Comelec headquarters
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) ordered election officials from four provinces and two Metro Manila cities to explain why they failed to include the certificates of canvass (COCs) covering their jurisdictions in the ballot boxes that were sent to a joint session of Congress for the recently concluded canvassing of votes.
In a May 26 memorandum, Comelec chair Saidamen Pangarungan asked the provincial election supervisors of Pampanga, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu and Cagayan de Oro provinces, as well as the election officers of Mandaluyong and Manila cities, to explain why they failed to insert COCs in the ballot boxes as required by rules.
“In the canvassing of votes for the president and vice president undertaken in a joint public session of the Senate and the House of Representatives, it was found that the ballot box from your province or cities did not yield the required [COCs],” Pangarungan said in the memorandum.
“This omission has put into question the professionalism of the Comelec,” he added.
There were seven other copies of the COCs and the number of votes involved would not have changed the result of the election, but senators and congressmen, jointly convened as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) for president and vice president, had to tabulate poll results from photos of COCs submitted via Viber, gaining the ire of some some lawmakers and embarrassing the Comelec.
The Comelec chief asked the poll workers to send in two days their explanation “why no disciplinary action” should be meted against them.
On the first night of the national canvassing of votes for president and vice president, senators and congressmen complained that they did not find the COCs when they opened the sealed ballot boxes. They opened more boxes without the COCs on Wednesday, the day of the proclamation.
Commissioner George Garcia later explained in a press briefing on Wednesday that the COCs were not missing and they ascertained that the COCs were in the possession of election officials.
The election officers should have included the original COC in the ballot box that were sent to Congress, but Garcia said they failed to follow the established procedures for various reasons, perhaps including exhaustion from a long work day.
But Commissioner Marlon Casquejo, who is the steering committee head, on Wednesday said the incident was “unacceptable” and the poll body should investigate whether the acts of omission were really inadvertent or intentional and what sanctions to impose on poll workers found to be accountable.