He said on Tuesday he was "keeping the faith" and was still confident that votes from the Visayas would pull him over Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, who was leading in the vote count.
Roxas said that he was waiting for the results from his bailiwicks in the Visayas, particularly from Western and Central Visayas, to see if he could still overcome Binay's early lead, which has ranged from 700,000 to 800,000.
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LP officials said votes from 15 to 20 percent of precincts around the country have yet to be transmitted to the Comelec in Manila and these could add up to five million votes, more than enough to erase Binay's lead.
They added that results of exit polls conducted in 12,000 precincts showed that Roxas won the vice-presidency "by a hairline."
"From what I understand, a big chunk of the Visayan vote is not yet in. I expect good results from Visayas. Let's see what happens," Roxas said. "I'm keeping the faith."
As of 3:57 p.m. Tuesday, the Commission on Elections tally showed Binay leading with 12,921,315 votes against Roxas’ 12,072,145.
LP director general Chito Gascon said that the party remained confident about Roxas' chances because many of the un-transmitted votes come from known bailiwicks of the senator from Capiz.
"By a hairline but we'll win. What is important is we know this is close. (By) a hundred thousand," Gascon said.
"In a sense effectively the difference between the two front runners for the vice-presidential race is between one to two percent and that two percent can be covered by the five million votes that are still to be counted," he added.
Gascon said he was confident that, by Wednesday, the partial and unofficial Comelec count will reflect the data LP gathered.
“We estimate about 1.2 million votes (are) still to be reported from Regions VI and VII, and our exit polls show a two-third lead for Sen. Roxas,” Gascon said.
“We believe that Mar Roxas will be able to obtain the necessary votes to ultimately win these elections fair and square particularly under reported polling results from his bailiwicks,” he added.
According to the Comelec, Region 6 (Western Visayas) has 3,936,693 registered voters, Region 7 (Central Visayas) has 3,921,867 votes, while Region 8 (Eastern Visayas) has 2,431,584 votes.
"The places that are bailiwicks of Sen. Roxas have yet to come in. We expect that once the votes---particularly those from Cebu, Bohol and Panay islands---come in, there will be a reversal in the (count)," said former social welfare secretary Corazon "Dinky" Soliman, another Roxas supporter.
"Cebu alone has a voting population of two million. I don't have the data for the rest but looking at some of the reports that are coming in unofficially, we are optimistic that Senator Mar will be able to catch up (with Binay)," she added.
Gascon also scored Binay for implying in a cable TV interview that the Roxas camp was engaged in cheating in Mindanao.
“The accusations are not true. We do not have the capacity to do that. It is really unfair and irresponsible to try to present innuendos that have no basis," Gascon said.
"We would like to categorically deny what he's saying that someone went to Mindanao. No one went to Mindanao. Like the Filipino people, we are also watching, guarding the votes, monitoring the results coming in from clustered precincts, and waiting for the final results," he added.
Gascon called on all election stakeholders, "including the other parties that are looking at the results, to try and clear up the situation and not muddle it."
"It may in fact be the case that their references to special operations in Mindanao is a smokescreen for what, perhaps, other groups are doing. All we have to say is that we have an operation system here," Gascon said.
"We are the dominant minority party and we have access to the results coming from the precincts. This is an automated counting system so the system of cheating before where someone could work to change the results will not happen," he said.
"Of course, the failure of automated elections and reverting to manual is another matter. We should guard that, particularly since there are reports of about seven towns in Lanao Sur, which have had a failure of elections," he added.
Gascon said that the LP would make sure that the elections in those seven towns proceed and their votes, and that of a town in Maguindanao, "are counted and transmitted properly" because they add up to 100,000 votes.
"So, let the media know that there are areas where elections are still to be counted, they are comprised of about 100,000 votes. And those 100,000 votes in the context of a very close race become very important," he said.
"Our commitment is free, fair and honest elections. We believe that Mar Roxas will obtain the necessary votes to ultimately win this election fair and square, especially since the results from his bailiwicks are still underreported," Gascon added.
Posted 20:55:00 05/11/2010
By Philip Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
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