MANILA, Philippines – Questions have emerged in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) data feed for the 2025 senatorial race, with several candidates showing significant, unexplained drops in vote counts—despite a rising percentage of transmitted election returns (ERs).
In a Comelec update at 12:32 a.m. on Tuesday, with 68.76 percent of election returns processed, Senator Christopher “Bong” Go led the race with 26,430,315 votes. However, in the subsequent update at 3:50 a.m.—with a higher 80.16 percent of election returns—the data showed Go’s tally had dropped sharply to 21,699,929 votes.
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| Bong Go leads the Senate race with over 21.7 million of votes. Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan on second and fifth spots, with 16.8 and 12.3 million, respectively. |
Other top candidates saw similar reductions. Bam Aquino's count fell from 20,464,747 to 16,782,544 votes, while Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa's total dropped from 20,257,568 to 16,614,841.
The vote declines extended across the field:
- Erwin Tulfo: 16,737,120 → 13,769,562
- Kiko Pangilinan: 14,956,226 → 12,270,104
- Rodante Marcoleta: 14,872,646 → 12,185,662
- Ping Lacson: 14,733,423 → 12,108,354
- Tito Sotto: 14,481,043 → 11,902,429
- Pia Cayetano: 14,227,570 → 11,676,205
- Camille Villar: 13,337,457 → 10,985,089
- Lito Lapid: 13,042,205 → 10,781,531
- Imee Marcos: 12,985,480 → 10,685,493
- Ben Tulfo: 11,806,382 → 9,714,099
- Ramon Revilla Jr.: 11,769,060 → 9,705,546
- Abby Binay: 11,496,760 → 9,466,771
Adding to the confusion, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) count had not updated since 12:01 a.m. and showed figures higher than both Comelec and media tallies as of 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.
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When asked about the discrepancies, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said he had no explanation.
“I do not know where those deductions are coming from, because we do not compute totals,” Garcia said in an interview with ABS-CBN News.
“What we receive on the transparency server are the percentages of election returns. I don’t see the rankings either. As God is my witness, I have no knowledge of the rankings.”
Garcia added that Comelec expects to complete the transmission of 100 percent of election returns by the afternoon of May 13.
— The Summit Express
