Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulates Bongbong

Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. who is leading his rivals by a wide margin based on partial and unofficial results. 

Tweets by GMA News’ JP Soriano said that according to the Chinese Embassy in Manila, Xi recognized the Philippines and China as “partners through thick and thin” as “neighbors facing each other across the sea.”

“In recent years, with the joint efforts of both sides, the bilateral relations have been consolidated and enhanced, bringing benefits to the people of both countries and contributing to regional peace and stability,” said Xi.

Xi said "China and the Philippines are neighbors linked by the sea and partners that have stood together through hardships."

"Currently, China and the Philippines are both at a critical stage of development, posing important opportunities and broad prospects for our bilateral relations. I highly value the development of China-Philippines relations," he said.

The Chinese president said he is ready to build good working relations with the Philippines under Marcos' administration to preserve good neighborliness, work for common development, and deepen our relationship of comprehensive strategic cooperation so as to bring benefits to the two countries.

JUST IN: (1) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday sent a congratulatory message to Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos on his election as president of the Republic of the Philippines. @gmanews #Eleksyon2022

— JP Soriano (@jpsoriano) May 12, 2022

For his part, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian on Thursday also extended his congratulatory message to Marcos Jr. and his running mate, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.

He said Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan has also congratulated Duterte.

In congratulating the winning tandem, Huang expressed confidence the Philippines will demonstrate “unprecedented unity” under the incoming administration which would help the country to "rise above all challenges, recover from the pandemic and prosper.”

“I have no doubt that under the next administration, our bilateral relations will only become stronger, our peoples closer and our cooperation deeper and wider,” said Huang. “We look forward to working with the next Philippine government to upgrade our Relationship of Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation to a new height and bring more tangible benefits to the peoples of our two countries.”

To date, Marcos and Duterte are leading their rivals based on partial, unofficial election results as shown in the Comelec Transparency Server.

 As of 2:02 p.m. Thursday, Marcos has 31,103,793 votes while Duterte has 31,561,295 votes. Congress has yet to start the official canvassing of the certificates of canvass for president and vice president. — Sundy Locus and Anna Felicia Bajo/RSJ/VBL, GMA News