ELECTIONS chairman George Garcia yesterday said the ongoing canvassing proceedings by the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) is on pace to be the fastest in the history of Philippine poll exercises.
In a press briefing at the Tent City of the Manila Hotel, Garcia said he believes that their efforts to complete within the week the canvassing of 175 certificates of canvass (COCs) from local and overseas have never been done before.
“Hopefully, while we want to temper expectations, we can complete the canvassing by tomorrow (Thursday) night,” said Garcia.
“It is difficult to tell (if this will indeed be the fastest) since we aren’t finished yet. But in the past, canvassing usually lasted for two weeks,” he added.
In just two days, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has successfully canvassed 159 of the 175 COCs.
Based on data released by the NBOC, 58 COCs were canvassed on Tuesday and 101 COCs tallied yesterday.
“This is the highest number of COCs canvassed by the national board in the history of Philippine elections… The fastest in just two days,” said Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco.
This means that only 16 COCs have yet to be canvassed by the NBOC, which include COCs from Tawi-Tawi, Special Geographic Area, Sulu, and Iligan City.
The NBOC yesterday failed to release to the media the expected first “partial and official” tally for the May 2025 polls after its control and releasing group reportedly got overwhelmed by the volume and speed of the COCs successfully canvassed.
The 58 COCs canvassed as of May 13 included COCs from Philippine posts in Timor-Liste, Chile, Jordan, Myanmar, Singapore, Sweden, Japan, Czech Republic, Brunei, Cambodia, Argentina, Kenya, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, Malaysia, Norway, China, Hong Kong, United States of America, South Korea, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Qatar, Thailand, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Turkiye, Israel, Bangladesh, Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Vatican, Belgium, and Brazil.
Also included were the COCs of Baguio City, Ifugao, Local Absentee Voting, Batanes, Navotas City, San Juan City, Las Piñas City, Bataan, Mandaluyong City, Camiguin, Lapu-Lapu City, General Santos City, Zambales, Muntinlupa City, and Catanduanes.
Garcia said that being fast shouldn’t be seen as sacrificing the integrity and accuracy of the election results.
“Nothing can replace the integrity, even over speed, as there are so many counterchecking being done,” he said.
Given the current pace, Garcia said they are looking at having the proclamation of winning senators by the weekend.
“The earliest could be Saturday. The latest would be Sunday for all the winning candidates for senators,” he said.
“We want to proclaim completely… We don’t want to make a partial proclamation,” he added.
As for winning party-list organizations, he said they hope to proclaim them the day after the proclamation of the newly elected senators.
“The party-list groups may be proclaimed a day apart from the senators (proclamation),” said Garcia.
The statement of Garcia practically quashed the motion of SAGIP party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta that the poll body hold a partial proclamation.
In a four-page Motion, Marcoleta asked the NBOC to partially proclaim the top six winning senatorial candidates in the May 12 polls.
“May we respectfully pray that, should this Honorable Commission determine that it is statistically improbable for the rankings of the leading senatorial candidates to be altered based on the official canvass returns, it should consider allowing the early proclamation of the top-ranking senators, whose positions can no longer be reasonably contested,” he said.
Marcoleta is currently ranked 6th in the senatorial race after garnering 14,895,858 votes, based on the transmitted election returns.
“There is a statistical improbability that the next six candidates from 7th to 12th will no longer affect the standing of the first six candidates,” he said.
IRREGULARITIES
Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said it would be best if individuals claiming to have pre-shaded ballots, overvotes, and mismatched voter receipts, among others, to file either a complaint or a sworn statement instead of airing their allegations on social media.
“To those claiming discrepancies, we are not disregarding your statements. The Comelec, however, is asking you to go through the legal process,” said Laudiangco.
He said they are open to having claims of overvotes, pre-shaded ballots, and other alleged irregularities being made through sworn statements because “there is a legal process… file a sworn statement.”
He said a complaint may also be filed independently or via an electoral protest by losing candidates.
“They can approach candidates looking to file an election protest so that they can be used as a basis to file an election protest,” he also said.
Last Monday, there were several claims posted on social media saying that there were pre-shaded ballots, discrepancies in the voter receipts and actual votes, and other alleged poll irregularities.
Laudiangco said such claims on social media are unfair as they are being done “unilaterally.”
“Those are hard to prove as they make such claims with no other witnesses except themselves,” he said.
PPCRV
Meanwhile, poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said it needs more volunteers as it ramps up its operations with more election returns coming in.
PPCRV spokesperson Ana Singson said ERs from Cebu and other areas in the Visayas were expected to arrive yesterday, with those from Cebu already in transit since Tuesday.
“There are some ERs on the way here. In Cebu, they have been in transit since yesterday, so we are expecting it to arrive today as well as some parts, some areas of the Visayas,” Singson told reporters when asked for an update on the matter.
She said most of the ERs of the PPCRV have come from the National Capital Region and mainland Luzon.
Singson said the group has also received ERs from Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Cotabato, Davao de Oro, Quezon, and Eastern Samar.
Singson said the PPCRV has in its custody 11,860 ERs, or about 12.71 percent of the total ERs.
The printed ERs will be used to check if they are identical to the transmitted ERs from the Comelec.
“The audit we are conducting is important because it will check the integrity of the transmitted vote,” she added.
Singson said the PPCRV is hoping that it will have the same number of volunteers this election as in the 2022 elections, when around 400,000 were deployed in the fields and command center. – With Ashzel Hachero
