The fans of Angel Locsin are accusing FHM Magazine of manipulating the results of its annual poll and questioning Marian Rivera's no. 1 position. On the other hand, the fans of Marian Rivera answered, "Kung si Katrina Halili nga tinalo si Angel noong 2006 at 2007, si Marian pa kaya na mas sikat pa kay Katrina ngayon."

The controversy started when the rankings of the leading top 10 stars in the partial tally of FHM 100 Sexiest Women for 2008 were shaken based on the last update which was released last June 13, 2008. On May 30, a number of blogs and even TV Patrol reported that Angel Locsin is leading the poll with more than 7,000 votes ahead of the 2nd placer at that time which is Katrina Halili.

Here’s the top 10 ranking last May 30:

#1 Angel Locsin
#2 Katrina Halili
#3 Marian Rivera
#4 Iwa Moto
#5 Diana Zubiri
#6 Ehra Madrigal
#7 Jennylyn Mercado
#8 EB Babe Lian
#9 Angelica Panganiban
#10 Cristine Reyes

After 13 days or almost 2 weeks, Angel slid to 4th place and previous 3rd placer, Marian Rivera, is now in the no. 1 position.

Here is the last update of the top 10 as of June 13:

1. Marian Rivera
2. Katrina Halili
3. Ehra Madrigal
4. Angel Locsin
5. Diana Zubiri
6. Anne Curtis
7. Cristine Reyes
8. Iwa Moto
9. Angelica Panganiban
10. Jennylyn Mercado

Almost everyone changed their rankings EXCEPT for Katrina Halili who remained 2nd and Angelica Panganiban who stayed at 9th position. Take note that Anne Curtis entered the top 10 on June 13 (no. 6) at the expense of EB Babe Lian who left the top 10.

FHM Digital Publisher Denis Achilles del Callar released their explanation via PEP regarding the controversy:

“Any ‘results’ previously released through FHM.com.ph’s newsletter specifically states ‘PARTIAL AND INCOMPLETE RESULTS.’ This is due to the fact that text votes do not come into our database automatically, they have to be gathered and added to the database—as do written/faxed votes.

“Contrary to the e-mails being circulated, we’ve never published the number of votes either on-line, through text or through the magazine. Any claim that so and so celebrity was leading last week by several thousand votes is therefore an act of fiction with no basis on reality.

“Also, voting was stricter this year precisely to discourage stars who pay people to do nothing but vote for them all day, only ten votes per day on-line and via text per user/cellphone is possible—unless you own multiple SIMs and user-Ids.”

As for the technical glitches occasionally encountered by the phone subscribers, Denis argued that the FHM team absolutely has nothing to do with it.

“We have no control over Smart, Globe, and Sun,” he explained. “If their system is currently faulty, it’s not our fault and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Marian Rivera’s manager Popoy Caritativo was overwhelmed with the news that his talent is now leading the FHM poll. Between Angel, Iwa, Ehra, Katrina, Cristine and other stars trailing them, only Marian Rivera hasn’t been a covergirl of FHM yet. He said FHM has invited Marian to be their covergirl even before she became popular via the telenovela Marimar but they never seal the deal. He added that if ever Marian makes it to no. 1 this year, they might consider the offer.

Popoy also said that nobody from FHM called their camp to inform them that Marian Rivera is indeed leading the 100 Sexiest Women poll. They only asked for a photograph of Marian since the Dyesebel star is absolutely one of the 100 women in the list, as they also asked for a photograph from the other stars as well.