Comelec mulls proclamation of senators, party-list groups tomorrow

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is planning to proclaim the 12 winning senators and party-list groups tomorrow, after all the certificates of canvass (COCs) are tabulated, an official said yesterday.

Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said they would report to Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. today, as part of protocol before proclamation.

“Our target is to proclaim on Thursday. We are now computing the votes for the party-list to know how many seats a certain group should have,” Guanzon said. 

Of the 165 COCs, the Comelec, sitting as National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), has not received the COCs from Lanao del Sur and Northern Samar, where special elections were held over the weekend.

Party-list battle

In yesterday’s canvassing, lawyers of party-list groups debated over the formula the NBOC should use in determining the seats.

Six groups, including An Waray, filed a motion asking the NBOC to come up with a new formula on the computation of the number of seats.

The motion was opposed by Magdalo, Abono, 1-Edukasyon and five other groups.

Reynaldo Robles, lawyer for Magdalo, said the computation should be based on a Supreme Court ruling on the Banat case vs Comelec in 2009.

“They want to change the rules now that the game is almost over. All they want is to increase their seats,” Robles told journalists.

He said the Banat formula should be used since it is the “latest expression of the Supreme Court en banc” on the matter.

“If they want to change the formula, they should have filed the petition before the elections. The basic due process was not even complied with – we were not given a copy of the petition,” he said.

The formula

In the Banat ruling, the high court came up with four parameters in determining the House seats for the winning party-list groups. 

The SC ruled that party-list groups should occupy 59 seats or 20 percent of the total number of House membership.  

Having two percent of the votes guarantees a party-list group one seat. The guaranteed seats should be distributed in the first round of seat allocation to groups that received at least two percent of the total party-list votes.

The remaining seats after determining the guaranteed seats should be distributed to groups, including those that get less than two percent of the votes.

The SC imposes a three-seat cap for each organization to prevent any party from dominating the party-list system. 

Speedy House canvass

Belmonte yesterday promised that Congress would speed up the canvassing of votes for president and vice president starting next week.

He said it is the “bounden duty” of the House of Representatives and the Senate to conduct the canvassing and determine the winners as fast as possible.

The House leader said the two chambers would proclaim the winners before June 10, when the outgoing 16th Congress is scheduled to close its third and last regular session.

Drilon earlier made a similar promise, but said he could not predict a timeframe for the vote canvass and proclamation of winners.

Belmonte and Drilon will preside over the canvassing to be done in a joint House-Senate session starting next Wednesday. They will create a canvassing committee to do the tabulation.

House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said the tight vice presidential race could delay the congressional count.

Gonzales said the members of the Senate-House canvassing committee and lawyers of Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo could check the certificates of canvass (COCs) for defects or signs of irregularities.

He said Marcos lawyer and former Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes has vowed to scrutinize the COCs.

Gonzales said that since the COCs contain votes both for president and vice president, a delay in the tabulation of votes for Marcos and Robredo would slow down the tallying of votes for president.

Robredo is leading Marcos in the unofficial tally by more than 200,000 votes.

The House and the Senate have prepared a draft of the canvassing rules for approval when they convene as a canvassing board next Wednesday.

Under the draft, Belmonte and Drilon will create a joint committee to conduct the canvassing and appoint its members.

In tallying the votes, the committee will start with the COCs for overseas absentee and local voting, followed by the COCs from provincial and city canvassing boards.

The committee will compare the manually filled-out COCs and the electronic copies to be generated from the consolidation and canvassing system installed in the House.

Lawyers of candidates will be allowed to manifest their observations on the canvass documents. The joint committee will have the power to resolve all disputes.

After the canvassing, the committee will prepare and submit a report to a joint House-Senate session, which will pass a resolution approving such report. – With Jess Diaz, Paolo Romero, Evelyn Macairan, Ghio Ong