Roxas told to stop misleading the public on poll results

MANILA, Philippines - The camp of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) vice presidential candidate Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay urged yesterday Liberal Party vice presidential bet Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II to stop misleading the public through the selective release of provincial results of the elections that are favorable to the LP bet.

Losing PMP senatorial candidate JV Bautista said while Roxas won in Pampanga, Binay won by wide a margin in Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Bataan.

“Why don’t they (LP) show the regional results? They are again misleading the public by showing only favorable provincial results. Region by region, Binay won 14 out of 17 regions. We won in region 3,” Bautista said.

Bautista cited LP’s claims last Saturday that based on the Certificates of Canvass (COC) in their possession, Roxas will win the vice presidential race.

He said he is puzzled by the seeming confidence of Roxas’ camp, when all exit polls and unofficial counts point to a Binay victory.

“We do not know, but we would like to find out, if the camp of Senator Roxas has access to information that is not available to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting) and the KBP (Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas),” Bautista said.

Bautista also wondered why LP campaign manager Florencio Abad keeps insisting that the Visayas votes have not been transmitted despite the statement of Commission on Elections Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal that votes from the supposed bailiwick of Roxas have already been transmitted to the Comelec’s central server.

“Why are they insisting that the Visayas votes have not been transmitted when even the Comelec says they have it already. Which is more credible, Comelec or the Roxas camp? Or do they have data that they are not sharing with the Comelec?” Bautista said.

Some academicians said that Binay will win the vice presidential race by some 970,000 votes.

University of the Philippines professor Lenny de Jesus said the accurate exit polls conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia were consistent with the trend of election results from the Comelec and PPCRV.

De Jesus said only “external maneuvering or manipulation” can alter the results.

“From the academician’s point of view, with 90 percent of the total votes cast already counted, the lead of Mayor Binay will not change unless external maneuvering or manipulations out of the ordinary happen,” De Jesus said.

De Jesus said the results have shown Binay consistently maintaining his lead over Roxas since the start of the count, and there have been no drastic changes in the trend.

Pulse Asia said Binay would win by 5 percent, while SWS showed a win of 2.4 percent for the opposition leader.

The Binay camp also took exception to a statement made by Roxas that Binay has not been true to his running mate.