GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines — Boxer Manny Pacquiao appeared headed for a seat in Congress on Monday night in his native Sarangani Province, leading 61-year-old Roy Chiongbian by a margin of 3-to-1 with almost half the precincts reporting.
If the results continue, Pacquiao, 31, will become the first professional boxer to hold a national public office while still active in the ring.
Defeating Chiongbian, a member of a powerful billionaire family long entrenched in Sarangani Province in southern Mindanao Island, would represent an enormous upset victory for the seven-time world champion, who lost a badly run first run attempt at the Philippines Congress in 2007.
This time, Pacquiao poured millions of his own dollars into a lengthy, well-organized campaign that resonated with the mostly poor constituants who identified with his rags-to-riches story.
The Scene
Rather than listen to anecdotal information about voting fraud and machine glitches, I found a driver who would take me to two distinct voting precincts here in Sarangani Province — one that is more in favor of Chiongbian; the other more of a pro-Manny precinct.
After several hours of driving in storms, doing interviews and having friendly interactions with locals, along with slogging through lots of rain and mud, I found admitted incidents of vote buying for money or a 50-pound bag of rice and electronic machine glitches.
Promoter Arum has gone from being extremely confident, proclaiming his guy will win in a landslide, to hoping Pacquaio never runs for office again. I’m back at Pacquiao’s compound in General Santos City, the safest place to be in the area. It’s surrounded by armed guards.
At the pro-Manny precinct, it was taking as much as 20 minutes per voter. At the Chiongbian-friendly precinct, you could get in and out in no longer than 10 minutes.
There were at least 500 eligible voters still waiting in line at 3 p.m. local time and the polls had been open since 7 a.m. The polls were to close at 6 p.m. That was extended nationally until 7 p.m. Now people are pleading to keep the polls open until 11 p.m. What a mess.
Here I found one woman who would vote for Manny. “Because he’s big and strong,” she said.
Odds and Ends
While I learn of widespread voting machine failures, the turmoil over the one bathroom with water in Turloc precinct (somewhere), and the three guys shot last night in advance of the polls opening, I made a list of the absurd candidates running for the various offices here.
PRESIDENT — Disgraced former president Joseph Estrada, who was thrown out of the presidency fin a bloodless coup in 2001 following widespread accusations of money skimming, cronyism and corruption. Arroyo was his vice president, which thrust her into office. After being convicted of “plundering” he was pardoned. Now he’s running for prez again.
— Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, balding, chain-smoking 50-year-old bachelor son of the late Corazon Aquino.
— Manny Villar, 60, self-made real estate millionaire who was once the front-runner. Manny has aligned himself with Villar in the Nacionalista Party. Unfortunately, Villar’s popularity has plummeted amid reports he used his position in parliament to enrich himself.
— Accused mass murderer Andal Ampatuan Sr., who allegedly masterminded or authorized the Magu
Aquino is winning the president race by nearly 2 million votes over former disgraced president Joseph Estrada, with just over 40 percent of the precincts counted nationwide. Pacquiao’s running mate on the Nacionalista ticket, Manny Villar, was running a distant third.
This is the first fully electronic election in Philippines history.
— Today is the Pacquaios’ 10th anniversary in the middle of all the election buzz someone bought some flowers and a cake.
You can’t make up this stuff.
