Dark-horse candidate Miriam Defensor-Santiago widened her narrow lead over former defense minister Fidel Ramos in Monday's presidential election, according to unofficial preliminary returns.
With about 1 percent of the vote reported, former judge and immigration official Defensor-Santiago led the seven-way race with 54,870 votes.Ramos, endorsed by outgoing President Corazon Aquino, was second with 42,977 and businessman Eduardo Cojuangco was running third with 33,984.
House Speaker Ramon Mitra was considered a front-runner but trailed in early returns with 13,272 votes, less than Imelda Marcos with 18,776.
Actor-senator Joseph Estrada took an early lead in the vice presidential race, which is decided separately from the president.
Cojuangco's running mate garnered 62,920 votes, compared with the 29,912 of his closest competitor, Lito Osmena, who campaigned with Ramos.
Santiago's support appeared strongest in Manila and surrounding areas while Ramos was taking the edge in early returns from the provinces.
"Most of the counting so far is from urban areas," said political commentator Rod Dula. "We should wait awhile. If this (Santiago's lead) continues until Wednesday, she might just make it."
Election officials said turnout was heavy, estimating about 80 percent of the country's 32 million registered voters cast their ballots before voting closed at 3 p.m. (1 a.m. MDT).
Officials said it would take a least a week to tabulate 75 percent of the presidential vote, and Aquino's successor will not be officially announced for several days.
Scattered violence marked overall peaceful voting in the largest election in Philippine history, which included congressional and local races with a total of some 17,200 offices contested.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. - son and namesake of the country's ousted dictator - was running unopposed for a congressional seat after his rival agreed to run for a local post, officials said.
Despite the deployment of 178,000 troops, authorities said at least 11 people were killed in violence late Sunday and Monday.
Officials in a handful of towns reported ballot box snatching and intimidation and a lack of ballots at several polling stations complicated the vote.
But statements from a number of poll watchers and voters in the last hours of balloting indicated the vote was among the most orderly in the Philippines.
"We can see there is no harassment and voting is going very smoothly; I just don't know when it comes to the counting," said accounting clerk Adela Samonte after she cast her ballot in Manila.
At least 58 people were killed in overall election violence, compared to 150 during local elections in 1988 and several hundred in the last free presidential race in 1969.
Recent surveys said about 30 percent of voters were undecided and would probably pick a presidential candidate while waiting in line at the ballot box.
Imelda Marcos complained about the voting procedures while casting her ballot Sunday.
"This is not a fair procedure," she said. "There is not even a list of the national candidates in the polling booth."
Her brow heavily creased in concentration, Marcos took 23 minutes to write the names of her 40 or so choices on the ballot.
"It is anybody's game," said Dean Coronel, lawyer for Mrs. Marcos. "You'd need more than a good fortune teller to predict the outcome."
An ex-judge, Santiago has captured the imagination of the country's youth with her pledges to clear the government of corruption.
Pundits have given the 46-year-old former immigration chief little chance of winning, forecasting she would do well in the capital but fade in the provinces where she lacked organization.
Marcos was given little chance because most of her late husband's lieutenants abandoned her for Cojuangco, who fled the country in 1986 but returned three years later.
A Cojuangco victory would be a humiliating rebuke to Aquino, his first cousin. Ramos, a cousin of Marcos, was a key figure in the military-civilian uprising that put Aquino in office.
Aquino has led a drive to elect Ramos, her former defense secretary. Ramos told his followers, "The process enters a critical period as the counting goes on, and this is where more vigilance is to be exerted on the part of all concerned."
Despite the good will that accompanied Aquino's rise to power, many Filipinos grew disillusioned with her inability to institute promised far-reaching social reforms such as land redistribution.