IS MANNY Pacquiao prolonging his agony?
Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao yesterday made it clear that he is not throwing in the towel in his bid to wrest the congressional seat in the first district of South Cotabato.
Despite the avalanche of unfavorable election results, Pacquiao refuses to concede to incumbent and third-term seeker Darlene Antonino-Custodio, who is pulling away after three days of counting.
Pacquiao said in a brief conversation yesterday afternoon that the fight’s not over yet.
“Hindi pa tapos ang bilangan,” said Pacquiao, claiming that it would take a couple of more days before all votes would be officially counted.
While he did not sound enthusiastic about the possibility of staging a last ditch rally, Pacquiao expressed sadness over the first salvo of votes that have been counted.
“Of course, I am sad because my opponent is leading,” Pacquiao said. “But I am fine and doing well right now.”
“But whatever happens, I will respect the outcome of this election,” added Pacquiao.
As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, Namfrel partial and unofficial results during canvassing at the Notre Dame of Dadiangas University showed Antonino-Custodio garnering 77,862 votes against Pacquiao’s 45,422 for a lead of 32,440..
The latest tabulation represents 77.14 percent or 1,127 of the election returns tabulated by Namfrel out of the city’s 1,461 precincts.
Namfrel head Fr. Angel Venavides said the remaining votes from 334 election returns which is he said is about 6,000 would no longer affect the outcome.
“Our tally is based on the official copy of the election returns from all precincts in the city, which we are entitled to,” Fr. Venavides said.
