The headquarters of the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) in La Salle Greenhills, San Juan is now ready for the quick count that will start once the reports come in at around 9 pm today.

There are sixth copies of the election returns and NAMFREL gets one of the six as an accredited citizen arm of COMELEC. The poll watchdog will employ several methods to gather information, which include the use of fax machines, courier service, and e-mail.

Update: (05/18/2007)

Eight members of the Genuine Opposition (GO) senatorial ticket were still in the “Magic 12″ of the National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) quickcount (partial and unofficial) as of Friday morning.

As of 5:11 a.m., GO’s Loren Legarda was leading with 2,792,355 votes followed by her teammates Francis “Chiz” Escudero (2,735,202) and Panfilo “Ping” Lacson 2,486,625.

Independent candidate Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan (2,335,062) and Manuel Villar III (2,317,438) were in fourth and fifth places followed by GO’s Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III (2,232,994), TU candidates Edgardo Angara 2,024,755 and Joker Arroyo (1,821,143).

Independent candidate Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan was in ninth place with 1,792,977 while Alan Cayetano was in 10th place with 1,771,800.

In 11th and 12th places were GO candidates Antonio Trillanes (1,724,703) and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel (1,705,906).

The votes counted by NAMFREL came from 42,585 precincts or 18.95 percent of the total precincts nationwide.

source: abs-cbn news