Gilbert Teodoro, Richard Gordon, Eddie Villanueva, JC de los Reyes concede to Aquino.
Loren also concedes. Also Danny Lim, Ariel Querubin and Alex Lacson.
by Sophia M. Dedace
GMANews.TV
As the partial results of the May 10 polls continued to trickle in, Senator Manuel Villar Jr. on Tuesday congratulated his rival, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, the Liberal Party’s standard bearer who is leading the presidential race by a growing margin.
“Humaharap ako sa inyo ngayon upang tanggapin ang pasyang ito. Upang igalang ang boses ng sambayanang Pilipino. I congratulate Senator Noynoy Aquino on his victory. The challenges he and our country faces are enormous and we should all work together,” he said, reading a prepared statement during a press conference in Mandaluyong City.
For Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, the fight for the vice-presidency is not yet over despite the lead being enjoyed by Makati mayor Jejomar Binay.
Roxas still confident of winning“The race as between me and my closest competitor is indeed very tight. However, it is not for me, or anybody for that matter, to say if we’ve already lost,” Roxas said in a statement.
Roxas noted that the partial and official tally of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as of 3:57 p.m. was based only on roughly 85 percent of all election returns.
“This means roughly five million voters in more than 11,000 precincts have yet to be taken into consideration,” he said.
Roughly half of the 11,000 precincts are expected to come from regions considered as bailiwicks of the Liberal Party, Roxas’ political group where he is in tandem with Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, the leading presidential candidate.
“This just underscores that the fight is not yet over, and we should remain vigilant,” Roxas said.
According to GMA Network’s partial and unofficial tally as of 10:19 a.m. on Tuesday, Aquino remained at the top spot with 12,587,583 votes. Villar ranked third with 4,477,279 votes. Aquino and Villar were the fiercest contenders throughout the three-month presidential campaign.