DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/10 May) – Senator Grace Poe has conceded the Presidential race to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who widened his lead in the Presidential race by nearly 6 million votes as of 12 midnight over administration bet Mar Roxas.
In a press conference in Quezon City that started at 12:03 .a.m. on May 10, Poe read a statement in Filipino, conceding the race to the lone Mindanawon candidate.
“
We have a clear leader in the election and it’s pretty obvious he has a wide margin,” said Poe, who earlier phoned Duterte to congratulate him.
“It has always been my advocacy to respect the will of the people when it comes to elections,” said Poe, adding, “the voice of the people should be supreme.”
She vowed to help in the healing process post-election and to work together for the country’s progress.
Based on partial unofficial results via the Comelec-GMA7 Mirror Server, as of 12:12:35 a.m. on May 10, with 81.18% precincts reporting, Duterte garnered 13,720,721 or 38.6% votes, followed by administration bet Mar Roxas’ 7,758,088 votes (22.8%), Poe’s 7,758,088 (21.8%), Vice President Jejomar Binay’s 4,634,123 (13.%), and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s 1,2984,256 (3.6%).
Binay has also issued a two-paragraph statement that he has “repeatedly called for respecting institutions and the democratic process. Once the process is completed, we should always respect the outcome.”
“We should all move towards healing and unity for our divided land,” he said.
There is no word as yet from Roxas and Santiago.
Duterte lost no time reaching out to his rivals as soon as the polls closed on Monday.
After casting his vote, Duterte, in a press conference at the Royal Mandaya Hotel Davao, said he would like to reach out to his opponents so the “healing process” could start.
“Let’s begin to forget about the travails of the elections,” he said. “When I offer (peace), that’s without exemption but if they don’t accept my goodwill, fine. I always believe in the deep abiding faith in God.”
(MindaNews)