Quickest count held in PH history
FORMER senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was proclaimed as the 17th president of the Republic of the Philippines early last night, just two days after Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, started canvassing the results of the presidential and vice presidential race in the May 9 elections, the quickest in the country’s history.
Marcos’ running mate, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, who is a daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, was also proclaimed as the country’s 15th Vice President, succeeding outgoing Vice President Leni Robredo who lost the presidential race to Marcos Jr., the son of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
Marcos Jr. won the presidential contest by a landslide with over 31 million votes, while Duterte-Carpio bested her vice presidential rivals with 32,208,417 votes.
The proclamation of the next top two elective officials of the land only took 16 days after the May 9 national and local elections.
Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said the canvassing, which lasted only two days was, the “fastest canvass ever done in the history of our elections.”
The canvassing of votes by Congress started last Tuesday and was terminated at around 3:33 p.m. yesterday by the joint canvassing committee (JCC) after a total of 171 out of 173 certificates of canvass (COCs) from different provinces, cities, municipalities and various countries were accounted for and counted.
The canvassing was terminated without counting the overseas absentee voting (OAV) votes from Argentina and Syria as the ballot boxes from the two countries have yet to arrive as communicated to the joint panel by the Commission on Elections (Comelec). The NBOC did not wait for the votes as these would not affect the results.
The final tally showed Marcos with a total of 31,629,783 votes against second placer Robredo’s 15,035,773 votes. In the vice presidential race, Duterte-Carpio had 32,208,417 votes against second placer, Sen. Francis Pangilinan who had 9,329,207 votes, and this placer Sotto, who got 8,251,267 votes.
The JCC, co-chaired by Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and majority leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, prepared a report on the canvass which was submitted to the joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives for consideration and approval.
The rules provide that the JCC report shall be approved by a majority of votes of all its members, with each panel voting separately.
After the adoption of separate resolutions by the Senate and the House of Representatives approving the canvass report, Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Speaker Lord Allan Velasco proclaimed the 64-year-old Marcos as the duly elected president and the 43-year-old Duterte-Carpio as the duly elected vice president at 6:08 p.m.
Marcos Jr., who wore a Barong Tagalog, was accompanied by wife Liza, their son Joseph Simon, his 92-year-old mother, former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, and sisters Sen. Imee Marcos and Irene Marcos.
MISSING COCs
The final count included COCs that were earlier found missing by the NBOC, such as those from Surigao Del Sur, Pampanga, Sultan Kudarat, Mandaluyong City and Sulu – lapses that were blamed to the Comelec.
On Tuesday night, the JCC allowed the COCs from Surigao Del Sur, Pampanga, and Sultan Kudarat to be sent through the Viber app, saying the rules allowed it provided that the provincial elections supervisor authenticates the results.
April Joy Balano, the Surigao Del Sur provincial elections supervisor, said the COC for the province “was inadvertently mixed with the COCP” or the certificate of canvass and proclamation for another elected position.
She said the COC was not received by the Senate because it was placed in a wrong envelope, but she promised lawmakers that election assistant Sally Bagolbol would show the COC to the panel.
Rommel Rama, Pampanga provincial elections supervisor, said the COC for the province seems to have been inadvertently left when the ballot boxes were submitted, which was the same case as Sultan Kudarat’s.
Elections official April Melchor Miguel initially said the envelope containing the COC for Sultan Kudarat was in the ballot box but later admitted that the hard copy of the COC was in still in their possession.
The concerned provincial election supervisors vowed to physically deliver the original COCs to the House of Representatives.
Romualdez said the three election officials sent photographed copies of their respective COCs to the joint committee under oath and attested to the authenticity and veracity of these COCs.
“The joint committee then compared these photographed COCs for the provinces of Surigao del Sur, Pampanga, and Sultan Kudarat, with those electronically transmitted COCs, and found no discrepancies therein,” he said.
Yesterday afternoon, the JCC was forced to suspend the canvassing of votes from Mandaluyong City and Sulu province for a while because the COCs were also not inside the ballot boxes.
Zubiri slammed the concerned provincial elections supervisor (PES), saying the Comelec had “one job and one job only.”
“How can they be remiss of that job that is constitutionally mandated of them to do and therefore we admonish the Comelec for this non-action or non-appearance of this COCs,” he said.
“I would, again, out of frustration, where – as I said, it is such a simple duty of the provincial election supervisors and it’s a constitutionally-mandated duty of the Comelec to deliver the provincial COCs to the Senate so that we may canvass them on time during the National Board of Canvassers and joint session of Congress,” Zubiri said.
“How difficult is that to do?” he added.
Zubiri also wondered how the Commission on Appointments can confirm the Comelec commissioners if they cannot even do the job of delivering all the COCs needed for the canvassing.
“How can we confirm them, they can’t even deliver to us today the COCs needed to canvass the votes for president and vice president?” he said.
Comelec’s Deputy Executive Director for Administration Helen Aguila Flores said the lapses could have been due to fatigue and lack of sleep of the election supervisors in the said areas.
“Like lack of sleep your Honor because they continuously do the canvassing, and being a former provincial supervisor myself your Honor, I have also gone through that experience and we really, really beg for your kind understanding your Honors please, regarding such omission or shortcoming on the part of our field officers,” Flores said.
Zubiri reminded the poll official that the canvassing of votes for the two highest positions in the land takes place only every six years and that he expects the Comelec to be thorough in its job.
“I totally understand the pressure that you go through because we are all elected officials however this is on a once-every-six-years,” the lawmaker said.
Elections Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said the Comelec is set to look into the incidents of missing COCs that attended the canvassing of votes for president and vice president.
“For whatever reasons, it’s not acceptable because for us it is part of our general instructions, that the first copy should be put in the ballot box intended for the NBOC for the Congress for the position of the president and vice president,” said Casquejo.
“So, we will look into it what really transpired. We will investigate further with regards to how and why it happened,” he added.
The poll official said they will look at the possibility of some of their field personnel being held accountable.
“There may probably be some mistakes or administrative (issues). We will try to look at it whether it’s intentional or it’s inadvertent,” he said.
He said it is also possible that the field personnel will have justified reasons why it took place.
“I guess, inadvertently due to fatigue or whatsoever reasons. If it’s justifiable, maybe we can let it slip,” said Casquejo. — With Ashzel Hachero and Gerard Naval
