EDITORIAL - A speedy canvass

The incoming president is already organizing his Cabinet and drawing up his first executive orders. Meanwhile, the nation is still waiting for the definitive word on who won the vice presidential race.

Yesterday the message from Congress, which will start the canvassing this week, was that the tallying of certificates of canvass for the vice presidential race would become protracted because of the tightness of the contest. Congress will merely be canvassing COCs and not counting each vote manually. If lawmakers can refrain from preening for the cameras, there is no reason why the process should be long drawn out.

The long wait for an official proclamation of the new vice president has fueled tension in the camps of both Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, with the senator raising the prospect of digital manipulation of the results.

No one is challenging the landslide victory of Rodrigo Duterte, which was known just hours after the polling centers closed on election day. But the long wait for the outcome of the vice presidential race is defeating the main purpose of poll automation, which is for the nation to know election results ASAP.

Poll officials and members of watchdog groups have attributed the delay in the final figures for the vice presidential race to delays in the transmission of votes from overseas as well as the wait for the results in areas where failure of elections was declared and voting had to be repeated.

Congress can save the day by ensuring that the canvassing will be speedy and as credible as possible. Although often dismissed as a spare tire, the vice president automatically succeeds in case the president is incapacitated or, in the case of Joseph Estrada, ousted from Malacañang. Congress must ensure that the mandate of the nation’s second highest official will be unassailable.