 13 municipalities could no longer affect the result of the national position for senators, then we would not have to wait for the results of the special elections,” Abalos said.
Roco’s visit

Roco paid a visit to the Namfrel headquarters Wednesday night, intending to ask which areas in Mindanao the citizen’s arm had already included in its tabulation.

In a chance interview, Roco expressed concern over “30 towns in Mindanao” where the Commission on Elections had declared a failure of elections.

“This is a recurring phenomenon, or event, that every election, that a failure of elections is declared in certain towns, usually in the same places. They (authorities) should hold the elections in these places in the next 15 days,” she said.

Roco noted that an estimated 300,000 votes could still be counted from the problematic areas, a number that is significant enough to alter the outcome of the senatorial race.

Still, Roco expressed confidence that her current rank would still improve because both Namfrel and Comelec tabulations were still in their early stages of counting. With reports from Kristine Mangunay, Aaron John del Rosario, Cyrian Agujo and Nathaniel Melican