MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday raised alarm over what it believes to be attempts to mislead the public, following a sudden discrepancy in the vote counts being reported for the 2025 national elections.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia addressed the issue in an interview, urging the public to question the source of vote figures that circulated early Tuesday.
“People should ask — where are those numbers coming from? Who is releasing them?” Garcia said.
He explained that election results from precincts are transmitted to several groups — including Comelec, the PPCRV, NAMFREL, major political parties, and media — through a system similar to group text messaging. Each recipient has its own server where results are received simultaneously.
“What you see on the Comelec website comes directly from the precincts, but they are unofficial,” Garcia clarified.
“We don’t compute totals, we don’t do rankings, and we don’t know who’s leading. That’s to avoid any perception that the data is final or official.”
Garcia questioned data that appeared online early morning with no clear attribution or source.
“If something appears labeled only as ‘Halalan 2025,’ without naming the entity it came from, that’s suspicious. That kind of release can mislead the public and shape perceptions based on inaccurate or manipulated figures,” he warned.
“One thing is certain — it didn’t come from us.”
Sudden Drop in Vote Totals
The concern emerged after media outlets noticed inconsistencies in the Comelec media server’s unofficial vote tally. Despite a rising number of transmitted election returns, several candidates’ vote totals dropped significantly between 1:32 a.m. and 2:11 a.m.
The discrepancy was later traced to a data duplication error during consolidation.
Among the affected candidates were:
Christopher “Bong” Go: 26,683,453 → 21,599,993
Bam Aquino: 20,572,272 → 16,750,496
Bato dela Rosa: 20,466,823 → 16,529,816
Erwin Tulfo: 16,868,042 → 13,725,209
Kiko Pangilinan: 15,036,876 → 12,244,219
Rodante Marcoleta: 15,001,038 → 12,132,562
Ping Lacson: 14,822,400 → 12,078,310
Tito Sotto: 14,569,262 → 11,873,441
Pia Cayetano: 14,324,330 → 11,644,257
Camille Villar: 13,459,585 → 10,937,140
Lito Lapid: 13,165,419 → 10,737,838
Imee Marcos: 13,084,362 → 10,645,870
Comelec said it is addressing the issue and will continue to monitor the accuracy of transmitted data. Official results will only be declared after proper canvassing and validation.
