House resumes session, gears up for canvassing of votes for president, VP

House of Representatives. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives resumed session Monday as it gears up for the canvassing of votes for the presidential and vice presidential elections. 

House Deputy Speaker Evelina Escudero led the resumption of the session where the lower chamber is expected to adopt a joint resolution convening Congress—the lower and the upper chamber—to a joint session and act as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) for the two highest elective posts.

The Senate also resumed session and adopted a similar joint resolution on Monday morning.

Each chamber has a contingent to the Joint Committee which will serve as the NBOC. As the NBOC, the Congress will canvass votes for the presidential and vice presidential elections.

Congress is scheduled to start the canvassing on May 24, Tuesday, and proclaim the country’s next president and vice president on May 27, Friday.

“The Congress, sitting as the NBOC, is duty-bound to make sure that the entire process of vote counting and transmission of results will be done expeditiously and with utmost transparency and integrity,” House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said in a statement.

“We will perform our constitutional duty quickly and efficiently. We will be combining accuracy and speed in order for us to meet our committed timeline,” he added.

Velasco said the vote canvassing will proceed despite a pending disqualification case against presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. before the Supreme Court.

 gsg