With more than 60 percent of the country's precincts reporting, Ferdinand Marcos Jr had garnered over 20 million votes against liberal candidate Leni Robredo's 9.4 million.
Voting is under way in Philippines to elect a new president, with the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos the favourite to win the high-stakes race and restore his family to the pinnacle of power.
The official three-month election campaign for national posts, including the president and separately elected vice president and half of the 24-seat Senate, opened under strict anti-virus restrictions.
Chinese President Xi Jinping says his country won’t use its position to seek hegemony over its neighbours days after a flare-up in a maritime dispute with the Philippines.
Sara Duterte-Carpio's decision comes just before the November 15 deadline for candidates to make a late entry into the May elections.
Duterte’s daughter, although insisting that she does not want to take her father’s position, has hinted at a possible alliance with a presidential candidate.
ICC judges authorised in September a full-blown investigation into Duterte's anti-narcotics campaign, which rights groups estimate has killed tens of thousands of people, saying it resembled an illegitimate and systematic attack on civilians.
Pacquiao, Philippine boxing icon, who entered politics in 2010 as a congressman before being elected to the Senate, has long been expected to make a tilt for the country's highest office.
The defence agreement between Washington and Manila is a key component of their decades-long alliance and it is also seen as a bulwark against China's growing clout in the South China Sea.
Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao, who is seen as a possible contender to succeed President Rodrigo Duterte in next year's election, was ousted as ruling party leader after a row with Duterte.
Tough-talking President Rodrigo Duterte insists the International Criminal Court has no legal jurisdiction over him
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who cancelled the country's membership of the ICC's founding treaty in March 2018, is not willing to cooperate with the investigation.
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