Drilon, LP confident of a Roxas ‘hairline’ win

Says Binay Camp is in panic, throwing wild accusations

Former Senate President Frank Drilon today said he and fellow Liberals are confident that the Aquino-Roxas tandem may end up victorious in the end, with Liberal vice presidential bet Senator Mar Roxas winning by a hairline.

He said 22% or up to roughly 6 million votes have yet to be transmitted to the servers of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Manila and have yet to be tallied, based on Comelec’s own pronouncement to stop its tally after accounting for 78% of votes cast.

“The voices of around five to six million voters have not yet been included in Comelec’s own tally. This gives us the confidence that Mar will win after all of this,” he said.

“Comelec stopped its tally after counting 78% of total votes cast, in deference to Congress who is mandated by law to canvass the votes for President and Vice President. Once the votes from our bailiwicks are fully transmitted to Comelec, we are hoping that Mar will catch up and take the number one spot,” he stressed.

He said the camp of Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay may have “done their own math,” and have seen the reality that their lead could disappear in thin air once the bailiwicks of Roxas, who delivered for the Liberal Party, are taken into account.

“They are now very, very worried that they could lose. And the best way for them to discredit any possible surge from us is to throw wild and outrageous accusations of so-called ‘special operations’ in Mindanao,” he said.

“Their allegations serve as a smokescreen to their own operations. Remember, it is the PDP-Laban which has always operated in Mindanao, and is known to be the principal operation that can deliver block votes from the area,” he stressed.

“And how can we, quote-unquote, ‘operate’ there, when there is a ‘fatwa’ against us?” referring to the ruling of an Ulama against voting Roxas and Drilon because of their strong stance against the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.

The LP Chairman said if 15-20% of the 76,340 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines have yet to transmit votes, then roughly 5-6 million votes have yet to be tallied. This assumes an average of 500 voters per PCOS, and a 75% voter turnout nationwide.

Drilon reported that in Iloilo, Roxas won by over one million votes over Mayor Binay. He also received information from former National Power Corp. president Jesus Alcordo in Cebu that Mar won by roughly 1.05 million votes over Binay in the vote-rich province; and from Negrenese businessman Bitay Lacson that Roxas’ lead there is in excess of 500,000 votes.

“This already gives Mar more than two million votes from these Visayan bailiwicks alone, as against Binay’s lead which now stands at roughly 800,000 votes,” he stressed.