Bong Revilla overtakes Jinggoy in Comelec’s official tally

(Updated 9:15 pm) Reelectionist senator Ramon “Bong" Revilla Jr. on Thursday overtook Senator Jose “Jinggoy" Estrada as the frontrunner in the senatorial race, the latest official national canvass report from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) showed. Based on the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC)’s initial tally as of 4:17 p.m. Thursday, which included 60 of the 274 certificates of canvass (COCs) coming from the provincial boards of canvassers across the country, administration senatorial bet Bong Revilla was in first place with 11,053,981 votes. Former frontrunner Jinggoy Estrada of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) slipped to second place, with 10,631,692 votes, the national canvass report showed. Other senatorial aspirants who made it to the Top 12 based on latest Comelec data were: The Top 12 senatorial ranking in the Comelec official canvass of votes is consistent with GMA News’ partial, unofficial count as of 4:27 p.m. Thursday, which accounts for 89.5 percent of election returns. (See: National Election Results Tally) As in GMA News’ unofficial count, Akbayan Rep. Ana Theresia “Risa" Hontiveros-Baraquel ranked 13th in Comelec's official tally with 5,672,744 votes, while Muntinlupa Rep. Rozzano Biazon (5,182,767 votes) and Jose de Venecia III (4,740,988 votes) ranked 14th and 15th, respectively. As of posting time, the NBOC are still canvassing votes manually cast by Filipinos abroad and counted through the overseas absentee voting program. BUHAY in the lead in party-list polls The El Shaddai-backed Buhay Hayaan Yumabong (BUHAY) party-list group meanwhile ranked first in the party-list polls with 794,670 votes, a separate national canvass report showed. BUHAY dislodged former frontrunner Ako Bicol Political Party, which slipped to second place with 787,336 votes. Other party-list groups with the 10 highest votes according to Comelec's latest official tally include: According to the Party-list System Act (Republic Act 7941), “the parties, organizations, and coalitions shall be ranked from the highest to the lowest based on the number of votes they garnered during the elections. The parties, organizations, and coalitions receiving at least two percent (2%) of the total votes cast for the party-list system shall be entitled to one seat each: Provided, That those garnering more than two percent (2%) of the votes shall be entitled to additional seats in proportion to their total number of votes: Provided, finally, That each party, organization, or coalition shall be entitled to not more than three (3) seats."—JV, GMANews.TV