MANILA, Philippines – At 8:59 pm, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) results website started reporting transmissions, showing 61.45% election returns (ERs) already received.

The first batch of results came in at 8:27 pm, with 3,456 precincts transmitting.

According to the site, 65,245 out of 106,174 local ERs were received as of that time, two hours after the scheduled closing of polling precincts in areas that experienced minimal o no voting issues.

Based on the third transmission to the media server, 53.50% precincts reported as of 9:01 pm, with Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. leading with 17,541,799 votes and Leni Robredo following with 8,311,501 votes. 

Manny Pacquiao trails behind with 1,486,592 votes, Isko Moreno follows with 1,188,776 votes, and Ping Lacson with 567,761 votes.

For the vice presidential race, Sara Duterte is leading with 17,155,745 votes, and Kiko Pangilinan follows with 5,276,161 votes.

ERs are expected from over 107,000 vote counting machines (VCMs), but this process may be hindered due to numerous malfunctioning VCMs and missing SD cards. 

Close to the cut-off, voters were still urging the Comelec to extend voting hours to accommodate them, having been unable to cast their votes due to faulty VCMs and long lines due to pandemic-related health protocols.

Comelec Commissioner George Garcia said that as of Monday, 10 am, at least 1,867 cases of malfunctioning VCMs were already resolved. 

Casquejo said as of past 4 pm that 168 or 0.15% of the 107,345 VCMs and 176 SD cards had been found defective. 

In the 2019 elections, Comelec reported that 961 out of 85,769 VCMs or 1.1% were defective, while 801 VCMs were defective in the 2016 national elections. – with a report from Dylan Salcedo/Rappler.com