Gordon concedes too
By Dennis Carcamo (philstar.com) Updated May 11, 2010 02:33 PM
MANILA, Philippines – Bagumbayan presidential candidate Sen. Richard Gordon has conceded to frontrunner Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
Gordon, the author of the automated polls in the Senate, said he has accepted the "will of the people" during the first automated elections in the country.
"Today, we have a victory for democracy with the successful exercise of our first nationwide automated elections despite naysayers and doubters," Gordon said in a statement.
The senator also rallied Filipinos to throw their support behind Aquino.
"I would like to congratulate Sen. Aquino for his spectacular victory. I call upon the nation to unite and support him," he said.
His consistently low ranking in the partial tally of election returns have caused Gordon to bow out of the presidential race, a TV report said. According to the latest tally of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Gordon is at sixth place with 431,954 or only 1.41 percent of the total votes canvassed.
Gordon is the third presidential candidate to have conceded to Aquino, following Sen. Manny Villar of the Nacionalista Party and Ang Kapatiran’s JC de los Reyes.
As of this posting, Aquino is leading in the tallies of th Comelec and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, with more or less four million votes away from nearest contender former President Joseph Estrada.