KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 15 May) – South Cotabato Rep. Daisy Avance-Fuentes (second district) is leading the gubernatorial race based on the partial and official results released by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Tuesday night.
As of 8:30 p.m., Fuentes, provincial governor from 2001 to 2010, was leading with 46,650 votes over incumbent Gov. Arthur Pingoy Jr., who got 31,845 votes, and former Koronadal City mayor Fernando Miguel, who received 25,242 votes.
The votes tallied by the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC) were from the towns of Banga, Norala, Sto. Nino, Surallah and Tampakan.
Fuentes ran under the Liberal Party-Nationalist People’s Coalition, Pingoy under the United Nationalist Alliance and Miguel under Lakas party.
Duque Kadatuan, Comelec-South Cotabato supervisor, said that results from the municipalities of Lake Sebu, Tantangan and T’boli had been fully transmitted to the PBOC but the figures from these areas were not immediately disclosed.
He said the PBOC had not received the transmission of votes from the towns of Tupi and Polomolok and the component Koronadal City.
Kadatuan told reporters that defective compact flash (CF) memory cards of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines caused the delay in the canvassing.
The PBOC was set to resume the canvassing of votes at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
It is holding the canvassing at the session hall of the South Cotabato Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP).
Although the contenders have their representatives to the canvassing session, there is no crowd of supporters massing outside the hall.
Two Army and two police officers provided security to the proceedings.
In the race for vice governor, Pingoy’s running mate Cecile Diel, an incumbent SP member, was leading with 50,049 votes. Her rival, Ernesto Catedral, who is allied with Fuentes and also an SP member, had 42,128 votes.
For the second congressional district race, Fuentes’ party mate Ferdinand Hernandez was leading with 54,789 votes over closest rival Elmo Tolosa, the incumbent vice governor and party mate of Pingoy, who had 36,087 votes.
The second congressional district comprised the towns of Tantangan, Banga, Norala, Surallah, Sto. Nino. Lake Sebu and T’boli and this city.
For the first congressional district, reelectionist Rep. Pedro Acharon Jr. was trailing behind Rogelio Pacquiao, brother of boxing icon and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao.
Pacquiao had 9,672 votes while Acharon got 7,459 votes.
The town of Tampakan and General Santos City had fully transmitted their results to the PBOC. But results of the votes from General Santos City have not been disclosed.
The first congressional district also covers the towns of Polomolok and Tupi.