The winner will be officially announced within two weeks.
By law, only Congress can proclaim the winning president and vice president, who are to take office on June 30.
Troops blocked access roads around the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City as security was tightened for the vote count.
Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, Philippine National Police spokesman, said police and military intelligence have uncovered a "plot" by lawmakers from the opposition Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) to stage a walkout during the canvassing.
"They want to create a constitutional crisis that would eventually lead to an agitation for an EDSA-type mass action," he said.
A joint congressional committee met yesterday at the House session hall to begin the process of authenticating 176 election returns that summarize the vote count in each province and city.
As of 7:45 last night, a total of 24 ballot boxes — all containing absentee votes — have been opened but the actual counting of the votes has not started. The lawmakers have agreed to first scrutinize all the certificates of canvass (COCs) to determine that they are in order before tabulating their results.
Congress adjourned session before 8 last night and will resume sesson at 2 p.m. today.
As Congress started the canvass, the opposition continued to question the fairness of the rules adopted by the majority members of the Senate and the House of Representatives and their implementation by the leadership of Congress.
Sen. Edgardo Angara said the opposition can show to the nation that KNP standard bearer Fernando Poe Jr. was cheated once the precinct-level votes are counted in Congress.
The precinct-level votes will be shown to be different from the count reflected in the certificates of canvass, he added.
Angara said the opposition will insist on the opening of the election returns where precinct-level votes can be found.
"Section 17 of the (canvassing) rules allows that," he said. "If there is a discrepancy between the certificates of canvass (province- and city-level tally of votes) and their accompanying documents, then we must look at the election returns."
Representatives Francis Escudero of Sorsogon, Jacinto Paras of Negros Oriental and Kim Bernardo-Lokin of party-list CIBAC complained that the political parties were not equitably represented in the 22-member joint committee.
Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. said Congress was being called not to legislate, but to constitute itself as a national canvassing board.
The tally should take between 10 days and two weeks to allow Congress to proclaim the winner before President Arroyo’s term ends on June 30, he added.
When Congress resumed session at 12:05 p.m., Senate President Franklin Drilon and De Venecia named the members of the 22-member joint congressional committee that will canvass the votes for president and vice-president.
Reacting to the observation of Escudero, Paras, and Lokin, De Venecia reconstituted the House memberships in the joint committee and included Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, who was excluded earlier, as a substitute member.
Comprising the Senate contingent are: Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan and Senators Juan Flavier, Ramon Maagsaysay Jr., Manuel Villar, Joker Arroyo, Vicente Sotto III, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Sergio Osmeña III, and Teresa Aquino-Oreta.
Their alternates are: Senators Robert Jaworski, Ramon Revilla, and Luisa Ejercito Estrada, and Representatives Jacinto Paras of Negros Oriental, Jose Virgilio Bautista of party-list Sanlakas, Didagen Dilangalen of Maguindanao, and Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga City.
Named to the House contingent were Deputy Speaker for the Visayas Raul Gonzales, and Representatives Florencio Abad of Batanes, Constantino Jaraula of Cagayan de Oro City, Antonio Nachura of Western Samar, Prospero Nograles of Davao City, Arthur Defensor of Iloilo, Antonio Cuenco of Cebu, Marcelino Libanan of Eastern Samar, Francis Escudero of Sorsogon, Agapito Aquino of Makati, and Kim Bernardo-Lokin of party-list CIBAC.
Their alternates are: Representatives Oscar Rodriguez of Pampanga, Salacnib Baterina of Ilocos Sur, Clavel Martinez of Cebu, Eduardo Veloso of Leyte, Prospero Pichay of Surigao del Sur, Mauricio Domoga of Baguio City, Gerry Espina of Biliran, Satur Ocampo of party-list Bayan Muna, Etta Ann Rosales of party-list Akbayan, Sulpicio Roco of Naga City, and Edgar Valdez of party-list APEC.
After the session resumed at 4 p.m., Dilangalen immediately questioned the quorum, prompting De Venecia to order House Secretary General Roberto Nazareno to call the roll.
Escudero, Paras, and Lokin said the various political parties, especially the candidates for president and vice-president, should be "equitably" represented to ensure fairness in the canvassing.
They asserted that the membership of the two congressional committees tasked with canvassing the votes were "lopsided" in favor of Mrs. Arroyo and her running mate, Sen. Noli de Castro.
Escudero said Poe should be allowed to name his choice to the joint congressional committee that will canvass the votes for president and vice-president.
Former congressman Miguel Romero, KNP spokesman, said the opposition plans to challenge about 25 provincial election returns.
"I am... greatly disturbed by reports of massive fraud and of the unbridled misuse of government resources in the recently concluded elections," Poe said in full-page newspaper advertisements yesterday.
On the other hand, former Commission on Elections chairwoman Harriet Demetriou, Poe’s lead counsel, said Congress is allowed by Republic Act 7611 to consult the election returns from provinces, cities and municipalities in cases where alterations and erasures are discovered on the certificates of canvass.
"The Comelec is not the proper forum to question the votes recorded in the certificates of canvass for president and vice president," she said.
"It is Congress that is the proper forum as mandated by the Constitution. Hence, the Comelec could not entertain questions on the authenticity of the certificates of canvass in regard to the presidential and vice-presidential contest."
Romulo Makalintal, Mrs. Arroyo’s lawyer, said Congress must depend solely on the certificates of canvass when canvassing the votes for president and vice-president.
Meanwhile, Loren Legarda, Poe’s vice presidential running mate, yesterday warned members of the majority block in Congress that they have committed a grave mistake by "ramming down the throats" of Filipinos a set of "fatally flawed" rules on the canvassing of votes for president and vice president.
"First of all, Congress, as a whole body, has illegally delegated to a 22-member committee its exclusive duty to canvass the votes in plenary, or with all the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives attending a joint public session, as mandated by the Constitution," she said.
"The members of this committee may indeed come from the Senate and the House of Representatives, but Section 4, Article VII of our Constitution explicitly provided that the whole Congress, and not just a part of it, shall conduct the canvass," she said.
Legarda lamented that Congress has succumbed to the "tyranny of the majority" in which a wrongful act is made right just because the majority has approved it.
"I am deeply saddened because history will judge harshly this Congress as one which has castrated itself, as one which has turned its back on its duty to constitutionally determine who won in the May 10 elections," she said.
Legarda said the role of Congress is to ensure that the elections were credible as the country could not move forward if there are suspicions that the elections had been marred by massive cheating.
"The only way to validate the authenticity of certificates of canvass is to cross-check them with other electoral documents like the statement of votes and the election returns," she said.
"But the administration lawmakers want none of this safety mechanism. They want the people to take their word that the certificates of canvass are authentic even without validating them with the election returns and statement of votes."
Legarda said Republic Act 7166 has mandated that certificates of canvass be accompanied by the statement of votes and election returns so Congress can authenticate them.
Pro-administration lawmakers seemed afraid that the certificates of canvass would not reflect the votes recorded in the election returns and statement of votes, Legarda added.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. denied that the opposition was out to delay the canvass, saying they only wanted to ensure that the canvassing is fair and will "reflect the true will of the people."
On the other hand, Senator-elect Juan Ponce Enrile said the formation a joint committee of Congress to canvass the votes for president and vice president was a violation of the Constitution.
"The Congress cannot delegate its duty to constitute itself as a national board of canvassers in favor of the committees," he said.
The entire Congress, as mandated by the Constitution, should be present at the canvassing and participate in the consideration of the certificates of canvass, Enrile added.
Meanwhile, Sen. Panfilo Lacson inhibited himself yesterday from the canvassing of votes for president and vice-president by a joint committee of Congress.
"Please be informed that I am formally inhibiting myself from the joint session of the 12th Congress sitting as the National Board of Canvassers for president and vice-president for the reason that I was one of the candidates for president during the last elections whose votes will be canvassed by the very same insititution which I represent," he said in a letter to Drilon.
Last Friday, senators and congressmen voted to bar Lacson, Legarda and De Castro from sitting in the 22-member joint committee of Congress.
The top leadership of the Roman Catholic Church also took out newspaper advertisements to dismiss allegations of systematic fraud.
"The elections were far from perfect," they said.
"There were numerous instances of disenfranchisement. There was vote-buying. There were occasions of intimidation and coercion. There was cheating. And the vote count leaves much to be desired.
"Yet, in the end, we believe the majority of our people agree that in the absence of evidence of widespread fraud, in its totality the elections at the national level reflect the will of the people."
The statement was issued by Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, retired Manila archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, and his replacement Gaudencio Rosales.
Mrs. Arroyo’s camp has denied committing fraud, and instead accused Poe’s camp of cheating in a number of provinces.
As rumors of restiveness among soldiers backing the opposition have spread in recent days, the government has placed the military and police on heightened alert. — with Jose Rodel Clapano, Jess Diaz, Christina Mendez, AP, AFP