Comelec records ‘many’ COC discrepancies

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec), acting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), has recorded discrepancies in the certificates of canvass (COCs) from some polling places, especially in the votes for certain senatorial candidates and party-list groups.

At a press conference, Comelec Commissioner George Garcia said the poll body’s tabulation and audit group reported that the number of manually prepared certificates did not match the number of certificates electronically prepared.

“So there were many discrepancies spotted by the tabulation audit group. It was reported to the NBOC and it adopted the recommendation of the tabulation and audit group to correct such discrepancies,” Garcia told reporters.

“If there is slight mismatch between COCs manually prepared and SOV (statement of votes) manually prepared, the rule is the SOVP (statement of votes by precinct) stays, the votes by precinct will have to be followed,” he added.

He explained that the SOV is the source document of the COC.

Asked what could be the reason for the discrepancy, Garcia said that it could be due to some honest mistakes as teachers handling the canvassing of votes may have already been too sleepy or too tired.

But he admitted there had been “intentional” cases of mismatch in past elections, which explained incidents of “dagdag-bawas.”

He stressed that “dagdag bawas” did not take place at precinct level but during canvassing.

Garcia said that Comelec referred cases of discrepancy to its law department for proper investigation.

He added that the discrepancies reported involved only up to five COCs.

“But just the same it’s still discrepancy. Our usual process is to refer it to our law department for proper investigation because we have to determine if it’s just because of sleepiness or intentional or whatever,” he said in Filipino.

“That discrepancy should not really happen, but of course there is always human error, that’s why we always give leeway,” he added.

The NBOC is set to proclaim at 4 p.m. today the 12 winning senators. Tomorrow, the poll body will proclaim the party-list groups that are guaranteed to get seats in the House of Representatives. –   Ralph Edwin Villanueva