Roxas still confident of winning VP race

For Sen. Manuel “Mar" Roxas II, the fight for the vice-presidency is not yet over despite the lead being enjoyed by Makati mayor Jejomar Binay. “The race as between me and my closest competitor is indeed very tight. However, it is not for me, or anybody for that matter, to say if we’ve already lost," Roxas said in a statement. Roxas noted that the partial and official tally of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as of 3:57 p.m. was based only on roughly 85 percent of all election returns.

“This means roughly five million voters in more than 11,000 precincts have yet to be taken into consideration," he said. Roughly half of the 11,000 precincts are expected to come from regions considered as bailiwicks of the Liberal Party, Roxas’ political group where he is in tandem with Sen. Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III, the leading presidential candidate. “This just underscores that the fight is not yet over, and we should remain vigilant," Roxas said. A partial and unofficial tally of GMANews.TV as of 9:15 p.m. showed Binay maintaining his lead with 12,802,259 votes compared to Roxas’ 11,949,985. Coming in at far third was Sen. Loren Legarda with 3,563,758. Legarda had already conceded defeat to Binay. —KBK, GMANews.TV