MANILA, Philippines — Veteran election lawyer Romy Macalintal — who ran under the Otso Diretso slate — accepted defeat in the Senate race Tuesday, as his fellow opposition bets struggle to enter the Magic 12. With 93% of election returns counted, Macalintal ranked 26th as of 7:40 a.m. with 3.8 million votes, making him among the first senatorial candidates to concede defeat. “From the results coming from all the clustered precincts, it is clear that a great majority of our voters have chosen other candidates. And I respect their decision as I concede defeat in this senatorial race,” Macalintal said in a statement. “I sincerely congratulate all the winners who were so fortunate to get the trust and confidence of the people to serve for six years as their Senators,” he added. The lawyer represents Liberal Party stalwart and Vice President Leni Robredo in the electoral protest filed by defeated vice presidential candidate and former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. The Presidential Electoral Tribunal is conducting a ballot recount on Marcos' selected pilot provinces. Macalintal earlier said he would push for the rights of senior citizens and persons with disabilities if elected senator. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral RESULTS: The Senatorial Race<doc-sep>MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte and his drug war “just won” as administration-backed senatorial candidates are poised to claim victory in the 2019 polls, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Wednesday. Locsin said Monday’s vote is seen as a gauge of public support for Duterte’s war on drugs. ADVERTISEMENT “The elections were a referendum on Duterte and his war on drugs. He & the war just won,” he said in a Twitter post. He added: “The Senatorial elections were not a referendum in favor of Charter change either, the death penalty, and jailing minors.” He said the public should already “shut up” on the matter as the drug war “goes on.” “So shut the f*** up on that subject everybody. The war goes on,” the foreign secretary said. https://twitter.com/ teddyboylocsin/status/ 1128437772237168640?s=20 In the latest update of partial and unofficial tally of votes from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), at least eight candidates endorsed by the President led the race for 12 Senate seats. Among them are former presidential aide Bong Go, former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Bato dela Rosa, reelectionist senators Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Cynthia Villar and Sonny Angara, former presidential adviser for political affairs Francis Tolentino, Taguig Rep. Pia Cayetano, and former Ilocos Norte governor Imee Marcos. Earlier, opposition senatorial candidates believed that the result of the midterm elections is a “referendum on the Duterte administration.” Duterte, who has shown little tolerance for critics, especially those who question his anti-drug campaign, aimed for stronger leverage in the traditionally more independent Senate to bolster his legislative agenda. ADVERTISEMENT That includes the return of the death penalty, lowering the age for criminal liability below the current 15, and revising the country’s 1987 Constitution primarily to allow a shift to a federal form of government, a proposal some critics fear may be a cover to remove term limits. Last year, opposition senators moved to block proposed bills they feared would undermine civil liberties. The handful of incumbent opposition senators whose seats were not up for election could potentially get backing from leading independent aspirants to veto Duterte’s emerging majority in the upper chamber. At least seven senators are needed to block any proposal by Duterte’s camp to revise the Constitution, which was passed with anti-dictatorial safeguards in 1987, a year after Marcos was ousted by an army-backed “people power” revolt. Opposition aspirants consider the Senate the last bastion of checks and balances given the solid dominance of Duterte’s loyalists in the lower House of Representatives. Voters in Monday’s elections made their choices for 18,000 congressional and local posts, including 81 governors, 1,634 mayors and more than 13,500 city and town councilors in 81 provinces. With a report from Associated Press<doc-sep>MANILA, Philippines — Former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla climbed further in the 2019 senatorial race, outrunning reelectionist senator Nancy Binay. According to the 9:08 a.m. update of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) transparency server, Revilla placed 11th on the Magic 12 with 14,005,543 votes. ADVERTISEMENT This is a lead of 5,584 votes against Binay who garnered 13,999,959 votes Earlier, Revilla ranked 12th in the Senate race. Reelectionist Senator JV Ejercito further lags behind the Senate race with only 13,751,411 votes, which is a difference of 248,548 votes behind Binay. Meanwhile, reelectionist Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel retained his spot on the 10th place of the Magic 12, with 14,023,305 votes. Reelectionist Senator Cynthia Villar also retained her top spot of the senatorial race with 24,274,440 votes, followed by Grace Poe with 21,232,689 votes. READ: PPCRV tally shows tight race for last 3 Senate seats Below are the other senate bets that managed to secure a spot in the Magic 12: Christopher “Bong” Go: 19,664,664 votes Pia Cayetano: 18,979,894 votes Ronald dela Rosa: 18,077,601 votes Sonny Angara: 17,456,113 votes Lito Lapid: 16,309,059 votes Imee Marcos: 15,243,072 votes Francis Tolentino: 14,814,764 votes This represents the results of 93.76 percent transmittals or 82,370 of 87,851 vote counting machines. Voter turnout is at 71 percent, meaning 45,145,826 out 63,662,481 registered Filipino voters have cast their vote. (Editor: Mike U. Frialde) Read Next<doc-sep>MANILA, Philippines — Reelectionist Sen. Bam Aquino broke into the so-called Magic 12 of the partial and official count of the May 2019 senatorial race—the only one from the opposition Otso Diretso slate to do so. According to the first batch of results canvassed by the Commission on Elections—sitting as the National Board of Canvassers—Tuesday evening, Aquino sat at the edge of the winners’ circle with 2,335,724 votes. The canvassed votes represent the 34 certificates of canvass from 130 clustered precincts across the country and Philippine posts abroad. Comelec Transparency Server’s partial and unofficial results as of 12:55 a.m. Wednesday, however, showed that Aquino remained outside of the top 12. With less than 5% of election returns remaining to be tallied in the partial and unofficial count, Aquino placed 14th with 13,835,603 votes. He still has to, at least, edge out fellow incumbent senators JV Ejercito at 13th spot and 12th placer Nancy Binay to make it to the winners' circle. Aquino's fellow bets from Otso Diretso: human rights lawyer Chel Diokno, peace advocate Samira Gutoc, elections lawyer Romy Macalintal, former solicitor general Florin Hilbay and former Quezon Rep. Erin Tañada accepted their defeat Tuesday. Villar, Poe take the lead Reelectionist Cynthia Villar remained the front runner in the partial and official count with 4,092,454 votes. She was followed by another reelectionist Grace Poe with 3,650,288 votes. The partial and official tally also showed administration-backed candidates dominating the 12 seats in the upper chamber up for grabs. Former presidential aide Bong Go placed third with 3,293,341 votes, while Taguig Rep. Pia Cayetano ranked fourth with 3,251,819. They were followed by former top cop Bato Dela Rosa (5th) with 3,128,061 votes, Sen. Sonny Angara (6th) with 3,022,955 votes, late dictator’s daughter Imee Marcos (7th) with 2,850,643, former MMDA chief Francis Tolentino (8th) with 2,584,833 votes, actor Lito Lapid (9th) with 2,520,316 votes, Sen. Koko Pimentel (10th) with 2,439,571 votes and Nancy Binay (11th) with 2,366,035. Outside of the winners’ circle were Sen. JV Ejercito (13th) with 2,292,264 votes, Bong Revilla (14th) with 1,997,438 votes and Serge Osmeña (15th) with 1,692,319 votes. The canvassing session will resume at 10 a.m. Wednesday, according to a tweet report of One News PH. — Gaea Katreena Cabico<doc-sep>
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has the Senate. The ongoing tally of yesterday’s midterm elections shows that a majority of those likely to win the 12 available national Senate seats are allied with the controversial head of state. This includes Cynthia Villar, who is currently number one in the polls, based on partial, unofficial results aggregated from the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) data as of 9:16am today. She currently has 24,299,170 votes based on 93.91 percent of Election Returns, a report generated by vote-counting machines in polling precincts that show the counts for national and local elections. Duterte campaigned for Villar, who is a part of the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) alliance formed by first daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. Senatorial candidates currently in the top 14 include: Cynthia Villar Grace Poe Bong Go Pia Cayetano Bato de la Rosa Sonny Angara Lito Lapid Imee Marcos Francis Tolentino Koko Pimentel Bong Revilla Nancy Binay JV Ejercito Bam Aquino Of the 14, 10 candidates are part of HNP. At the bottom of the list is Aquino, the only member of the opposition Liberal Party to rank in the top 14. Controversial figures likely to join the Senate are Imee Marcos, daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos; former police chief Bato de la Rosa, who launched the war on drugs; Duterte’s former aide Bong Go; and former Senator Bong Revilla, who was accused of stealing taxpayers’ money in the pork barrel scandal of 2013. With a landslide by the Duterte camp likely in this year’s polls, the president will soon have influence over all branches of the government. Of the 12 incumbent senators who did not have to run for re-election and will retain their seats until the next presidential elections in 2022, at least three openly support Duterte. This makes the majority of the Upper House Duterte allies now. Duterte gained control of the House of Representatives and the military soon after he became president in 2016. The ouster of Duterte critic and then-Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno last year was also seen as a way of gaining control of the Supreme Court (SC). Of the 14 SC justices today, seven were appointed by Duterte. The results from yesterday’s polls indicate that it’s about to get even easier for Duterte to execute his plans for the country, which include continuing the deadly drug war that has killed thousands, bringing back the death penalty, and changing the constitution. This article, Duterte allies win big in 2019 Philippine Senate race , originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters!