Cebu selected Duterte-Robredo

FOR vote-rich Cebu, the choice was a Duterte-Robredo leadership and a mix of old and new names among the senatorial bets.

As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, partial and official results from 48 of Cebu’s 51 towns and cities also showed that Gov. Hilario Davide III of the Liberal Party was ahead in the gubernatorial race with 594,273 votes, followed by One Cebu’s Winston Garcia with 578,912 votes.

Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale won a fresh term with 663,047 votes. She defeated former congresswoman Nerissa Soon-Ruiz of One Cebu, who got 453,730 votes.

Magpale was among the 12 candidates that the Cebu Provincial Board of Canvassers (BOC) started proclaiming as winners late afternoon yesterday at the Capitol Social Hall.

Also proclaimed were reelected Cebu Reps. Gwen Garcia, Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr. and Benhur Salimbangon.

Who among the national candidates did Cebuano voters favor? According to the same partial tally, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was leading in the presidential race with 738,487 votes while Liberty Party’s Mar Roxas came second with 443,661 votes.

Sen. Grace Poe got 187,828 votes in Cebu, Vice President Jejomar Binay got 69,648, Sen. Miriam Santiago got 18,849 and Roy Señeres got 1,003 votes, according to the election returns canvassed by the BOC.

Serge in Cebu

In the vice presidential race, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo enjoyed a wide margin in Cebu with 570,350 votes. Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano followed with 435,046 votes; Sen. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. with 190,564 votes; Sen. Francis Escudero with 143,486 votes; Sen. Antonio Trillanes with 23,338 votes; and Sen. Gringo Honasan with 21,213 votes.

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, a Cebuano, got the highest number of votes among senatorial candidates in Cebu with 620,843 votes. But he has yet to break into the top 12 in the nationwide count.

Completing the 12 senators with the highest number of votes in Cebu are Sen. Franklin Drilon (617,651), Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao (563,722), Joel Villanueva (563,718), Miguel Zubiri (557,267), Sen. Francis Pangilinan (520,785), Riza Hontiveros (513,767), Richard Gordon (500,199), Vicente Sotto III (474,228), Leila de Lima (449,197), Win Gatchalian (444,060), and Sen. Ralph Recto (442,357).

Duterte enjoyed a decisive margin in Cebu Province’s fifth district, despite the promise of the Bakud Party of the Durano clan to deliver votes for Poe and Escudero.

The outgoing Davao City mayor got more than 100,000 thousand votes in 10 towns of Cebu’s fifth district as well as in Danao City, according to the partial and unofficial count of GMA News Online yesterday afternoon.

Bailiwick

Duterte got more than 30,000 votes in Danao City alone, the Durano family’s bailiwick, compared to Poe’s 22, 407 votes.

Outgoing Rep. Ace Durano said that an internal survey they conducted in January 2016 showed Poe and Escudero with 20 percent of the votes in Danao City alone.

In other towns in the district, the survey results showed Poe and Escudero had below 10 percent of the votes.

“The result of the election in the fifth shows a lot higher percentage of the votes for Senators Grace and Chiz. We knew it would be a tough challenge but we had a commitment,” said Ace in a text message.

Ace, campaign manager of Senators Poe and Escudero, is the son of Danao City Mayor Ramon Durano III, who is Duterte’s second-degree cousin.

Mayor Durano won reelection with 39,888 votes over his rival, Michael Enriquez, who got 15,804 votes.

In the vice mayoral race, Mix Durano got 38,261 votes, while his rival, Jiji Lao, has 11,015 votes.

Outgoing Vice Mayor Ramon “Red” Durano VI won with the fifth district’s congressional seat with 44,703 votes, while his detained rival Gilbert Wagas has 4,232 votes. 

The City Board of Canvassers proclaimed the winners in Danao City last night. 

3 towns to go

As of 7:11 p.m., the BOC was just waiting for the election results from Malabuyoc, Cordova and Santander towns to be transmitted to the provincial canvassing area.

Without the results from the three towns, Provincial Election Supervisor Eliseo Labaria, chairman of the BOC, said there will be delays in transmitting the results from Cebu to the national board of canvassers.

Results from Santander and Malabuyoc could not be transmitted yesterday due to a defective consolidation and canvassing system (CCS). A back-up unit was supposed to be sent there.

Cordova’s election results also could not be transmitted yet because 456 out of 772 voters from one clustered precinct in Barangay Gabi were still not able to vote as of yesterday.

“Canvassing at the municipal level has to be completed before it can transmit results to the provincial canvassers. In case there is a precinct in one municipality that cannot transmit votes to the municipal canvass, dili makasira ang municipal board of canvassers, they also won’t be able to transmit results,” he explained.

Not yet

The municipal or provincial board of canvassers also will not be able to proclaim winners if they cannot generate the certificate of canvass and proclamation (COCP).

Though some candidates were already proclaimed, Provincial Prosecutor Jane Petralba, a member of the BOC, said the officials cannot be officially considered proclaimed candidates yet because the official COCP to be generated by the CCS cannot be printed.

So yesterday the BOC proceeded with the proclamation of some candidates using a manually prepared COCP.

“There is no question on the winners because we are talking of complete official canvas, it’s just that we cannot make an official proclamation unless we generate a COCP,” Petralba said.

Though he was leading with 15,361 votes, Governor Davide could not be declared a winner yet because of the three towns that have yet to transmit their results, which have a combined 58,664 registered voters.

“We have a problem in Cordova because there are some 400 voters who have not voted yet. We are not talking here of just hours (of waiting) but days. We have to wait because although there are only 400 voters who have not voted, we will consider not just the 400 but the whole voting population of Cordova,” Petralba said. Cordova has 34,273 voters.

‘Not words’

In separate interviews yesterday, Congresswoman Garcia and Vice Gov. Magpale thanked their supporters for giving them a fresh mandate.

Magpale pledged to continue efforts against sex trafficking and cyberpornography, and help boost tourism in the countryside.

She also plans to sit in the committee on health so she can focus more on health services and other improvements in district and provincial hospitals.

For her part, Gwen said she looks forward to a Duterte presidency that is sympathetic and sensitive to the needs of Visayas and Mindanao.

“People look for performance, not words, and Davao City speaks volumes already of what he has been able to do and what he is capable of doing. And so we look forward to a Duterte presidency where there will be clear decisive action against the present ills of the country—drugs, criminality and corruption,” she said.

The former governor is also optimistic that Duterte will help Cebu, being a Bisaya himself.

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