A Catholic priest who heads a prominent radio station urged the people to respect the decision of the Filipinos in choosing the leaders of the country.
Fr. Anton CT Pascual, president of Radio Veritas, said it is important to recognize the result of the election because it is one of the characteristics of an independent society. “Let’s respect the rule of the majority from a relatively peaceful, clean and credible election,” he said in a radio interview.
“That’s (an) appreciation of the democratic ideals of the foundation of sovereign popular will and rule of law,” he added.
The statement came after presidential frontrunner Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. leads in the partial unofficial count of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), the citizen’s arm of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the May 2022 polls.
Based on the latest count, Marcos already has 31 million votes while his closest rival, Vice President Leni Robredo only has 14.7 million votes.
The former senator’s running mate, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, also leads the vice presidential race with 31.3 million votes. In second place is Senator Kiko Pangilinan with nine million votes.
Earlier, the pastors of the Catholic Church have called on the faithful to respect and accept the outcome of the election and urged them to reunite for restoration especially those who had a conflict due to differences in the candidates they supported.
At present, the PPCRV continues to canvass the fourth copy of the election returns (ERs) at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in España, Manila.
The church is also hoping that truth and justice will prevail in the 2022 national and local elections despite the reported issues including defective vote-counting machines and faulty Secure Digital (SD) cards.
The Comelec estimated that over 80 percent of the registered voters have participated in the polls this year.
