Senator Cynthia Villar complained about the names appeared to the receipt she received after casting her ballot on May 13 at the Las Piñas City Science High School.

In an interview with DZRH News, Villar was surprised that a certain candidate appeared in her receipt despite not voting it.

A video from the Philippine Information Agency also showed Villar complaining about her receipt.

“Bakit di ko binoto, nasa receipt?” Villar asked the COMELEC representative.

However, Villar also said that there’s a possibility that she made a mistake during the shading of the names which might explain why the problem happened.

Cynthia, who’s leading the senatorial race voted together with her husband former Senate President Manny Villar.

Villar is not the only high profile politician complained during the election day, Former Vice President Jejomar Binay also experienced a problem after the vote counting machine (VCM) rejected his ballot eight times.

Unlike Villar who normally left her precinct, Binay immediately went to COMELEC headquarters to complain.

Mar Roxas in the first wave of the election results (3 out of 212 clustered precincts) in Tacloban City only got 32 votes, getting the second to the lowest position among Otso Diretso candidates in the said place.

Meanwhile, Bam Aquino got the highest vote in Tacloban among Otso Diretso candidates, getting 166 votes, while Chel Diokno placed second with 97 votes.

Imee Marcos who’s a pro-government candidate led in Tacloban City, getting 528 votes, while Bong Go and Bato Dela Rosa reached second and third position.

The votes got by Roxas made some pro-Duterte bloggers believed that the people of Tacloban could still be thinking of the controversial actions of the former DILG Secretary in their place during Yolanda in 2013.

On April 23, Roxas visited Tacloban and tried to convince the voters to make his political comeback possible.

Here are the senatorial candidates reached the top 13 in Tacloban City.

Davao City Mayor and Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) Chairman Inday Sara Duterte warned voting systems company Smartmatic to avoid trying to interfere with the results of the senatorial elections.

Inday Sara addressed COMELEC and Smartmatic after she was asked by one of the reporters about the alleged cheatings that might happen in the elections.

The Davao City Mayor is one of the people who believe that President Rodrigo Duterte should have won 19 million votes in the last presidential elections.

“That’s why it is an election, that’s why it is a democracy. People are allowed to choose kung sa kanila yung gusto nilang botohan,” Inday Sara said after voting at the Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School in Matina, Davao City on Monday.

“That’s why we remind COMELEC and Smartmatic to be faithful sa mga choices ng mga tao, wag na nilang pakialaman ang results ng botohan,” she added.

She also urged her father, President Duterte to exercise his right to vote.

“Sinabi ko hindi ako sure but…. sayang din yung isang boto niya kaya I will remind him to go out and vote,” she said.

Several videos have been circulated on social media showing ballots that were pre-shaded using ‘UV ink’.

However, COMELEC denied that pre-shaded ballots existed and pointed out that the paper on the video is only a sample ballot that was altered to misinform the people.

Former Vice President Jejomar Binay expressed his disappointment after his ballot was rejected by the vote counting machine (VCM) for eight times on Monday, May 13.

He also got annoyed after the representative from COMELEC failed to explain to him why his ballot got rejected by the machine.

The former VP also told the media that the representative told him that his vote was invalid because of the error.

Because of what happened, Binay is not thinking if the machines really intended to reject the ballots to give advantage to other candidates.

“Ngayon mukhang nag dududa na ako dito,” Binay said.

Ex-VP Jejomar Binay, nanggagalaiti matapos hindi mabasa ang kanyang boto | via RH06 @sherwinalfaro #DZRHat80 #Desisyon2019 pic.twitter.com/h7lWrNQKXy

— DZRH NEWS (@dzrhnews) May 13, 2019

Binay, who’s voting at the San Antonio National High School left and told the media that he’s going to Commission on Elections immediately to file a complaint after the VCM error.

According to him, the voters should not lose their vote because of a mistake that they didn’t make.

“Pupunta ako ngayon sa COMELEC, magrereklamo ako.. hindi tama iyon,” he said.

Meanwhile, a COMELEC representative explained that the VCM rejected the votes of Binay because of a paper jam.

They said that they cannot stop the election despite the problems, but they assure that COMELEC is going to deliver another backup VCM if the problem continues.

According to them, they kept the ballot of Binay in a folder and going to feed it to the machine once the VCM already repaired.

“Pag naayos na po yung machine, saka po natin ife-feed lahat yon,” the COMELEC representative said.

BREAKING: Ex-VP Jojo Binay's vote was rejected eight times by the vote counting machine due to paper jam, according to San Antonio National High School Principal Jina Iligan | @jelenefulesulit #TheFilipinoVotes pic.twitter.com/eOvdtSUPGz

— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) May 13, 2019

Senatorial candidate Jinggoy Estrada during the Miting De Avance of Makati City Mayor Abby Binay mocked detained Senator Leila De Lima after the sudden change of tide to their lives.

During a speech, Estrada who’s trying to make the audience laugh threw shade against De Lima who’s inside Camp Crame for alleged involvement in corruption during her time as the Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary.

De Lima was one of the officials who probed Estrada, together with other senatorial candidates Bong Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile because of graft.

“Tignan mo yung nagpakulong sa amin? Kilala mo yung nagpakulong sa amin? Yung babae? ‘Yun ang pumalit sa amin sa Camp Crame!” Estrada said.

Estrada also described his detention as “vacation” saying that they’re ready to go back to their work as public servants.

“Mahirap talaga magbakasyon na napag-initan ka na, niyurak ang iyong pagkatao, binaboy ang iyong pagkatao, bigla ka pang kasuhan, bigla ka pang pinakulong.” Estrada said.

“Pero mga kaibigan, malakas ang aking loob, malakas ang aming loob na humarap sa inyo at sabihin sa inyo paulit-ulit na wala po kaming kasalanan sa taumbayan.” he added.

Estrada is facing a plunder charge and only got his temporary freedom by posting bail.

Despite the warnings of the government against people who are gonna attempt to buy the votes of the people, two Lay Leaders of the Catholic Church in North Cotabato was caught being involved in vote buying Yesterday.

The suspects were identified as Sonny Dafielmoto Pasquin, 55, and Joel Forden Bolero, 54, both of Barangay New Rizal, Mlang town.

The two others, a man and a woman, were identified as residents of Carmen, the hometown of incumbent North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Talino Mendoza, who is running for Vice Governor, where her father, who is running for Governor, is the incumbent Mayor.

They were identified as Mateo Cabrillos Cuateros, 52, and Christine Punzalan Esparagoza, 33, both of Barangay Poblacion, Carmen town.

According to the police report, the alleged vote-buying happened in Barangay New Kalibo.

The suspects were also uncooperative with the authorities during the first two hours of the confrontation, insisting that they’re not going to open the white pick-up truck that they’re using.

They only opened the pick-up truck when a lawyer representing Governor Emmylou Talino-Mendoza and a personal staff of Governor Jessie Enid arrived from the scene.

After opening the truck, the authorities discovered 206,600 pesos in cash with a list of names of the voters who received the money.

Also seized by the police was a white Strada pick-up truck with plate number LGM 741.

Lawyers from PDP Laban Party are now preparing charges against those believed involved in the vote-buying operations.

Former Actress Cynthia Patag like her colleague Agot Isidro showed her own version of ‘kodigo’ to her followers on Facebook.

Several weeks before the election period, Patag who’s known to be a critic of President Rodrigo Duterte expressed her support to the members of Otso Diretso who’s the bet of the opposition.

Patag published her photo, holding a white paper showing the names of the candidate she chose to be the next senators, they’re Romulo Macalintal, Gary Alejano, Erin Tanada, Florin Hilbay, Samira Gutoc, Mar Roxas, Bam Aquino, and Chel Diokno.

She even made her own abbreviation consisted of the names of the Otso Diretso candidates.

“2 DAYS TO GO! VOTE STRAIGHT OTSO DIRETSO (MATHGRAD), PALANGGANAS! LABAN!” Patag said in her post.

This is one of the rare times that Patag published a photo of herself on social media account which she mostly used in showing her support to the opposition.

Patag is known for her comedic roles on television such as ‘Palibhasa Lalake’.

President Rodrigo Duterte during the Miting De Avance of PDP-Laban on Saturday criticized Senator Leila De Lima for investigating him since he was still the Mayor of Davao City.

Duterte, who’s speaking to the supporters of PDP-Laban in Pasig City narrated how De Lima tried to pin him in human rights violations several times.

According to the President, De Lima started scrutinizing him when she was still the chairperson of the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) during the Arroyo administration, then continued pinning him during her term as the Secretary of Justice during the Aquino administration.

He said that De Lima didn’t stop even they both reached the national government position and pointed out that the lady Senator didn’t prove anything against him.

The President also mentioned Bikoy who’s being accused as being commanded by the opposition to taint the reputation of the chief executive and his family.

“Inimbistagahan niya ako [ng] apat [na beses] walang masabi ngayon doon sa presohan ako ang isinusulat, Duterte, Duterte, Duterte..” the President said.

“Apat na beses mo ko inimbistiga pati yung rapporteur, hanggang ngayon walang tapos sige tapon dito.. tapos niyo diyan yung’Bikoy niyo.. bulate yan sa utak niyo,” Duterte said.

Duterte raised his finger for a moment while he continued discussing his case in the International Criminal Court, and how De Lima kept trying to prosecute him which made the audience laugh, saying that the lady Senator forgot that his trying to pin a prosecutor who’s knowledgable with law.

“Kasi ganito yan, noong may subpoena na so nag aral na ako.. nakalimutan ng gaga na ito na prosecutor ako, I was doing trial work every day for eight years, so what about… I studied my case,” Duterte said.

He narrated that he kept studying the Rome statute where the Philippines was one of its signatories, saying that it was invalid because it didn’t publish in the Official Gazette of the country.

Duterte and De Lima are known for already exchanging criticisms for years.

Actress and TV Host Mariel Rodriguez-Padilla expressed her support to President Rodrigo Duterte on her Instagram post.

In a social media post, Mariel who’s the wife of Robin Padilla, a staunch Duterte supporter narrated what happened during the party organized by President’s partner Honeylet Avacena to express their gratitude to the celebrities who supported the administration.

“My favorite moment of the evening that made me admire our President even more… the filet mignon was wrapped in bacon so in advanced the kitchen staff prepared fish for Robin and I. When our fish arrived Senatorial candidate Freddie Aguilar and his wife, Jovie, wanted fish as well because they are Muslims too,” Rodriguez-Padilla said in her post.

“Robin being the gentleman that he is giving his fish to Jovie so she could eat ahead. The whole table was prompted to eat all except for Robin, Ka Freddie, and PRRD. He said “sige kumain na kayo hintayin ko si Robin” and he really waited for Robin’s food to arrive. I know maliit na bagay but diba it’s the little things that matter. Super nakakatuwa at nakaka touched talaga. Yung loyalty ni Robin kay President ay hindi sayang because it is reciprocated with kindness. Truly a memorable evening!!!” she added.

In her comment, the TV host also believed that the President is still performing his job as the Chief Executive very well despite the criticisms he received from the opposition.

“Our President gets the job done! They can say whatever they want… that’s just noise. At the end of the day, he gets the job done!” Rodriguez told @mjesamen who said that she was saddened by reading the criticisms received by the President.

 

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A memorable evening for me courtesy of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and First Lady Honeylet. PRRD is not the first President that I campaigned for but he is the first President to invite me to the palace. The room was filled with celebrities who supported him both silently and openly. When the President arrived he sat down and immediately said “mag tatlong taon na akong presidente ngayon lang ako makapagpasalamat sa inyo.” Madam Honeylet flew in from Davao just to be at the thanksgiving dinner and she flies back to Davao the next day, during her introduction speech she mentioned that they are not really fond of hosting parties… so i knew it was a special night! On the menu was salad, mushroom soup, fillet mignon and strawberry cheesecake. The menu was a special request made by the President himself “sabi ko ibahin naman ang pagkain. Kasi ang pagkain talaga dito isang ulam, kanin at sabaw. Sabi ko gawin espesyal.” My favorite moment of the evening that made me admire our President even more… the fillet mignon was wrapped in bacon so in advanced the kitchen staff prepared fish for Robin and I. When our fish arrived Senatorial candidate Freddie aguilar and his wife, jovie, wanted fish as well because they are muslims too. Robin being the gentleman that he is gave his fish to Jovie so she could eat ahead. The whole table was prompted to eat all except for Robin, Ka Freddie and PRRD. He said “sige kumain na kayo hintayin ko si Robin” and he really waited for Robin’s food to arrive. I know maliit na bagay but diba it’s the little things that matter. Super nakakatuwa at nakaka touched talaga. Yung loyalty ni Robin kay President ay hindi sayang because it is reciprocated with kindness. Truly a memorable evening!!! Big big thanks to Senatorial Candidate Bong Go for making the evening possible. ?? (side kwento I didn’t know hindi pala pwede naka sleeveless… i had to cover my beautiful Carolina Herrera dress hehe ? buti na lang may blazer sa car)

A post shared by mariel padilla (@marieltpadilla) on May 7, 2019 at 7:45pm PDT