Comelec finishes canvassing for senatorial, party-list races
Comelec chairman Andres Bautista smiles as Atty. Romeo Macalintal congratulates and acknowledges the Comelec’s efforts for a job well done in conducting the elections as the NBOC completed the canvassing on Wednesday, May 18, 2016. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
The Commission on Elections (Comelec), sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), finished canvassing 165 certificates of canvass (COCs) Wednesday night.
The last COC, which was admitted, was the manually audited votes from detainees who voted for national positions.
Cheers filled the Philippine International Convention Center Forum when the NBOC announced that all COCs have been canvassed.
“We wanted to make sure that it is an orderly, it was quick and at the same time it was accurate. These are the three features that we wanted to ensure. We also appreciate the work done by the organizing committee to facilitate our canvassing process,” Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said when sought for his reaction.
The nine-day canvassing did not proceed without hitches as counsels of senatorial candidates and party-list groups alleged discrepancies between the figures reflected on the Comelec transparency server and those of their internal tallies.
Counsel for 13th placer Francis Tolentino even blocked moves to proclaim the winning 12 senators.
READ: SC asked to stop proclamation of 10th to12th Senate slots
The last two COCs from the provinces of Northern Samar and Lanao del Sur arrived on Wednesday. The COC from Lanao del Sur was admitted in the morning while that from Northern Samar was admitted late afternoon.
Bautista said that the proclamation of the 12 winning senators and the 59 party-list representatives will be held on Thursday afternoon.
READ: Comelec set to proclaim 12 new senators on Thursday
“We are looking to proclaim all 12 winning senatorial candidates as well as the 59 winning party-list representatives,” he said.
Meanwhile, Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. also visited the Comelec command center at PICC to meet with the Comelec en banc.
The Comelec chief said that the Congress leaders wanted to “exchange notes” as to how poll body conducted its canvassing.
“Kaninang hapon (Earlier in the afternoon), nakipagmeeting kami with Senate President (Franklin) Drilon and House Speaker (Feliciano) Belmonte and we basically exchanged notes in respect to the canvassing process. Gusto nilang malaman kung ano ang mga prosesong aming ginawa, ano yung mga issue tulad nitong prelate data. Sila ay magsisimula (ng canvassing) kami naman, hopefully, magtatapos bukas (They wanted to know the processes we conducted and the issues like the prelate data),” Bautista said.
Congress is set to canvass votes for the positions of vice president and president on May 25. RAM
