MANILA — Team Unity expects six to eight of its senatorial bets to make it in the final count as the votes from TU bailiwicks started coming in with partial results ranging from 8-3-1 in its favor to a 12-0 shutout of the so-called Genuine Opposition (GO) in other pro-administration strongholds.
“Our reasonable expectations are for six to 8 of our candidates to make it in the final tally,” said Tourism Secretary and Team Unity spokesman Joseph Ace Durano in a news briefing at the TU headquarters in Manila.
While field reports from 814 precincts reaching the TU headquarters by 12:30 PM showed at least five pro-administration bets landing in the winners’ circle, Durano said one to three more of its candidates are likely to make in the end.
This is because of the avalanche of votes from its bailiwicks, particularly those where local pro-administration bets were running unopposed or virtually unopposed, or where the contests were between or among ruling-coalition members who were all supportive of the TU slate.
Durano said initial reports by certain media quarters, which showed the GO dominating the tally, do not reflect the true sentiments of the electorate because most of these were culled from opposition strongholds in Metro Manila.
Earlier, TU deputy spokesman Tonypet Albano said the ticket foresees an avalanche of votes from the administration bailiwicks, including the 243 towns and 24 cities nationwide where pro-TU bets were running unopposed or with token challengers, and which have an aggregate number of 5.6 million votes.
He likewise said that they are also banking on the results of the “club 56,” or the 56 towns which voted 12-0 for pro-administration senatorial candidates in the 2004 elections and which have a combined 1.8 million votes.
Durano said in the luncheon press conference that based on the reports coming from the field, a 12-0 vote for TU was obtained in Lapinig, Northern Samar, with 32 precincts shutting out GO bets.
Other areas that posted 12-0 results were Clarin, Bohol; Maguindanao; most parts of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM); and Mabuhay, Zamboanga Sibugay.
In Las Nieves, Agusan del Norte, the count was 8-3-1 in favor of TU; while a higher 9-2-1 result was gathered in such places as Cortes, Surigao del Sur, and San Jose, Dinagat Islands.
A 10-1-1 tally was reported to the TU headquarters, meanwhile, in places like Carmen, Agusan del Norte.
With these encouraging results, TU remains hopeful that at least six to eight of its candidates will land in the Magic 12 when the votes start coming in from areas where the opposition has failed to field candidates for the local or congressional elections.
“It’s a long way to go because the results do not reflect the whole country while our tally was picked randomly and the figure is nationwide collated by our people on the ground,” Durano said.
TU expects to win big in about 70 percent of the country where the opposition ticket has failed to field candidates in the congressional or local races.###
****** INBOX is an archive of press releases, statements, announcements, letters to the editors, and manifestos sent to Davao Today for publication. Please email your materials to davaotoday@gmail.com. Davao Today reserves the right to edit or refuse material for publication. *****
2007 Elections
