Malfunctioning flash cards, PCOS machines delay canvassing in Southern Luzon

Camarines Sur gubernatorial candidate Migz Villafuerte and 4th district congressional candidate Aga Muhlach. Facebook photo from LRay & Migz Villafuerte account.

LEGAZPI CITY, Albay, Philipines – Faulty compact flash (CF) cards and malfunctioning PCOS machines delayed transmission of election returns to some municipal and provincial board of canvassers, delaying the proclamation of winners in Cavite, Albay, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Sorsogon, Batangas and Marinduque.

A CF card is crucial to the canvassing of votes as it contains the electronic data or results of the balloting.

The problem with defective CF cards took an ugly turn in Tanza, Cavite, when supporters of rival mayoral candidates Marcus Ashley Arayata (LP) and former Mayor Raymundo del Rosario (Lakas-CMD) lost their patience over the stalled canvassing of votes from one remaining PCOS machine. Tension eased only when both camps learned the municipal canvassing resumed with the arrival of a CF card replacement at midnight Tuesday.

In Camarines Sur, a protest caused a delay in canvassing and proclamation of winners even as election returns from 27 towns of the 35 towns and one city had arrived, nearly two days since canvassing started.

Only two candidates from the province’s first district were proclaimed as of noontime Wednesday, reelectionist Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. and provincial board member Warren Señar.

Some precincts that failed to immediately deliver their election results had resorted to manual counting to cope with the faulty CF cards and power failure in a few areas.

As delays continued to hound the canvassing, some boards of canvassers decided to proclaim the unopposed candidates, such as in the case of Oriental Mindoro where the candidates for three top posts were running unopposed – reelectionist Gov. Alfonso Umali Jr. and his running mate Vice Gov. Humerlito Dolor and Rey Umali, representative for the second district.

In Albay, unopposed gubernatorial candidate Joey Salceda was proclaimed only at noon Wednesday.

In his Facebook page, he noted that he was finally proclaimed after two nights of waiting. “I was made to expect and believe that the electoral system on its 2nd year of execution would be much faster and surer,” he noted, but it seemed it did not happen that way, he added.

Slow transmission of election returns because of defective CF cards from other Albay areas have delayed his proclamation.

In Tanza, Cavite, a corrupted CF card in Barangay (village) Bagtas that stalled canvassing of votes from one remaining PCOS machine caused a melee Tuesday noon.

The agitated supporters of incumbent Tanza Mayor Marcus Ashley Arayata (LP) clad in yellow held their ground at the municipal hall. On the other side of the municipal hall ground were the supporters of Arayata’s rival, former Tanza Mayor Raymundo del Rosario (Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats) who wore green.

Members of the Cavite police Public Safety Battallion were deployed to the municipal hall while a fire truck was seen on stand by in case tension between the supporters escalated.

Del Rosario’s counsel, lawyer Alfeo Sicuuan, said the remaining 703 votes from the Bagtas precinct were actually “the deciding votes” of the race. He said unofficial election results showed Del Rosario on the lead, however, only by some 300 to 400 votes against the incumbent mayor.

Tanza Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) chair and lawyer Armando Vencilao on Wednesday said their CF card replacement finally arrived at midnight Tuesday, allowing them to proceed to the feeding of the ballots to the last remaining PCOS machine. In a phone interview, he said they were still printing election results for transmission to the provincial canvassing Wednesday night.

In Camarines Sur, the canvassing in the hotly contested fourth district congressional race between actor Aga Muhlach and Wimpy Fuentebella was suspended until Thursday as replacement for corrupted CF cards containing crucial ballots would only arrive on Thursday.

The towns that have not yet transmitted returns were due to CF cards problem were Tigaon, Siruma and Sagñay.

Gubernatorial candidate Luis Villafuerte (NPC) also cited the issue of malfunctioning PCOS machines and defective CF cards as a basis to ask the PBOC defer the proclamation of winning candidates in Camarines Sur, as it raised questions on the integrity of the results of the elections. His petition was, however, dismissed by the PBOC, which advised Villafuerte to address his petition to the Comelec provincial office.

The Camarines Sur, by noon Wednesday, completed the canvass of election returns from 27 of the 35 towns and in one city but was able to proclaim only two winners – Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. (Lakas) and Warren Señar as board member, both from first district, shortly before noon Wednesday.

CF cards problem also delayed canvassing in Sorsogon City and Bulan town of Sorsogon; in the towns of Camalig, Malilipot, Tiwi and Polangui and the cities of Ligao and Tabaco, all in Albay; the towns of Torrijos, Gasan and Buenavista in Marinduque; in Batangas City; Calamba, Sta Rosa, Luisiana and

San Pablo City, all in Laguna; the towns of Alfonso, Tanza, Silang, General Mariano Alvarez and Dasmariñas City, all in Cavite; Bataraza, Brooks Point,

Cuyo, Duraman and Quezon, in Palawan; and the towns of Bato and Baras in Catanduanes.

Reports from Juan Escandor Jr., Jerome Balinton, Mar Arguelles, Maricar Cinco, Redempto Anda, Mar Arguelles, Fernan Gianan, Shiena Barrameda, Madonna Virola, Romulo Ponte, Joy Oyardo, Janna Aycel Narvaez, Dyna Apatin, Loen Gonzales and Christian Taduran, Inquirer Southern Luzon Bureau