As of this writing, Boxing World Champ Manny Pacquiao leads in the race for the lone congressional seat in the Province of Sarangani.

His opponent, Roy Chiongbian, son of James who was responsible for carving the province out of South Cotabato, could not even muster 50% of his total votes.

The figures below are from the GMANEWS.TV website.

Partial Unofficial Tally as of 2010-05-12 11:06:11 88.60% of ERs

*Chiongbian, Roy L.  –  56,199 votes

*Pacquiao, Emmanuel D   –  111,287 votes

As for the rest of the officials of Sarangani:

Governor:

*Dominguez, Miguel Rene A  –  83,531 votes

*Domino, Juan D.  –  78,289 votes

Vice-Governor:

*Basino, Fredo  –  70,053

*Solon, Steve  –  82,222

If this continues, then Sarangani will experience a major upset which never happened in its history.  Bye Mayweather?  Hello Congressman Manny?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Notes on Election 2010:

  • The first automated elections in history in the country was generally peaceful in Socsargen.
  • As early as 6am, voters were waiting outside the gates of the different polling centers.
  • Bariles immediately found his precinct through a map posted at the bulletin board of Lagao National High School, Aparente Avenue, Purok Malakas.
  • Bariles started lining up for his priority # starting at 8:30 am.  His feet were about to give away two hours after when he finally got a stub which has the number 243 on it written in pentel pen.
  • Since it was noon time, he went out for a bowl of batchoy at a nearby carenderia and a bottle of coke.  No food vendors were allowed inside the Lagao National HS except for peanut vendors who were able to sneak in.
  • An hour later, he was able to go inside his precinct and cast his vote.  He finished voting after 5 minutes and stayed inside the precinct for a total of 7 minutes only. It was faster than the time he spent during the early days of manual voting.
  • When the PICOS flashed “Congratulations!” he felt his heart skip and clapped his hands loudly.  It was such a tiring exercise but all well worth it.
  • Despite its flaws, Bariles feels that the first automated elections in the Philippines is heaven-sent!