Bongbong, Sara Proclaimed President, VP

It’s official: Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is the country’s 17th president and Sara Duterte-Carpio, the 15th vice president.

Marcos and Duterte-Carpio were proclaimed on Wednesday afternoon, May 25, as the duly elected president and vice president, respectively, in the May 9 general elections by Congress, sitting as National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), after a two-day canvassing of votes.

In the final and official tally, Marcos garnered 31,629,783 votes or 58.77 percent of the total votes cast, more than double the 15,035,773 votes for his closest rival, Vice President Leni Robredo.

Like Marcos, Duterte-Carpio also posted a record-high election victory, garnering 32,208,417 votes or 61.53 percent of total votes cast for vice president.

The final tally showed presidential candidates Sen. Manny Pacquiao with 3,663,113 votes, followed by Manila Mayor Isko Moreno with 1,933,909 and Sen. Panfilo Lacson with 892,375 votes.

Vice presidential bets Sen. Francis Pangilinan got 9,329,207 votes, followed by Sen. Vicente Sotto III with 8,251,267, Dr. Willie Ong with 1,878,531 and Deputy Speaker Lito Atienza with 270,381.

The NBOC finished canvassing 98.84 percent of the total votes cast or a total of 53,815,484 votes from 171 out of 173 certificates of canvass (COCs).

The COCs from Syria and Argentina were not yet available during the canvass, but the NBOC decided not to wait for them since the two COCs would no longer affect the final tally of votes for president and vice president.

‘Grateful for second chance’

During the proclamation, Marcos was accompanied by his wife, lawyer Liza Araneta-Marcos, their son Simon, as well as his mother, former first lady Imelda Marcos, and sisters Sen. Imee Marcos and Irene Marcos-Araneta.

Imelda arrived in her trademark Filipiniana dress which, for this occasion, was colored pink – the color of Robredo’s campaign.

In an interview, Imee revealed that their mother was excited to see her only son follow in the footsteps of her husband, the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

“My mother is very excited. She’s very happy with this development. Suddenly she is able to hear, to walk. All her ailments are suddenly gone. She’s suddenly very lively,” the senator said.

She said she considers her brother’s overwhelming victory before the Filipino electorate as a return of faith and confidence in the Marcos family.

“Thank you very much for a huge majority and this restoration of faith and confidence in my family. Marcos pa rin mula noon hanggang ngayon (from then till now),” Imee said when interviewed by CNN Philippines.

She also said she was not that excited to return to Malacañang as they had already been there during her father’s 20-year rule, but doing so now enables them to clear the Marcos name.

“What is most important to us is, of course, our name. The family name has become so controversial and at times difficult to bear. The legacy of my father is what we hope will be clarified at last,” she said.

“We are very grateful for the second chance. Our family had to struggle after 1986. We had to face so many cases,” she added, recalling the last 36 years as a tough time for their family.

Sara makes it

Duterte-Carpio, on the other hand, was joined by former president and speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Davao Occidental Gov. Claude Bautista.

In recent days, Duterte-Carpio has been busy in Davao City with a series of online meetings, but her spokesperson, Mayor Cristina Frasco of Liloan, Cebu, gave assurance she was exerting her best effort to make it to Manila in time for her proclamation.

“She had earlier set a visit to the wake of a supporter in Antique who was depressed and bullied because of his political preferences and eventually committed suicide,” Frasco said, adding that the new vice president had meetings set in Antique and Iloilo.

68 COCs left

Earlier, House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez expressed confidence that the NBOC was capable of finishing the last 68 COCs for president and vice president yesterday and to proceed with proclaiming the winners in the afternoon.

“With 68 COCs left, we are expecting to finish the canvassing today and, after the submission of the Joint Committee Report and the adoption of the Resolution of Both Houses, we shall have proclaimed the president and vice president-elect,” Romualdez said.

The House official also reported that the joint committee has determined the authenticity and due execution of these COCs, with special and notable observations on three COCs coming from the provinces of Surigao del Sur, Pampanga and Suldan Kudarat.

Romualdez said these local Comelec officials have already been summoned and all of them have been put under oath via videoconference for purposes of authenticating the contents, or the lack of it, in the ballot boxes that they delivered to Congress for canvass.

Missing COCs

Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said they were investigating the alleged missing COCs of some polling precincts from Sultan Kudarat, Surigao del Sur, Manila and other areas.

Casquejo said election supervisors in the areas concerned have to explain why these COCs were not included in the ballot boxes delivered to Congress while their electronic results had been transmitted and canvassed.

“Those COCs were inadvertently not placed inside the ballot box intended for the National Board of Canvassers for the Congress for the position of president and vice president,” he said.

Casquejo told reporters he believes these incidents were unintentional mistakes possibly resulting from certain election supervisors’ fatigue. Still, he said “for whatever reason, it is not acceptable.”

He stressed that even if the COCs in question are not found, the same have at least 14 printed copies so that canvassing by the NBOC is not interrupted.

Asked if such an error by election supervisors constitutes an administrative offense, Casquejo said they will first have to determine whether it was intentional or not.

The concerned election officers were ordered to physically deliver the hard copies of the COCs.

“I cannot yet say if there are possible sanctions because we’ll try to further investigate,” said Casquejo. “If it’s justifiable, we can let it slide; but if not, then we will make sanctions based on our civil service rules.”

For his part, Comelec Commissioner George Garcia apologized for what happened as he emphasized that “human error” cannot be totally avoided during elections. – With Edith Regalado, Delon Porcalla, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Robertzon Ramirez