Judging by the quick count and the reported extravagant celebration by the select elites, Bongbong Marcos (BBM) and Sara Duterte won the elections. However, with the trolls continually on the defensive mode while at the same time trying hard to pulverize Leno Robredo and the Kakampinks shows that even the supporters of the Reds are not convinced that they won already. Are they also questioning the election results?

The questions on BBM’s winning the presidential race are being highlighted by a number of groups – among them statisticians who saw a stable patterns of vote shares and vote margins. These include the alleged “68:32 Magic” where the share of BBM’s vote is pegged at 68% from 8:02 PM of May 9 to 1:32AM of May 10 while Leni’s vote-share is constant at 32% in the same period. (See Figure 1, The 68:32 Magic. Graphics not mine. CTTO.)

The Municipality of Guinobatan, in Albay, is one of those that suffered heavily from Typhoon Rolly. Its losses include five persons dead and two more missing, and millions of pesos worth of destroyed houses, public infrastructure and agriculture. The cause: The quarrying at the foot of Mt. Mayon that flooded the barangays close to the volcano with sand, boulders and volcanic debris. Allegedly, the quarried materials were left in the riverbeds that when Typhoon Rolly arrived, the water pushed the materials along with boulders and rocks down to the residential and agricultural areas.

Investigation on this claim is still on-going and quarrying activities have been suspended already. Even then, the question lingers: Just how lucrative is the quarrying of sand and gravel along Mt. Mayon that even Albay’s provincial governor is allegedly engaged in it?