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There’s a whole lot of things to cover. Senators being proclaimed, Maguindanao Votes to be re-canvassed, Recto conceding, Beltran goes back to congress, and Manny makes headlines.

With 21 days since election day, it’s been a long arduous journey for the Senatorial Candidates, for 10 of those candidates, the journey has finally come to a happy conclusion. Yesterday, The Comelec, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, announced that 10 Senatorial Candidates would be proclaimed this Wednesday.

This is not a complete victory, since the last two spots are still open for change since the “special” board of canvassers that was set up for Maguindanao said that they will resume the re-canvassing on Wednesday as well. But, as we have been contending for the past week, what are they going to canvass? In a story from Inquirer,

Opposition lawyers, however, opposed any further delay of the re-canvassing, claiming the records section of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) show no municipal certificates of canvass had arrived from the controversial province.

“There are no records, even a toilet paper. There’s nothing to canvass,” one opposition lawyer told INQUIRER.net.

Despite requests for the termination of the Maguindanao re-canvassing due to the missing municipal certificates of canvass, SBoC chairman Emilio Santos adjourned and announced the continuation of the re-canvassing on Wednesday.

“We were asking that they should have not adjourned for Wednesday because they have the mandate to canvass whatever document they have. There’s none. So there’s nothing to canvass. But the Special Board of Canvassers have ruled that they will wait until Wednesday despite the missing documents,” said Francisco Joaquin III, legal counsel of Aquilino Pimentel III, in an interview after the adjournment.

The 10 Senators to be proclaimed are,

Loren Legarda, Chiz Escudero, Ping Lacson, Manny Villar, Kiko Pangilinan, Noynoy Aquino, Edgardo Angara, Alan Peter Cayetano, Joker Arroyo and Gringo Honasan.

The proclamation will be held at the PICC, 7 pm, Wednesday. And while there is celebration for the 10 candidates, Ralph Recto, another TEAM Unity candidate, has conceded. And apparently he’s excited to be citizen Ralph Recto once again.

In terms of the party list groups. It seems that Mike Velarde’s Buhay and Bayan Muna will each get three seats. Cibac and Gabriela will most likely get two seats.

And the following will get one seat each,

APEC, A Teacher, Akbayan, Alagad, Butil, Batas, Coop-Natco, Anakpawis, Abono, AGAP, and ARC

(Update: It looks like I may have spoken too soon, The Comelec is implementing the Panganiban Formula, which seems to disenfranchise the party list votes. The Inquirer is contending that only Buhay may get three seats, but from my calculation, it looks like Bayan Muna will still get 3 seats. Nonetheless, under the Panganiban formula, less seats will be available for party lists, instead of the mandated 20 percent of Congress, around 53 seats)

(Update 2: The additional number of seats are computed by dividing each group’s total votes by the number of votes earned by the “first party,” or the top vote-getter in the party-list race. The quotient is then multiplied by the additional number of seats gained by the “first party” beyond the two-percent minimum. Using this formula on the current Comelec tally figures, Bayan Muna’s votes (925,042) divided by Buhay’s votes (1,112,486) yields a quotient of 0.83. Multiplying the two additional seats for Buhay, Bayan Muna gets a product of 1.66. Since the formula uses only the whole number, Bayan Muna will only get 1 extra seat.)

I don’t have the time to figure out the the entire system, but the bigger question may be, why did Comelec adopt the 2-4-6 system in the previous elections when Bayan Muna was on top, but now will defer to the Panganiban formula this time around? And another bigger question, isn’t this formula in direct conflict with previous decisions of Comelec? Comelec is treading on something that may just bite them in the ass. Hope someone can help with this. Please read The Inquirer Article, Related Cibac Article in which they contend on using the “Ang Bagon Bayani Formula”, and The Explanation of the Panganiban Formula.

(2nd Update: You can read my most recent article, and why there’s a better way to the current method)

And lastly, poor Manny Pacquiao, the people’s champ, has made some headlines, with his sudden withdraw of cash from General Santos Banks. In a recent article from Business Mirror, (thanks to Ellen for her article)

According to the sources, Pacquiao, who ran under the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), was miffed that his Metro Manila-based political principals did not deliver their end of the bargain as he sought the reimbursement of expenses arising from his decision to seek an elective position in his native province of South Cotabato.

There was a reported deal for Pacquiao to spend from out of his personal pockets, with the principals pledging to reimburse every centavo spent at the end of the campaign period.

According to sources, Pacquiao called his political principals as it became clear just days before the actual May 14 elections that he would lose his bid to get a congressional seat, only to have them cut the phone line abruptly.

Additional: Ka Bel goes back to Congress, but he still has around P700,000 in hospital bills. Gonzalez is still whirling from the slap on the face =)

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