By Fe Zamora, TJ Burgonio, Tarra Quismundo
Inquirer
Last updated 01:30am (Mla time) 05/28/2007
MANILA, Philippines — Marawi City gave Sultan Jamalul Kiram the greatest gift Muslim voters could give these days — second place in the senatorial race in the city.
But an adopted Maranao princess, Loren Legarda of the Genuine Opposition (GO), topped the polls in the Muslim city in Lanao del Sur.
Official results of the city’s count showed Kiram of the administration’s Team Unity (TU) with 22,740 votes, behind Legarda, who garnered 26,633.
The score was 7-4-1 in favor of GO.
Others in the Magic 12 in Marawi were Edgardo Angara (TU), Francis “Chiz” Escudero (GO), Aquilino “Koko” Pimental III (GO), Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan (Ind), Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III (GO), Alan Cayetano (GO), Antonio Trillanes IV (GO), Manuel Villar (GO), Miguel Zubiri (TU) and Joker Arroyo (TU).
Kiram, who belongs to the royal Muslim family in Sulu, earlier wondered how the Ilocano candidate Luis “Chavit” Singson, could have topped the senatorial race in Maguindanao province.
Kiram ranked 12th in Maguindanao, a part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The voting in Maguindanao where all the TU candidates landed in the winning circle was marred by cheating, according to the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel).
Comelec, Namfrel tallies
Special elections were held on Saturday in 13 towns in Lanao del Sur, but the counting had yet to begin as of Sunday morning.
As of Saturday night, seven GO candidates, three TU candidates and two independents were in the winning circle in the tally by the Commission on Elections. Zubiri dislodged Pimentel from the 12th slot.
In the Namfrel count, also on Saturday night, GO kept its eight slots, TU its two slots, and the independents, two slots.
As of 5:52 p.m. on Saturday, with election results counted in 79.94 percent of the 224,748 precincts, Legarda continued to lead the pack. Trailing her were Escudero, Lacson and Villar (11,609.985).
Aquino dislodged Pangilinan in the fifth slot.
They were followed by Angara, Cayetano, Gregorio Honasan, Arroyo, Trillanes and Pimentel III.
Milestone
Those in the 13th to 15th slots were Zubiri, Ralph Recto and Michael Defensor, respectively.
“Our people in the field have already transmitted their tabulations of the ERs to our system, representing 84 to 85 percent of the precincts. But these have yet to be processed (validated and verified),” Namfrel secretary general Eric Alvia said.
Quite a feat for a group that had been roundly criticized for “trending” and not completing its count in the aftermath of the controversial 2004 presidential vote.
“If you consider the 84 to 85 percent [coverage], we’ve already exceeded our performance,” Alvia said. “This is a milestone. We’re happy with our performance.”
With the ERs from more than 80 percent of the precincts collected, Namfrel will start to scale down its operations and move from the gym to a smaller room, also in La Salle Green Hills in Mandaluyong City, according to Alvia.
Both the Comelec and Namfrel took the day off Sunday.
Backed by an “antifraud infrastructure,” the opposition Sunday expressed confidence that teamwork among its lawyers, volunteers and candidates could stop attempts to rig the canvassing.
“More or less, we have an idea of the result … Its going to be 8-2-2 (for GO), and they (TU) cannot touch that unless there will be cheating,” said Sixto Brillantes, lawyer of the United Opposition which is part of the GO.
Brillantes said the GO’s antifraud network, organized at the municipal and national levels, was ready with its copies of vote tallies from provinces and cities to question the canvass of tabulations from areas where manipulation had been observed.
For one, he said, GO would move to question Monday’s scheduled canvass of the North Cotabato certificate of canvass (CoC), which he said may well have been manipulated.
“We are already reviewing our documents (vote tallies) from North Cotabato … We know that the CoC would show that it was padded,” Brillantes told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.
He and individual lawyers of opposition candidates had sought the deferment of the canvassing of the CoCs of Maguindanao and South Cotabato, where he said there was padding for TU candidates, Pangilinan, and even the GO’s own Legarda.
Citing proof from the GO’s copies of South Cotabato’s vote tallies, Brillantes said more than 100,000 votes were added to Prospero Pichay, Recto, Defensor, Angara and Arroyo.
“Their style is to get votes from their own candidates, who no longer have a chance [of reaching the top 12], so that, despite the padding, the total will not exceed the number of voters who actually voted,” said Brillantes.
He said the TU was moving to push the consistent cliffhangers, Zubiri, Recto and Pichay, into the winning slots and dislodge GO candidates.
It might be too late for the TU to manipulate the votes as the GO has copies of provincial and city tallies, documents which can be used as basis to prove election rigging, according to Brillantes.
With the arrival of votes from Cebu on Saturday, Pimentel was pulled from No. 12 and traded places with 14th-placer Zubiri for the last slot.
GO spokesperson Adel Tamano said Pimentel would reclaim the 12th spot as soon as CoCs from Quezon City and Manila were canvassed.
“We’re not worried at all about Koko because the Quezon City and Manila CoCs have yet to be counted and these are very strong areas for the opposition,” Tamano said.
