Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II admitted Friday that he is hurting with the way his campaign for the vice-presidency has turned out. “Sino ba naman ang hindi masasaktan, magugulat. Ilang linggo lang nakalipas ay namamayagpag tayo, biglaan na lang ay mga pangyayaring hindi natin maiiwasan (Who would not be hurting or be surprised. A few weeks ago I'm leading and suddenly unexpected things happen),” Roxas told radio dzMM, referring to the latest count on the presidential race, where he is trailing Makati City Mayor Jejomar “Jojo” Binay by around 800,000 votes. Roxas, however, insisted that the race was not yet over as he believes that he can still win by a small margin against Binay. “Sa dulo naman malalaman din ang katotohanan. Hindi naman natutulog ang Diyos... Hindi pa tapos ang laban (In the end we will all know the truth... The race is not yet over),” the senator said. The Liberal Party claims that Roxas's votes from at least 10 provinces in Central and Western Visayas will bring the winning salvo for the senator. LP officials Florencio “Butch” Abad and Avelino Cruz said the senator, with at least 5 million votes yet to be transmitted, can still win by a “hairline” margin. Binay, in a separate radio dzMM interview also on Friday, said that the LP's claim was a long shot. “Ang sinasabi nilang 5 million ay naiwanan na ng mga pangyayari. Ang sinasabi nilang figures ay hindi tugma sa ipinapalabas ng KBP [Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas] at PPCRV (Their claim of 5 million [untransmitted votes] is already outdated. Their figures do not jibe with the results being issued by KBP at PPCRV),” the Makati City mayor said. Binay said his camp will present documents before the media to counter the LP's figures.
