MANILA – Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte-Carpio were officially proclaimed late afternoon yesterday as the next President and Vice President, respectively, of the Philippines.
The proclamation was done after the Senate and House of Representatives adopted the resolution declaring the victory of both Marcos and Duterte-Carpio.
“I proclaim Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. as the duly elected President of the Republic of the Philippines and Sara Zimmerman Duterte as the duly elected Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines,” said Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco in a joint session of Congress.
The 64-year-old Marcos, son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., will become the 17th President of the Philippines. He will succeed Rodrigo Duterte who steps down next month.
Marcos received a total of 31,629,783 votes from the 171 out of 173 certificates of canvass (COCs) that were counted by Congress sitting as the National Board of Canvassers.
The former senator’s numbers were way ahead from the second placer, outgoing Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo, who only garnered 15,035,773 votes.
“I am inspired by this responsibility that has been given to me, so I ask you to pray for me, wish me well,” Marcos said. “We may not be perfect but we will always strive for perfection.”
The 44-year-old Duterte-Carpio, on the other hand, will serve as the 15th Vice President of the country. She will be the third female Vice President to be elected.
Duterte-Carpio was also a lopsided winner in the vice presidential race with 32,208,417 votes to defeat outgoing senator Francis Pangilinan, who settled for second place with 9,329,207 votes.
“Ang akong pagkadaog maoy kadaugan sa tanan nitabang, namingkamot ug misuporta karako,” Duterte-Carpio said. “Magtulungan tayo para sa isang bayan na nagkakaisa.”
Congress terminated the processing of the COCs at 3:33 p.m. even without canvassing the overseas absentee voting (OAV) votes from Argentina and Syria as the ballot boxes from these countries have yet to arrive.
“The votes from the two countries will not anymore affect the votes of (Marcos) and (Duterte-Carpio),” according to Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Marcos and Duterte-Carpio campaigned on a promise to unify the country, boost jobs and tame rising prices as the Philippines sought a pathway out of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic./PN
