3 more party-listers may be proclaimed

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Three more winning party-list organizations may be proclaimed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in time for the opening of the 16th Congress on July 22.

Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. on Friday told reporters that the proclamation may happen next week—on or before July 19—after the commission has completed canvassing some 40,000 votes.

These votes were uncounted because 47 clustered precincts failed to transmit the election returns due to problems with the compact flash cards of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

These precincts were in the provinces of Benguet, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Cebu, Isabela, Bataan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zamboanga del Sur and Davao del Norte, and in the cities of Manila, Taguig, Pasay, San Juan and Pasig in Metro Manila.

“We are asking for the ballot boxes to be brought here so we can count them already. Afterwards, we can proclaim the three more [winning party-list groups],” Brillantes said.

The Comelec en banc decided that the ballots from the concerned clustered precincts be subjected to batch feeding to the PCOS machines so that the special board of election inspectors can canvass the votes.

“Preferably, I said, we should finish by the 19th, but we will look to complete it before July 22, before the state of the nation address,” the Comelec chief added.

The Comelec has been prevented from proclaiming five remaining winners of the May 13 elections in the party-list system and from issuing An Waray party-list group its second certificate of proclamation due to pending petitions of Senior Citizens and Abang Lingkod party-list groups in the Supreme Court.

Earlier, the high tribunal had issued a status quo ante order barring the Comelec from disqualifying the two groups from the elections and an order for the commission to reserve seats for them should they win.