Halalan 2025: Comelec sending election returns data, not totals, says poll chief

The Commission on Elections only sends election returns data and not total tallies, the Comelec chief said Tuesday, amid concerns about the partial, unofficial returns received by media entities past midnight.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia said election returns data from the polling precincts are “sent to all” including the Comelec central server, media entities such as ABS-CBN and TeleRadyo, poll watchdogs such as the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections and the majority and minority parties.

“In our transparency server, there are no totals. What we only see are the percentage of election returns received all over the country…Whoever is leading and their ranks, I would not know...As God as my witness, I do not know the rankings,” he said in an ABS-CBN News interview. 

He added that the tallies of media entities and watchdogs are considered partial and unofficial until Comelec canvasses the results.  

Poll watchers can also countercheck the election returns being received by Comelec as shown in its website with the data being received by media entities.

The Comelec chief said he expects 100 percent of election returns to be transmitted in the afternoon of May 13.

Partial, unofficial results aggregated from Comelec data as of May 13, 2025, 5:02 AM and from 80.26% of Election Returns received by ABS-CBN showed the following rankings in the senatorial race: 

1 GO, BONG GO (PDPLBN) 

21,729,790 Votes

2 AQUINO, BAM (KNP)

16,794,699 Votes

3 DELA ROSA, BATO (PDPLBN)

16,639,300 Votes

4 TULFO, ERWIN (LAKAS)

13,781,873 Votes

5 PANGILINAN, KIKO (LP)

12,278,641 Votes

6 MARCOLETA, RODANTE (IND)

12,200,940 Votes

7 LACSON, PING (IND)

12,116,320 Votes

8 SOTTO, TITO (NPC)

11,909,561 Votes

9 CAYETANO, PIA (NP)

11,684,846 Votes

10 VILLAR, CAMILLE (NP)

10,997,784 Votes

11 LAPID, LITO (NPC)

10,793,298 Votes

12 MARCOS, IMEE R. (NP)

10,697,840 Votes

Earlier, the Comelec data feed on partial, unofficial returns in the 2025 senatorial race showed an unexplained decline in the votes of candidates, even while the percentage of election returns rose.

In the 12:32 a.m. Comelec update based on  68.76 percent of election returns, the Comelec data feed  showed pacesetter Senator Christopher “Bong” Go having 26,430,315 votes. 

However, more than 2 hours later in its 3:50 a.m. update based on 80.16 percent of election returns, the Comelec data feed showed a drop in Go's votes to 21,699,929 votes.Bam Aquino had 20,464,747 votes that fell to 16,782,544, while Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa initially had 20,257,568 votes that dropped to 16,614,841.

Asked about the discrepancy, he said: "Di ko po alam saan nanggagaling ang bawas-bawas na ganyan sapagkat hindi kami nagsu-suma-total. Wala po kami."

He said it is up to those who received the ER data to explain how it processed the tallies.

Asked why PPRCV seemed to have received their ER data late, he said Comelec sends the data at the same time "but it is up to the receiving entity how it processes the data." 

"It could be we sent 80 percent of ERs but one entity processes only 70 percent while another processes 80 percent," he explained.