INEVITABLE: The votes have been cast and counted, and the city and provincial certificates of canvass transmitted to the Congress for the final and official canvass for president and vice president.

Unless there is a last-minute tampering of the CoCs or a massive failure of elections — both of which are unlikely — the fate of the incoming president and vice president are more or less sealed.

What prospective losers, aided by gold-plated lawyers, can do is just to delay the inevitable.

And the inevitable looks like Sen. Noynoy Aquino (Liberal) is the overwhelming people’s choice for president with Cory loyalist Mayor Jojo Binay (PDP-Laban) squeaking in as vice president.

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NOY-BI TANDEM: A looming Noy-Bi victory is reflected in the regional/provincial summary based on the tabulation of the independent Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and the figures on the official website of the Commission on Elections.

The PPCRV tally covering 91 percent of all the votes has Binay leading Sen. Mar Roxas (LP) by more than 800,000 votes, while the Comelec figures representing 99 percent of the votes have the mayor ahead by 752,006 votes.

While Comelec already has the results, it proclaimed only the winning 12 senators. It stopped short of also proclaiming the president-elect and the vice president-elect because the Constitution assigned that task to the Congress.

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LOCAL CAMPAIGN: How did the Makati mayor creep up on an over-confident Roxas who thought that Binay and Sen. Loren Legarda, another major VP candidate, were just vying for a distant second place?

The best description of Binay’s operation is that it was a “local campaign for a national position.”

Applying on a national scale the tricks he had learned from decades of local ward politics, Binay won 14 of the 17 regions. Roxas led only in Regions VI and VII and in the Caraga region.

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WORK PLAN: Makati’s networked ward leaders and senior citizens campaigned among their relatives in the provinces, to the point of listing and following up – in pyramiding fashion – 20 persons each who cannot say “No” to them.

Voters, officials and civic leaders in 379 sister-cities where aid and goodwill had been sent in the past helped spread the gospel of Makati’s populism. Rural folk were tantalized by how Binay’s constituents enjoyed free services from cradle to the grave.

For two years, Binay campaigned most weeks in some 300 towns, sometimes visiting them two or three times. That he was going around later in the campaign, pressing flesh, with crowd-drawer Erap Estrada, his presidential running mate, helped.

Since Binay set his eyes on a national position (initially it was the presidency), he and his volunteers have been very visible helping out in disaster-hit areas. The eyeball-to-eyeball connection reaped dividends.

Binay also tapped his fraternity brothers in the Alphi Phi Omega. At least 120,000 of them campaigned among their relatives, friends and in ever-widening circles. They crossed party lines to vote for Binay even when their presidential choice came from another party.

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ECOLOGY ISSUE: Our Postscript on San Miguel Corp. running smack into an ecological issue with its planned Caticlan international airport elicited emails ranging from concerned SMC stockholders to environmental groups zeroing in on what they said is a business blunder of the food and beverage giant.

Dr. Roger Birosel, secretary general of the Earth Savers Movement, for one, saw a disconnect between SMC’s laudable projects — such as the MRT 7, the bullet train railway, the Clark international airport — and the environmentally problematic Laiban dam, the foray into mining and the Caticlan airport.

“These out-of-character SMC investments,” Birosel said, “risk not only its legacy of over a century of honored partnership in nation-building, but also risk socio-economic/class opposition from Aeta indigenous communities, Quezon and Rizal farmers, and the nature lovers and provincial government of Aklan.”

Save for these projects that spawn environmental concerns, SMC remains a highly respected blue chip firm.

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GORE VISIT: The Caticlan issue comes at a time when world attention is upon us with the visit of former US Vice President Al Gore, who is scheduled to speak on June 6 on his new-found expertise in climate change.

For Birosel, a major environmental problem involving “that which is acclaimed as one of the world’s best beaches” would be highlighted should SMC pursue the project “at a time when the eyes of the global environmental community are focused on us with the visit of Gore.”

“By leveling the Caticlan hill, we are providing the global audience a very glaring and graphic example of why we are where we are right now as a nation — big business bullying and pulverizing a puny hill to cater to the whims of a select few,” he added.

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PROFIT MOTIVATION: The overriding concern for San Miguel and its stockholders could be how to bring in more profits. This may explain its entry into high-growth industries such as infrastructure, energy, telecommunications and mining.

But San Miguel may need to be more prudent in its investments. Remember that even iconic financial institutions like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers disappeared from the world financial map.

It is time SMC looked at its investments also in the context of the environment. For all we know, San Miguel may find itself stuck in long-gestation projects funded by short-term loans. The firm has been reported to be on the lookout for $1 billion in loans to fund its planned investments.