Bets to Comelec: Proclaim Senate 12

MANILA, Philippines - Lawyers and representatives of leading senatorial bets yesterday asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec), sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), to proclaim the 12 winning senators, with only three certificates of canvass (COCs) left to be tabulated.

Donnah Camitan, lawyer of former justice secretary Leila de Lima, said votes from the three COCs would no longer affect the ranking of the top 12 senators.

“We are, of course, after accuracy, but based on our computation, the votes from these three provinces will not matter anymore. That’s why we already moved for an early proclamation,” she said in an interview.

The three COCs, which have yet to be tabulated, are from Antique (322,861), Lanao del Sur (484,435) and Northern Samar (386,163), covering some 1.193 million votes. There are 165 COCs for this year’s elections.

Based on the canvass report of the Comelec from the votes in 121 of 164 COCs, De Lima was in the 12th slot with a total of 13,894,048 votes against her closest rival Francis Tolentino, who had 12,604,848.  This represents a difference of 1,289,200 votes. 

The others who sought the proclamation were lawyers of re-electionist-senators Ralph Recto and Tito Sotto, Francis Pangilinan and former Technical and Education and Skills Development Authority director general Joel Villanueva.

Tolentino’s lawyer Wanda Talosig, however, had opposed the manifestation, invoking discrepancies in the votes that appeared on the Comelec’s transparency server and central server.

Talosig added the Comelec should also investigate the alteration of the script or hash code of the transparency server.

Based on the canvass report, Villanueva was overtaken by re-electionist Frank Drilon, with 18,307,801 to 18,212,639 votes.

‘PPCRV should stop counting’

Meanwhile, former Comelec commissioner Rene Sarmiento urged the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) not to aspire for 100 percent in its quick count, as it might usurp the responsibility of the NBOC and violate the Constitution.

Sarmiento advised the PPCRV to leave the counting of votes for president and vice president to the NBOC.

“Under the Constitution, the PPCRV cannot complete the canvassing, especially for the president and vice president, because Congress is the NBOC. This happened in 2010, as our group was the first to implement the automated elections,” said Sarmiento, who was a Comelec official in 2010 and former member of the PPCRV. – With Evelyn Macairan