Proclamation of senators at hand

THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) is 15 certificates of canvass (COCs) shy of proclaiming the winning senators and party-list groups.

The COCs that had yet to be canvassed by the Comelec would be coming from 10 regions, Election Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said before the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) adjourned late Saturday afternoon.

Lim said the COCs were from Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Sulu in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; Apayao in the Cordillera Administrative Region; Negros Occidental, Negros Island Region; Marinduque, Mimaropa; Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Peninsula;

Cebu Central Visayas; Sarangani, Soccsksargen; Agusan del Sur, Caraga; Eastern Samar, Leyte, Northern Samar, Western Samar and Leyte in Eastern Visayas, and Antique in Western Visayas.

Lim said most of these provinces delayed transmission of the COCs to the NBOC to await the special elections in some of its towns.

In Zamboanga del Norte, the transmission of the COC was stalled since the laptop to be used had to be replaced.

“It’s being done today so maybe by tomorrow (Sunday) they can already transmit,” said Lim.

While the NBOC has received the COCs from Benguet, Iloilo, Misamis Oriental, Nueva Ecija, Zamboanga del Sur and Ilocos Sur, they could not yet be officially admitted due to supposed discrepancies raised by some parties.

The COCs from the six provinces underwent an audit by a subcommittee starting on Sunday to resolve supposed inconsistencies in the precinct-level data from the transparency server and to ensure that all voters were properly accounted for.

In an interview on Sunday, Comelec Secretary Consuelo Diola, head of the subcommittee, said the COCs from Benguet and Misamis Oriental had been cleared.

It turned out that some of the lawyers who made a manifestation on the supposed inconsistencies in the COCs from Misamis Oriental and Benguet had also counted the results from the COCs from Cagayan de Oro and Baguio City, Diola said.