MANILA, Philippines – Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez prefers to have a constitutional commission or con-com draft Charter revisions that will change the form of government to a federal system.

Alvarez, who is incoming president Rodrigo Duterte’s choice to be speaker of the House of Representatives in the 17th Congress, said yesterday he liked the move of the late president Corazon Aquino to form a con-com that wrote the 1987 Constitution.

On this page, you will find the updates on latest vote tally for the 5 presidential candidates: vice president Jejomar Binay (UNA), Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago (PRP), Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte (PDP–Laban), Senator Grace Poe (Independent) and former DILG secretary Mar Roxas (Liberal).

Many believe that this presidential election is unprecedented in how it has divided us Filipinos, and in how it has brought out the strongest emotions we have seen in an electoral campaign. Perhaps these emotions have simply been more manifest because the wide accessibility of internet-based social media has made it much easier for personal sentiments to be widely disseminated. In any case, with the ballots cast and as we await what everyone hopes to be a credible and definitive outcome, I am led to ponder on the kind of leadership that our flawed and fractured nation needs at this time.