The North and South vote Red for Marcos

Presumptive President Marcos Jr. delivers speech in front of crowd in Mandaluyong City. (Photo: Rappler)

As of May 13th, unofficial, partial results coming from COMELEC’s real-time transparency server show that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is leading the race with a staggering 58.5% of the vote, or about 31 million votes. VP Leni Robredo comes in second place, with 28%, or about 15 million votes. Manny Pacquiao is third, with 7% of votes, Isko Moreno Domagoso at fourth, with 3.6%, and Lacson at fifth, with 1.7%.

But these numbers are not final until COMELEC says so.

On May 6th, COMELEC reportedly recorded the fastest results for an election in its history– although, PPCRV is now contesting that claim. Amidst a flurry of controversies, including but not limited to: a failure of election in Lanao del Sur, almost 2,000 vote counting machine malfunctions, questionable counts from a sizeable number of precincts, and some alleged statistical anomalies in the final count, COMELEC has yet to release the official, final election results. 

However, after PPCRV’s manual encoding to cross-check COMELEC’s count, we have substantial data to discuss which candidates garnered the most votes in which regions. Did presumptive president Marcos Jr. win in his bailiwick North? Which regions did he not win over? Let’s take a closer look.

Solid North comes through for Marcos Jr.

During VP Robredo’s campaign trail, provinces in the North showed up in big ways. A reported 76,000 attended Robredo’s rally in Pangasinan, and about 30,000 in Baguio. 

Many have already questioned whether “Solid North” is really just a myth to perpetuate the power of the Marcoses, but the big crowds showing up for Robredo during the campaign period only amplified those doubts. Thousands showed up to support Robredo, leading some to believe that Marcos’ Solid North may not be so solid after all– that perhaps, a change in tide was coming.

But alas, come election day, Solid North proved to be… Well, Solid.

Solid North is made up of the nine provinces in the Ilocos Region (Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan, and La Union) and Cagayan Valley (Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino). Partial results released on May 10th show that Marcos Jr. won by a landslide in eight out of the nine Northern Provinces.

Out of the nine, only Batanes (with a voting population of about 12,000) voted pink for Robredo. Marcos Jr. dominated in Ilocos Norte (over 355,000 votes vs Robredo’s 10,000) and Ilocos Sur (390,000 vs Robredo’s 15,000)—the rest of the provinces in the North had similar results.

Solid South, too

A large majority of regions in the South voted red, as well. With the exception of one city and two provinces, Marcos Jr. is projected to win all of Mindanao. Notably, Maranao candidate Faisal Mangondato won in the predominantly Muslim city of Marawi and the province of Lanao del Sur, and Senator Manny Pacquiao won in his home provice of Sarangani. 

Despite many prominent figures in the South expressing support for Robredo during the campaign period, she only came in second or third among the Mindanao provinces. Rappler notes that even after combining votes for Pacquiao and Robredo, Marcos Jr. would still dominate.

Rappler also comments that despite having 10 candidates, this election may as well have been a two-person race in most provinces, considering the gap between second place and the rest. But even still, Robredo, this election’s second placer, only won two regions: in her home province of Bicol and Western Visayas.

Amidst all the aforementioned controversies, the numbers are pointing to one clear winner. Robredo has asked her supporters at her recent thanksgiving event to respect the voice of the majority, while promising that every discrepancy and allegation will be thoroughly investigated.

The majority has spoken, and following the basic principles of democracy, supporters of every candidate must respect the results. At the same time, democracy also allows citizens to demand for institutions to answer for their failure to deliver a clean and honest election. 

As we enter possibly the most polarizing era in our history, Filipinos are once again testing the boundaries of democracy. In this push and pull, we can only hope that eventually, we will unearth the truth—whatever color it may be.