MANILA, Philippines - The electoral victories of vice-presidential bet Jejomar Binay and three senatorial bets are a near certainty after the Commission on Elections confirmed Tuesday it has less than 500,000 votes left to count in the May 10 elections.
In an interview, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the poll body is waiting for transmitted voting results in parts of Lanao del Sur and Basilan; one municipality in Iloilo and Philippine embassies abroad.
"The number is very low, it's less than 1 million. It's not the entire Basilan or Lanao del Sur that had failure of elections so we already have data from some of those municipalities. Hindi na aabot ng kalahating milyon," he told ABS-CBN's "Umagang Kay Ganda."
Larrazabal declined to comment on Binay's looming electoral win after he took an 800,000 vote-lead over Liberal Party vice-presidential bet Mar Roxas based on partial and unofficial tallies conducted by ABS-CBN, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas.
He said Comelec stopped releasing data about their official count after getting 78.55% of the voting results.
"We don't want to preempt the announcement of Congress and we don't want to make a comment that will affect one or the other party," he said.
As of 9:03 p.m. Monday, ABS-CBN's partial, unofficial count of the vice-presidential race based on Comelec's election returns showed Binay leading the race with 13,653,791, followed by Roxas with 12,823,344.
The Liberal Party (LP) on Monday said Roxas had a 137,404 vote-lead over Binay based on 88 out of the total 108 provincial and chartered city certificates of canvass that it has obtained. Roxas has 11,890,802 votes, while Binay has 11,753,398 votes based on these COCs.
Binay had earlier said he would win the vice-presidential race since he leads in the Comelec and PPCRV tallies
Hontiveros won't make it to 'Magic 12'
Larrazabal, meanwhile, said LP senatorial bet Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel cannot make it to Senate "Magic 12" since was lagging behind fellow LP bet Teofisto Guingona by more than 1 million votes.
As of 9:03 p.m. Monday, the three senators who are certain to take the last three Senate slots are Sergio Osmeña (10,808,518), Manuel "Lito" Lapid (10,218,891) and Guingona (9,578,713).