Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) standard-bearer Bongbong Marcos issued a statement of gratitude on late Monday night, May 9 as the partial and unofficial counting of votes showed him en route to a majority victory in the Palace race.
"We know that the count is not yet done, is not yet over, kailangan pa rin tayong magbantay (we still need to watch over the votes) but I want to issue a statement and essentially it's a statement of gratitude to all of those who have been with us in this long and sometimes very difficult journey for the last six months," Marcos said in his "address to the nation".
"I want to thank you for all that you have done for us, there are thousands of you out there, volunteers, parallel groups, political leaders that have, that cast their lot with us, because of their belief in our message of unity, because of their belief in the candidate, sa tambalang Marcos at Duterte kaya't napakalaking pasaslamat namin sa inyong lahat (in the Marcos-Duterte tandem thus our huge thanks to all of you)," he said.
Transparency server results at the time of Marcos's speech showed the UniTeam bet garnering 26.6 million votes. This was more than twice the votes received by the second-placed Leni Robredo (12.7 million), the incumbent vice president.
Marcos's running mate, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, appears to be on her way to a dominant victory in the vice presidential race as well. At that point, Duterte amassed 26.7 million votes, with Robredo's running mate Senator Kiko Pangilinan (7.9 milliom) being the distant second-placer.
Despite these developing election results, Marcos said he refuses to think that the counting is already over, because it isn't 100 percent over and there are still votes that need to be accounted for.
"Marami na ang nagsasabi na tapos na pero hindi pa talaga kaya antayin natin hanggang magmaliwanag na maliwanag, mag-100 percent ang pagbilang...hanggat tayo'y magcelebrate o magiisp na tapos na (Many are saying that it's over, but it's not so let's wait until it's very clear, when the counting has reached 100 percent, until we celebrate or think that it's finished)," he said.
"Ngunit kahit hindi pa tapos nga ang pagbibilang, hindi makapag-antay ang aking pasasalamat sa inyong lahat, ang aking pasasalamat sa lahat ng tumulong, sa lahat ng sumapi sa aming ipinaglaban, sa inyong sakripisyo, sa inyong trabaho at sa binigay ninyo sa amin na oras, na kakayahan, ng sipag (But even if the counting has yet to finish, I cannot wait to give my thanks to all of you, my thanks to all who have helped, to all those who joined our fight, for your sacrifice, for your work and the time, skill, and diligence that you gave us)," Marcos said.
"Any endeavor as large as this, does not involve one person. It involved very, very many people, working in very, very many different ways," the former senator and Ilocos Norte governor further said.