Classic newsclipping caption:Erap-Binay leading in local absentee voting in the 2010 elections

 At the continuation of the canvassing of votes for president and vice president in a joint session of Congress — the Senate and the House of Representatives — who act as the National Board of Canvassers, former President Joseph Estrada and runningmate Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay ruled the elections in the local absentee voting.

Local absentee voters include government employees, including members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) who were allowed to vote in areas where they were temporarily assigned to perform election duties even if they were not registered to vote.

Estrada got 8,770 votes, while Binay received 12,995 votes.

Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential bet Gilbert Teodoro Jr., a former Defense Secretary, was second to Estrada with 6,199 votes, while Senator Benigno Aquino III got 2,744 votes.

In the vice presidential race, Binay was followed by Senator Manuel Roxas II with 4,583 votes and Bayani Fernando with 821 votes.

Tally for local absentee voting:

PRESIDENT:

Acosta – 1; Aquino – 2,744; Delos Reyes – 5; Estrada – 8,770; Gordon – 225; Madrigal – 5; Perlas – 13; Teodoro – 6,199; Villanueva – 259; Villar – 670.

VICE PRESIDENT:

Binay – 12,995; Chipeco – 3; Fernando – 821; Legarda – 117; Manzano – 175; Roxas – 4,583; Sonza – 22; Yasay – 110.

Classic newsclipping caption entitled:Noynoy gets zero votes in 26 countries

 Leading presidential candidate Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III got zero votes in at least 26 countries, based on the partial official tally of Congress.

This is because no vote was cast in 23 countries. In 3 countries, there was only one voter each, and they didn’t vote for Aquino.

The first 2 days of the official canvassing of the votes cast for president and vice-president were marked by repeated announcements of zero votes.

Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, has canvassed a total of 131 Certificates of Canvass (COCs). There is 1 COC per country or territory.

A total of 133 ballot boxes were opened, but the COC from Iran was empty while the COC from the Bahamas was deferred.

Why spend for OAV?

With the low voter turnout, several lawmakers were prompted to question to value of Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV).

“How much money did we spend for zero-zero votes? There is a budget, I think, for absentee voting from the Comelec (Commission on Elections). We send people,” said House Speaker Prospero Nograles.

Comelec records show that low registration for OAV. The voter turnout is low, too.
Thirteen of the 23 countries that registered zero votes have only 1 to 3 registered voters.

In this year's election, there was only a 23% voter turnout in the OAV with 589,830 registered voters or around 135,000 voters.

However, this was higher than the 16.21% (81,732 of the 504,124 OAV) turnout in the 2007 Senatorial election. But it was lower than the 64.89% (233,137 of the 359,296 OAV) turnout in the 2004 presidential election.

Postal voting

In most of these countries, the OAV votes are sent by mail or through postal voting.

This is done in areas where there is low population of OAV voters, and where the embassy or the consulate is located far from overseas Filipinos' residences.

The voters receive their ballot by mail, which he or she should fill out and mail to the Philippines' designated post for his or her current country/territory of residence.

Personal voting, on the other hand, where voters go to the Philippine embassy or consulate to vote, is done in countries with big populations of OAV voters.

Countries (post) with zero ballots	Mode of voting	# of registered voters
Guyana (Brasilia)	Postal voting	2
Barbados (Caracas)	Postal voting	17
Costa Rica (Mexico)	Postal voting	1
El Salvador (Mexico)	Postal voting	1
Guatemala (Mexico)	Postal voting	3
Honduras (Mexico)	Posting voting	1
Panama (Mexico)	Postal voting	3
Antigua and Barbuda (Washington)	Postal voting	2
Cayman Islands (Washington)	Postal voting	37
Saint Kitts and Nevis (Washington)	Postal voting	1
Turks and Caicos (Washington)	Postal voting	33
Mozambique (Pretoria)	Postal voting	45
Namibia (Pretoria)	Postal voting	41
Swaziland (Pretoria)	Postal voting	11
Zambia (Pretoria)	Postal voting	10
Zimbabwe (Pretoria)	Postal voting	2
Nepal (New Delhi)	Personal voting	2
Dominican Republic (Havana)	Personal voting	3
Madagascar (Nairobi)	Personal voting	8
Malawi (Nairobi)	Personal voting	3
Mauritius (Nairobi)	Personal voting	1
Tanzania (Nairobi)	Personal voting	11
Iran (2nd COC from 2nd precinct)	Personal voting	328

Source: Comelec Committee on Absentee Voting

According to Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Overseas Absentee Voting Section chairman Ambassador Nestor Padalhin, the Philippine embassies worldwide sought to increase the number of registered OAV voters. He said the bulk of the budget allocated for OAV voting was spent on encouraging Filipinos to register, including the transportation allowance for those who would conduct the registration.

“Plane and bus tickets and transport of machines are the budget concerns when sending proposals to the Comelec as well as when DFA goes on mobile registrations,” Padalhin said.

The turn out for OAV in 2007 was similarly low.

There was only one vote each coming from Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados in the previous elections. Each also had only one registered voter.

Classic newsclipping caption:Home region chose Migs over Koko

Whether Juan Miguel Zubiri of Team Unity (TU) finally bags the last winning slot in the Senate race, he has already won over Aquilino Pimentel III of the Genuine Opposition (GO) in a way that many politicians would pay their campaign strategists extra to achieve. In Pimentel’s own home province and city—Misamis Oriental, where Cagayan de Oro City is an independent city—Zubiri topped the elections.

In fact, in Northern Mindanao (Region 10), the region where they both come from, Zubiri emerged first (with 891,150 votes), while Pimentel was only 5th (with 600,523 votes).

Of the five provinces in Region 10, Zubiri was No. 1 in four: Bukidnon, whose third district he represented for nine years in Congress and where his father is governor; Camiguin; Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro, where Pimentel hails from and lost a mayoral bid in 2004; and Lanao del Norte, where the opposition alleged that the certificates of canvass from three municipalities were manipulated.

In these four provinces, Pimentel was 7th (Bukidnon), 6th (Camiguin), 4th (Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro), and 12th (Lanao del Norte). In the fifth province, Misamis Occidental, Zubiri also ranked higher than Pimentel: Zubiri was 2nd while Pimentel was 12th.

In the whole of Mindanao, according to the regional breakdown of votes published by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Zubiri got more votes, 2,941,974, than Pimentel, who got 2,553,784. Mindanao consists of six regions.

Zubiri’s popularity in Mindanao could be attributed to his advocacies that are popular among Mindanaoans, particularly the campaign for federalism. He was congressman of Bukidnon for nine years, continuing his father’s nine-year congressional stint. Pimentel, for his part, has mostly been more visible in the Manila scene, although he was commissioner for Mindanao of the National Youth Commission a decade ago.

Zubiri is one of the senatorial candidates in the Hall of Fame in terms of topping the race in their home provinces or regions, based on available data from the Comelec.

Of the 11 winners already proclaimed, eight topped the race in their home provinces or cities. These were Manuel Villar Jr. (Las Piñas), Edgardo Angara (Aurora), Francis Pangilinan (Pampanga), Benigno Aquino III (Tarlac), Panfilo Lacson (Cavite), Loren Legarda (Aklan), Francis Escudero (Sorsogon), and Joker Arroyo (Camarines Sur).

Others who finished No. 1 in their home provinces but didn’t make it to the national Magic 12 were Luis “Chavit Singson (in Ilocos Sur, where he’s been governor for a long time), Cesar Montano (Bohol), and Prospero Pichay (in Surigao del Sur, where he was a three-term congressman before joining the senatorial elections).

Five candidates finished No. 1 in their home regions: Escudero (Bicol), Legarda (Western Visayas), Zubiri (Northern Mindanao), Pichay (Caraga), and Jamalul Kiram (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, as of Comelec’s June 14 canvass). (See List of Regional Topnotchers)

In most provinces, the top slot went to either Legarda or Escudero, who finished first and second, respectively, in the national count.

We took note of candidates other than these two who topped provinces where they didn’t come from. They were Villar (Iloilo province and city; Guimaras), Angara (Negros Oriental, Siquijor), Pangilinan (Cebu province and city, Misamis Occidental); Pichay (Zamboanga del Norte, Dinagat Islands), Montano (Zamboanga Sibugay); and Lacson (Nueva Vizcaya, South Cotabato). (See List of Provincial Topnotchers)

There were candidates who ended up in the Hall of Shame, because they did poorly in their in their home provinces.

Vicente Magsaysay finished 10th in Zambales, where he’s governor. Ralph Recto was 9th in Batangas (Read: Batangas: Opposition Wins but Recto Brothers Lose), where he was congressman for nine years before becoming senator in 2001. Sonia Malasarte Roco was 14th in Bohol, and performed better in the Bicol provinces, where her late husband was a prominent political figure.

In Metro Manila, it was only Villar who topped in the city where he lives or he’d represented in the past—Las Piñas. It helped, of course, that his wife’s family has been in power there for a long time. His wife Cynthia is congresswoman, while his brother-in-law Vergel Aguilar is the mayor.

In Makati, Joker Arroyo was only 7th, even if he represented its first district for nine years before becoming senator in 2001. In fact, in his three terms as congressman, the only bill he filed and passed was that converting Makati into a city.

Neither of the two candidates who are registered voters of Malabon topped the elections there. Legarda finished second to Escudero. Tessie Aquino Oreta’s performance was worse—she ended up 15th in Malabon City that she represented in Congress for nine years before she became senator in 1998, and where her brother-in-law is mayor.

Quezon City voters seemed to have gotten tired of their old-timers in politics. They didn’t put in No. 1 any of their former congressional representatives and local officials who ran for the Senate.

Michael Defensor and Nikki Coseteng, both former representatives of the city’s 2nd district, finished 16th and 17th, respectively. Vicente Sotto III, who was QC vice mayor before he became a topnotcher senator in 1992, was only 18th. Francis Pangilinan, once a councilor and an unsuccessful congressional aspirant of the city, was 6th in this year’s senatorial race.

Legarda would have swept all the Cordillera provinces, but Zosimo Paredes of Ang Kapatiran stole the thunder from her in Ifugao. Paredes topped the race in the province, which he used to represent in Congress.

The same was the case in Region 8 (Eastern Visayas). Legarda topped the race in all provinces except one, in Southern Leyte, which delivered the highest number of votes to Pichay.

Singson, who has fashioned himself as a leader of the Ilocos region, topped the vote in only one province—in Ilocos Sur, where he was governor for a long time before taking a shot at a national post. Pichay, who grew up in Mindanao but stressed as well his Ilocano roots during the campaign, finished 6th in Ilocos Sur, his father’s home province.

The Bicolanos, as usual, delivered for fellow Bicolanos (Read: Bicol Picked 3 Favorite Senatorial Bets). Escudero was No. 1 in Sorsogon, where he was congressman for nine years; in Camarines Norte; and in Catanduanes. He was 2nd to fellow Bicolano Joker Arroyo in Albay and Camarines Sur, the latter being Arroyo’s home province. Escudero was also 2nd in Masbate to Legarda. Arroyo was 11th in Camarines Norte, 4th in Catanduanes, Sorsogon, and Masbate.

Honasan was 2nd in his home province of Sorsogon, 7th in Albay, 9th in Camarines Norte, 8th in Camarines Sur, 6th in Catanduanes, 10th in Masbate. Roco, whose late husband Raul was a favorite son of the region, was 4th in Albay, 7th in Camarines Sur, 3rd in Camarines Sur, 3rd in Catanduanes, 5th in Sorsogon, and 19th in Masbate. -