The time in the Philippines as I am writing this is Tuesday, May 11, 8:04 am (the day after E-Day). It is still Monday, May 10, 5:04 pm here in Long Beach. As of May 11, 7:00 am (Manila time), the AMA tally (the NAMFREL tally, which I usually trust since it covers 95% of the votes, for the moment is off to a slow start with so far only a small no. of votes received) shows PGMA leading with 478,115 votes followed closely behind by FPJ with 470,110 votes. That's a margin of just 8,005 votes! How close can it go? This is probably the most closest race in Philippine election history (I'm not counting the rigged snap election results in 1986) and in recent memory (remember the 2000 Bush-Gore debacle in Florida?). What surprised me is Raul Roco's sudden plunge to last place and Bro. Eddie Villanueva's strong performance in some partial results (the AMA tally however lists Roco at 4th place with 113,388 votes while Villanueva is still last with 109,488 votes, though the numbers are still impressive). In the vice-presidential race, results show (as of 7:28 am, again same day & time zone) Loren Legarda-Leviste with 619,259 votes followed by former ABS-CBN colleague Noli De Castro with 558,369 votes, with a big (but still-close) margin of 60,890 votes. But De Castro is leading in the majority of the partial poll results given by other organizations. The senatorial race is also heating up and as of 7:50 am, the partial & unofficial results show the ff. (Asterisks indicate my personal picks on who should win):

1. Manuel Roxas II- 851,044 (*)
2. Aquilino Pimentel, Jr.- 656,371 (*)
3. Alfredo Lim- 651,195 (*)
4. Richard Gordon- 649,116 (*)
5. Jamby Madrigal- 612,669
6. Ramon (Bong) Revilla, Jr.- 599,621
7. Miriam Defensor-Santiago- 578,600
8. Pia Cayetano- 575,996
9. Juan Ponce Enrile- 551,892
10. Rodolfo Biazon- 543,061 (*)
11. Jinggoy Estrada- 495,247
12. Robert Barbers- 480,674 (*)
13. Ernesto Maceda- 472,693
14. Lito Lapid- 436,275
15. Orlando Mercado- 396,797 (*)

So far, among the "Magic 12", 7 are allied with the administration's K4 coalition while 5 are from the opposition KNP ticket. But expect results to change in the coming hours, days, and probably weeks. No partial & unofficial results yet announced regarding the party-list representatives, but expect old stalwarts like Bayan Muna and the more-experienced Akbayan to reclaim their seats despite the pre-election controversies regarding their links to CPP/NPA (most of their representatives were formerly actively involved with the Left).

In an unrelated issue, I would like to give a belated salute to US Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who aside from becoming the second Fil-Am to become a US Army general (I think the first went by the last name of Soriano) recently made headlines when he exposed the alleged abuse by US soldiers of Iraqi detainees. This unfortunate incident prompted calls for the resignation of US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as well as protests demanding the pullout of American troops in Baghdad. Recently, US President "Dubya", heeding the request of some human rights groups, called for an immediate full-scale investigation of the matter (w/c includes the court-martial of the soldiers involved) and recently apologized & condemned the incident, but reiterated that the soldiers will continue to occupy Iraq. According to Filipino columnist Walden Bello, Taguba's investigative report of abuses in Abu Ghraib concentration camp (which was once one of Saddam Hussein's torture chambers) speaks of "extremely graphic photographic evidence," some of which cover the following acts: forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing; forcing naked male detainees to wear women's underwear; forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped; placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee's neck and having a female soldier pose for a picture; positioning a naked detainee with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture; a male MP guard having sex with a female detainee; using unmuzzled military working dogs to frighten and bite detainees; and "sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and possibly a broomstick." How sadistic can the soldiers go? Iraq has become the new Vietnam, unless the troops continue to stay there, expect more coffins to arrive by the dozen. Iraq may have a new flag and it is expected to be "free" by June 30 (the same day as the inauguration of the winners in the Phil. elections), but the US has yet to address the country's lack of basic services (I'm talking lack of water & electricity in some areas), growing militant activity, as well as the rise of anti-US sentiment (the same goes with every country which part of the "Coalition", including RP) which led to some recent hostage-takings. Taguba deserves a place among the greatest whistleblowers in history along with the mysterious "Deep Throat" (whose identity has yet to be revealed today) whose White House revelations (as reported by Woodward & Bernstein) lead to the Watergate scandal and eventually Nixon's resignation, former tobacco researcher Jeffrey Wigand whose startling revelations on "Big Tobacco" led to a wave of lawsuits against the giant tobacco companies and was immortalized by Russell Crowe in the film "The Insider", and the 3 female whistleblowers (one of them who worked for the FBI claimed they overlooked facts which would have prevented 9/11, while the other two figured in exposing corporate greed in two giant companies) who were proclaimed by Time Magazine as 2002's Persons of the Year. Special mention goes to another Filipino whistleblower: bank executive Clarissa Ocampo, who was "one foot away" when she saw then-President Estrada sign "Jose Velarde" in his check. This, along with more startling testimonies in the aborted impeachment trial, would set in motion the events of EDSA II.

NOTE: Partial and unofficial AMA tally & passages from Walden Bello's article taken from inq7.net

Gosh, this must be the longest blog I have ever done so far!